What had prevented the government from cracking down on yakuza before?

Japan doesn’t have a RICO act. It has limited wire-tapping. There is no plea-bargaining allowed. There is no witness protection or witness relocation program. There is no incentive for a low-ranking yakuza to rat out the people above him and a hundred reasons for him to keep his mouth shut.  For these reasons, most investigations often peter out before really getting off the ground. The branches get clipped, the roots remain untouched.

Jake was also interviewed by Devin Stewart (who added a nice authentic flair to the pronunciation of ‘Adelstein’) of the Carnegie Council. The 44-minute marathon covers all sorts of intricate details about the job, the beat and the yaks, as well as juicy retrospective thoughts about the experiences documented in Tokyo Vice. It’s a little long, but give it a listen! I might start calling Jake the “Yakuza Whisperer”…

And the last bit of news: Jake is about to head off to the land down under to promote Tokyo Vice, and on his travels will be appearing at the Brisbane Writer Festival on September 3 for a somehow appropriately titled talk, “Seed, Sex and Dirty Deeds with Jake Adelstein“. He’s apparently appearing in two other events, but neither sound nearly as titillating. Upcoming details on the rest of his Southern Hemisphere tour will be posted as they come in.

Edit: YouTube appears to have taken down the videos. The link below for Part 1 should work, Part 2 seems to have been lost.
(Parts 1 and 2)
The interview runs as follows:

-Why did you quit the Yamaguchi-gumi?

The time had come, and I took my chance.

-Why won’t boryokudan crime groups go away?

Young Japanese men are attracted to the idea of having the kind of allies found in gangs. Guys that aren’t readily accepted by the rest of society–they see the attitude of gangsters and it motivates them.

-How are boryokudan and the celebrity world connected?

(Goto chooses his words carefully here, asking if the question implied the connection still exists now.) When I first entered the Yamaguchi-gumi there was a pretty solid relationship but now there’s almost nothing. It was natural before; there were no walls.

-How about the yakuza and Sokka Gakkai?

(Goto avoids the question then says he wants to leave it with the sentiments written in his book.)

-How do you feel about society now?

I think politicians need to act with more responsibly and the knowledge that they hold the livelihoods of millions Japanese citizens in their hands. I liked Abe in the beginning, but he got soft and it all went downhill from there. There needs to be politicians with a stronger spirit.

-Like who?

Shigeru Yoshida and Nobusuke Kishi were both great politicians. Even though thousands of people protested the U.S.-Japan security treaty, Kishi didn’t back down and pushed the issue.

-What are your thoughts on national pride?

I think only about half of all Japanese have a sense of national pride. More politicians to exercise that sentiment. People of all ages should begin to realize that national pride comes from simple things–the way Japanese people are raised, being born Japanese–and that those ideas need to be expressed in words for a movement to really get started.

-What about education?

There was a case of a Hokkaido Diet member who received money from a teachers’ union and eventually quit.(?) In his speech, he had said there’s no need for a national anthem or national flag in public schools. Despite that he was elected–I thought to myself, that’s crazy! To not have a flag or anthem in schools makes us just like the 51st state. Kids today need to realize that they have a culture, and that they should be proud of it as Japanese. There’s a book called Kokka no Hinkaku (国家の品格 – The character of country). It’s a simple book but a book that sells because people want to feel that pride.

The clip then ends with an economics journalist and a rep from publisher Takarajima-sha talking about Goto and how great the book is.

In the video Goto hardly says anything controversial, and some 2-Channelers have commented incredulously that the ex-yakuza head just looks like a typical old man. One thing certainly separates him from your typical middle-aged man, however: Check out the fingers on his left hand when he gestures.

Goto’s book is a best-seller in Japan but only weekly magazine Friday has really dealt with the more controversial subjects such as Goto’s admission of doing dirty work for Sokka Gakkai, Komeito and several LDP politicians in the past, including Itoyama Eitaro. The mainstream media has stayed away from the contents of the book and no politician has raised a fuss about the contents either.

Part of the reason may be that, in the past, the Goto-gumi–and now probably the Yamaguchi-gumi in the present–holds a lock on Burning Productions, Japan’s most powerful talent agency. Any major media outlet that discusses too much of Goto’s past risks losing access to Japan’s actors, singers, and other celebrities. It should be noted that part of Goto’s admiration for Nobusuke Kishi, stems from the fact that Kishi’s former secretary, Hoshi Hitoshi, helped arranged the deal with the FBI to get Goto a visa for his liver transplant in the United States.  Goto does mention what he terms this “unpleasant” Washington Post article in his book, but states that he can’t discuss it because it would cause too much trouble to people who helped him. He’s still under investigation by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department for the murder of a real estate dealer. This is one of the things that isn’t discussed in the media’s fawning interviews with the man.

Habakarinagara is a fascinating book in its own right and perhaps one of the best personal accounts of how yakuza and politicians work together. It gives great insight into the mindset of certain types of yakuza, as when Goto expresses joy rather than remorse at the way the film director Itami Juzo was attacked in 1992 by Goto-gumi members. Goto claims to have had nothing to do with the attack but was pleased when his underlings sliced up the director, noting that Itami more or less deserved it for making such an unpleasant movie about the yakuza.

The movie in question, Minbo: Or the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion, is available internationally.  The “Minbo” in the title is short for minji kainyu boryoku (民事介入暴力), which can be translated as “Yakuza involvement in civil affairs.”  There are lawyers who specialize in dealing with yakuza problems in Japan of a civil nature, one more thing showing how omnipresent the problem is in the nation.

All the proceeds that Goto makes from Habakarinagara will be donated to charity, according to the publisher and the author.

According to the Sankei, drug-related arrests were up 3.9 percent with 3,558 of the 7,227 arrested thought to be gang members, up 7.1 percent. The number of foreigners arrested for drugs was down 10.9 percent to 262 people. Cases involving stimulants were up 11.1 percent, a whopping 82 percent of total drug arrests, while cannabis cases dropped 19.7 percent.

Statistics for a number of other issues have also been released within the past few weeks. The number of youth getting involved in illegal activities on “hi-deai-kei,” or non-deai-kei, Web sites such as gaming sites of SNSs like Mixi increased 10.3 percent during the first half of the year. The number of cases has been on the rise every year since police began recording the statistic in 2008. Due to stronger policing and regulations, says Jiji, the number of incidents involving deai-kei sites was cut nearly in half, and police believe those looking for this type of encounter have simply migrated to other online forums.

Arrests of foreigners were down 37.7 percent, with police apprehending 5,996 people, mainly Chinese and Korean citizens, for crimes such as theft and violations of immigration law.

The number of child abuse cases reached the highest ever since statistics started being collected in 2000 with 199 arrests being made in 181 incidents–up 15.3 percent from 2009. Police point the jump to an increasing reluctance to keep quiet by daycare givers, hospitals, neighbors and others who come into contact with abused children. Only 11 incidents involved rape or other kinds of molestation, and 30.2 percent of the crimes were committed by the children’s fathers.

Our honorable yakuza hero wondering the virtual streets of Kabukicho

The game itself is very impressive and not too far off the mark in depicting the yakuza. The attention to details is amazing–they’ve recreated the sleazy red-light district known as Kabukicho in all its former glory. It isn’t that way anymore. The mobsters reviewing the game gave it high ranks on environmental authenticity.

Environment

M: I’ve never been to Okinawa, but Kabukicho is dead on.
S: You mean the old Kabukicho. Governor Ishihara’s totally ruined the place. It’s like a ghost town.
K: It’s like going back in time. Koma Theater is there, the pink salons, the Pronto Coffee shops, the Shinjuku Batting center, the love hotels.
S: You got your salaryman in there, the delinquent school girl and her sugar daddy, Chinese people, and even those Nigerian touts. What’s with all the fucking gaijin (foreigners) in the area anyway? It used to be just Japanese, Koreans and Chinese.
M: Don’t say gaijin. Say Gaikokujin. It’s more polite. Jake’s a gaijin.
S: Yeah, I forget sometimes. What’s with all the fucking gaikokujin in Kabukicho anyway?
K: Internationalization. The world’s a smaller place. The Nigerians? They marry Japanese chicks. They get a permanent visa. They stay. The cops can’t get rid of them and they’re good at steering customers into shady places. The young Japanese punks we hire, they give up, they don’t browbeat drunks into bringing business to our establishments. They got no backbone. The Nigerians are aggressive. They can make good touts. By the way, Adelstein, usually when we say gaijin we mean non-Asian foreigners like you and the Nigerians. Not the Chinese or the Koreans.
S: Yeah, Koreans are chosenjin, not gaijin.
M: I like the fact that you power up by eating real food. Shio ramen gives you a lot of power — CC Lemon, not as much. It all makes sense.
S: The breaded pork cutlet bento box is like mega power. More than ramen. That’s accurate.
K: If they had shabu (crystal meth) as a power-up item, that would be realistic. It’s a yakuza game.
S: They have sake!
M: Kiryu is an executive, right? We all know the guys at the top don’t drink or do speed.
S: Yeah, not anymore.
M: Can you smoke in the game? I forget. That should be a power-up.
S: Cigarettes and shabu should be in every yakuza game.

The top yakuza have nicely tailored suits and the platinum badges as well.

There is a lot of attention to detail in the game and the top bosses are all snazzily dressed, as they should be, with the yakuza group emblem emblazoned badge on their lapel. In most groups, platinum badges are for the highest rank. However, these days, even wearing the organization badge is a no-no in most yakuza groups, many low-ranking members are no longer allowed to carry business cards with the yakuza organization crest printed on them.. The era when the yakuza flaunted their existence may be coming to a close, in which case, this game is almost like a historical document. Except for the CIA stuff. And the huge fights where nobody dies.  For the rest of the article see Yakuza 3: Played, reviewed, and fact-checked. With the Yakuza.

Kajiyama, once a high-ranking member of the Yamaguchi-gumi affliated Goryo-kai, was sentenced to seven years in prison in February 2005 after being caught running an expansive network of loan sharks in Japan then laundering the profit through a Credit Suisse account in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong-based Standard Chartered Bank’s Tokyo branch. In April 2008, Switzerland and Japan agreed to split evenly the approximately CHF 58.4 million in seized from Kajiyama’s Swiss bank accounts, with the Japanese money going to the victims. Between July 2008 and January 2009, district prosecutors received 6,887 requests for repayment of damages from those who say they were victims of the scheme, but in the end the court decided to award the money to 5,490 people. There are around 10 applicants who have either failed and appealed the decision or cannot be located.

Money laundering takes many forms, even the shape of fried octopus ball. タコ焼き

Kajiyama, also attempted to launder several million dollars at casinos in Las Vegas, where he was considered “a whale” by casino operators. ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) seized $600,000 of his assets in the United States and returned most of the money to Japan. Kajiyama set up an elaborate network of companies to launder the ill-gotten gains from his loan sharking operations, our favorite being a chain of takoyaki (fried octopus ball) stands.

If I wrote a novel, it would probably only be to thinly disguise a true-story that had too much potential blowback to write as non-fiction. I tried to write the book as if I was talking to an old friend at a bar, and we were catching up. If you sit around with me long enough, you’ll probably notice that I talk like I write. Or vice-versa. I suppose I’m influenced a lot by the company I keep. Yakuza and cops aren’t exactly the most eloquent, flowery speakers.

Read the Tokyo Vice 3:AM interview here.

If you’ll look back at earlier JSRC posts you’ll see that we were pretty much on target with this story. The question now is how far the investigation will be allowed to proceed.  It was revealed recently that on June 21st Senator Hiroshi Nakai, the head of Japan’s Public Safety Commission, which oversees the National Police Agency, had secret meetings with Japan Sumo Association Chairman Musashigawa. The meeting appears to have been aimed at squashing any detailed investigation and reigning in the NPA. The JSA later changed its leadership by installing former prosecutor Hiroyoshi Murayama as its acting chief in place of Musashigawa. However, its not clear how much that changed the situation.

In 2008, Murayama was still an acting director of Suruga Corporation, a Tokyo Stock Exchange listed construction and real estate company. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department investigated Suruga Corporation and announced that the firm had paid over $50 million to a yakuza front company (run by the Goto-gumi) to evict tenants from properties they wanted to develop, and arrested several yakuza on related charges. Suruga Corporation also had former sumo wrestler Asashoryu help them sell condominiums in Mongolia as part of their business plan and hosted parties where Asashoryu and other sumo wrestlers attended with yakuza members.  Murayama never discussed his oversight failures regarding Suruga Corporation, which was later de-listed from the Tokyo stock exchange. Underworld sources refer to Murayama as “山口組の御用のヤメ検”, or “an ex-prosecutor often used by the Yamaguchi-gumi for their business interests.”

It does appear, at least, that the Yamaguchi-gumi seems to have one of their people inside the Sumo Association to keep things quiet and has grudging or willing help from above in making sure the investigation doesn’t go too far.

The ex-sumo wrestler, Furuichi Mitsutomo, who was involved in much of the gambling scandal, has a close relative in an independent Tokyo yakuza group with strong ties to the Yamaguchi-gumi.  He was also re-arrested yesterday on extortion charges along with the the three Yamaguchi-gumi members.  Furuichi has already been arrested and prosecuted on different extortion charges relating to ex-sumo wrestler, Kotomitsuki.

The sumo wrestlers illegally betting on baseball story was first broken by the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho in late May.

An interesting issue: So far the bookie operations were allegedly  first run by a Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai boss who passed away last year. However, the Yamaguchi-gumi members arrested for extortion reportedly come from different factions. No yakuza involved in the bookie operations have been arrested yet, nor is it clear who was running the baseball betting operation. One theory being promulgated is that the anti-Kodokai factions within the Yamaguchi-gumi shook down the sumo wrestlers hoping to make a quick buck and also that the whole thing would blow up in the face of the Kodokai. Inter-factional warfare within the Yamaguchi-gumi is always brewing, and as the 40,000-member Yamaguchi-gumi grows at such a cancerous pace that its out of control, factions within the group have begun stepping on each other’s toes. Decades ago, the organization even split apart, result in a vicious and prolonged gang war.

After decades of unspoken agreements between police and yakuza that have allowed organized crime to operate with relative impunity in everything from gambling on sport and illegal casinos to human trafficking and prostitution, the national police are cracking down on Japan’s top yakuza gang, energized not only by the embarrassment over the sumo debacle but also by the emergence of a dynamic new National Police Agency (NPA) chief last year who wants to curtail the broad influence of yakuza in society.

“We want them to disappear from public society,” Takaharu Ando told reporters in Tokyo after a meeting of police chiefs across Japan that he called to discuss strategies. While Mr. Ando may not yet have proved himself to be Japan’s own Eliot Ness, there’s no doubt about his determination to tackle organized crime.

Read “Japan’s yakuza mafia faces a crackdown” at the Christian Science Monitor.

The fight against the yakuza has gotten more heated as the NPA has managed to buckle down and team up with–or in some cases simply pressure–companies and local citizens in eliminating the country’s increasingly diverse ranks of organized crime.

Sumo isn’t the only sport that has gone through measures to flush gangsters out of their stands. The East Japan Boxing Association has begun organizing an “organized crime elimination committee.” Gang members have been technically prohibited from attending baseball games since 2003, according to the Organized Crime Elimination Declaration (暴力団等排除宣言).

Within the past few years, it’s gotten noticeably more difficult for yakuza to take up residence in public housing, and those who are found already dwelling in them are being kicked out. Ordinances regarding organized crime members in public housing were revised in June 2007 after a deadly shootout between gang members occured at municipal housing in Tokyo’s Machida city earlier that year. Enforcement has been slowly catching on throughout the country, as seen in this 2009 article picked up from the Yomiuri.

In March of this year, police began pressuring convenience stores in Fukuoka prefecture to remove magazines and other publications that may “glorify” the yakuza. (Check out the related JSRC post here)

Banks have reportedly also made it difficult for gang members, with a number of banks–even the post office–during the first half of this year becoming proactive on regulations that shut down existing accounts and prevent new ones from being created if the customer in question is suspected of having organized crime connections. In May, the NPA agreed to cooperate in setting up a database that shares information on nearly 40,000 organized crime members.

Most recently, on July 29, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced that in November they will be introducing a new system that will hopefully prevent contractors with organized crime connections, in particular front companies, from being hired. According to the Mainichi, the new system will hopefully be an effective replacement for similar 1987 guidelines to prevent yakuza involvement in metropolitan public works projects (都公共工事契約関係暴力等対策措置要綱).

Says Jake:

At one of the private meetings held in May between NPA officials and the top bosses of Japan’s 20 major organized crime groups, sources say officials told one Tokyo yakuza boss that although the Yamaguchi-gumi’s apparent allegiance with the Democratic Party of Japan has so far prevented any new criminal conspiracy laws being put on the books, the NPA is prepared to use a similar law to make arrests.

Known as the “Law Regarding Organized Crime Punishment and Regulations on Profits from Crime” (“組織的な犯罪の処罰及び犯罪収益の規制等に関する法律” or “組織的犯罪処罰法” – see Wikipedia here), the law has before been used to make unprecedented arrests of large groups of gang members based on the actions of just a few. In one case in Saitama, 39 members of the Yamaguchi-gumi were arrested in connection to the 2008 murder of a Sumiyoshi-kai gang leader carried out by three members. (The Yomiuri has since taken the article down, but a re-posted version is available here)

Using the law, the police have essentially found a way to hold the people at the top responsible for the criminal actions of their underlings. This makes gang bosses much more reluctant to authorize violent acts.

Their website makes it appear that the audio files are only up for seven days, so don’t miss these as they come out!

Listen to Tokyo Vice on Radio 4′s Book of the Week.

According to the article, the trio drank and dined at a sophisticated restaurant run by a third-generation geisha in Tokyo’s Kagurazaka district on June 21, days after numerous wrestlers were ousted one by one as having participated in baseball gambling and it was announced that a special investigation committee would be set up to look into the scandal.

Over sumptuous Japanese food and sake, sources within the sumo world say that Musashigawa was likely attempting damage control, trying to find out the nitty gritty on the investigation committee.

Politician Takeshi Fukaya, who once held Nakai’s position, said about the meeting in an interview with Bunshun, “By around June 21, the background behind the entire gambling ordeal had already been revealed. The National Public Safety Commission Chairman obviously knows information that hadn’t been released to the public, and it’s unbelievable that he’s just go and have drinks with the chairman of the Sumo Association. Reason enough for him to be fired in my books.”

Earlier that day, Nakai had reportedly been in Miyazaki overseeing activities on prevention of foot & mouth disease. There, he had taken heat from locals after he twice misread the names of areas when talking to the press. Says Bunshun: One can only imagine that he was busy worrying about his plans for that evening. After he made his way back to Tokyo, Nakai stealthily evaded the media and made his way to Kagurazaka.

Nakai is well known for his “roadside kiss” with a hostess that made the news after being published in Shukan Shincho in March, causing a stir after it was discovered he had given the woman a key to his apartment in the Lower House dormitories.

Hidetoshi Tanaka too is well known–in the sumo world as a Nihon University board chairman who in the past has helped a number of promising wrestlers make it to the top. Bunshun says, though, that Tanaka’s connections have a dark side; ex-Nichidai wrestler Kise Oyakata was eventually demoted in May of this year after it was discovered he was selling sumo tickets to the Yamaguchi-gumi.

Tanaka has dubious connections himself. He was involved in the planning of a sumo hall in Osaka that was announced by Heo Young Joong (aka Eichu Kyo), the “emperor of crime” who was the main culpret in the Itoman scandal. Also, according to sources within the university, when Yamaken-gumi head Kaneyoshi Kuwata was hospitalized at Nihon University before his imprisonment for weapons possession, Tanaka had acted has his personal guarantor.

The day after he admitted to gambling on baseball, Kotomitsuki had reportedly gone to Tanaka for advice. Sources say that Kotomitsuki had said he was ready to take all the responsibility, but Tanaka admonished him not to. Afterwards, Tanaka was concerned the wrestler wouldn’t heed his advice, becoming even more worried when he called Kotomitsuki’s mobile phone numerous times but received no answer.

Tanaka had reportedly fallen sick at the end of May, right when the news of Kise Oyakata and Kotomitsuki’s illegal gambling had hit headlines. A source reported, “It wasn’t just Musashigawa that suffered when the gambling issue hit the mainstream. Tanaka shared that pain with him. About half of the wrestlers in the Musashigawa stables come from Nichidai, and the two knew each other well. It was because of that Tanaka pursued a meeting with the man in the know about police investigations–Nakai.”

Says Bunshun, Tanaka likely thought that his talk that Kotomitsuki would be the perfect chance to get Musashigawa and Nakai together.

The Kagurazaka restaurant is reportedly well-known by Tanaka, and often used by him for for meetings and celebrations. They were welcome guests, and their hosts reportedly kept the visit discreet and the meeting away from the prying eyes of other customers. Everything went off without a hitch, reports Bunshun, and Musashigawa was said to have acted with a reverence and kindness toward Nakai that that belies his fierce persona.

Just days after the meeting, on July 24 police arrested an ex-wrestler for blackmailing Kotomitsuki. Then on July 7, police began raiding stables looking for evidence.

Nakai himself had made curious statements. Says one police reporter, “At a July 1 press conference, National Police Agency cheif Takaharu Ando had gotten a question about whether or not the Nagoya tournament would be held, and he answered that he wasn’t the right person to ask. No one had asked Nakai anything at all, but he suddenly said, “I think it’s great that they’re running their own investigation seperate from the official investigation as an effort to stamp out organized crime.”

The comment was made just days after drinking with Musashigawa.

So what went on at the Kagurazaka meeting? Was information leaked?

Shukan Bunshun attempted to ask Nakai directly, but he unsurprisingly refused: “Bunshun? That rag constantly says bad things about me. No way I’m going to answer.”

Tanaka too ignored Bunshun reporters, and the Sumo Association had not replied as of the date the article was published.

The article ends questioning whether or not a reliable investigation can be done if headed by someone like Nakai.

For more information on sumo connections to the yakuza through Nihon University, check out this related article on Tokyo Reporter.