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The incessant bustle between neon lights, skyscrapers and temples of Japanese cities hides a clandestine world that for centuries fascinated and terrified society.. The Yakuzathe oldest criminal institution in the world, exhibits codes of honor, traditions, rituals and symbols that make it unique compared to other criminal networks such as Latin American cartels or the Italian and Russian mafias.
It is composed of 25 unions or “families”, among them three main ones, on which hundreds of subgroups depend under a strict hierarchy. Born more than four centuries ago in the Japan of feudal lords and samurai, the yakuza lived its golden age between the 1960s and 1980s, when it numbered more than 180,000 members.
Its stagnation in traditions in the face of the advancement of times, and above all legal and police persecution, reduced its number of members to about 10,000, not counting the unofficial and associated ones. We give you 4 keys to understand this criminal institution that struggles to survive without losing its essence in the 21st century.
The word yakuza comes from the numbers 8, 9, 3 (pronounced in Japanese ya, ku, sa), which make up the worst possible card play in the traditional Japanese game oicho-kabu, which evokes the perception of bad luck or misfortune. That is why many of its members prefer the denominations gokudo (“the extreme path”) or ninkyo dantai (“honorable or chivalrous organization”).
The yakuza emerged in the 17th century among marginal groups of Japanese feudal society such as the bakuto (traveling players), tekiya (peddlers) and unemployed samurai or ronin. Many of these samurai without a lord to serve formed gangs that evolved to form the unions of the criminal institution.
The tekiya and the bakuto They adopted several of the samurai traditions, including a strict code of honor and rituals of loyalty, which marked the organizational culture of the yakuza. The legacy of the samurai also provided a rigorous hierarchical structure with rules based on mutual respect, obedience and, above all, absolute loyalty to the boss oyabun.
The yakuza is distinguished by a complex system of values and ideology whose historical roots date back to feudal Japan. These values were established over the centuries in Japanese society, permeating all its layers, from the most select neighborhoods of Tokyo to the underworld of the Japanese capital, and from legitimate businesses to the most obscure.
“The yakuza maintains a code of honor that exalts traditional masculinity. Its spirit revolves around the idea of ‘live and die like men’”explained to BBC World the sociologist Noboru Hirosue, author of several books on the Japanese mafia and considered one of the world’s greatest experts on the subject.
The members of the institution “believe that they must dedicate themselves, both physically and mentally, to their organization, and consider it honorable to show unwavering loyalty to their organization.” oyabuneven to the point of sacrificing their lives if necessary,” said Hirosue.
At the heart of the yakuza ideology is the code of honor based on the concepts of giri (obligation) and ninja (humanity). Giri defined the debt of honor that a member owes to his superior, a key piece to strengthen loyalty within the organization, while ninja It is empathy towards others that serves as a counterweight to the rigor of giri in the rigid structure of the mafia. Both are based on a deep spirit of self-sacrificewhich leads members to put the group’s interests above personal ones.
An example of this is the ritual of yubitsumein which a member cuts a fragment of the finger (usually the little finger) as an act of penance or apology to his oyabun due to his own error or that of someone under his responsibility.
“Although losing a finger due to a mistake made could be a source of shame, sacrificing the little finger as payment for a subordinate’s failure is considered honorable,” Hirosue explained. This tradition, however, is becoming less frequent and nowadays members of the Japanese mafia usually pay financial fines to redeem their mistakes.
Although the yubitsume It’s striking, the most important ritual of the yakuza is he sakazukithe initiation ceremony in which the new member shares sake with the boss. This act symbolizes the adoption of the kobunthe new member of the “family” that becomes considered the “son” of the oyabun and swears absolute loyalty to him.
“Yakuza groups are structured in a pseudo-familial relationship in which superiors call each other. aniki or older brother, the boss’s brothers oniisan or uncles, and the boss’s wife anesan or older sister,” Hirosue explained.
These organizations do not officially have a political ideology, but they tend to identify with the Japanese right and extreme right. “The ideology that Japan comes first, samurai tradition, honor and Japan’s ‘glorious’ imperial past resonate in far-right politics, so there are ideological connections,” he explained to BBC World Martina Baradel, researcher at the University of Oxford, expert in the world of Japanese crime.
Thus, Baradel added, the yakuza occasionally cooperates with conservative political parties, although they usually deny any ties with the mafia to maintain their clean image.
Unlike criminal organizations in other parts of the world, the yakuza was never illegal, although it faces increasingly restrictive laws that complicate its activities. “The Italian mafia is completely clandestine, while the yakuza exists openly,” Hirosue explains.
The unions of this criminal institution take advantage of the right to free association which includes the Constitution of Japan in its article 21.
“As long as they do not threaten national security, public morality or order are not subject to government control,” the academic noted. In fact, until the end of the 20th century, many yakuza headquarters displayed plaques on the door, were registered in telephone directories, and its members distributed business cards in meetings as if they were employees of a company.
But this is no longer the case: in the last three decades the Japanese government has tightened laws to weaken the financing of criminal groups, isolate them, hinder their activities and reduce their influence on society. Although it is still legal to belong to the yakuza, today its members are always under the scrutiny of the authorities in a semi-clandestine state.
“When someone commits a crime and is prosecuted, if he is a member of the yakuza, his action is considered to have a pattern and then receives longer sentences than another person for the same crime”Baradel explained.
But what do the yakuza do? Traditionally, their unions operate businesses in the gambling, extortions like mikajime-ryo or “protection payment”, debt collectionillegal loans, prostitution networks and drug trafficking, among others.
Hirosue explained that they also participate through front companies in legitimate businesses such as real estate, construction and demolition, sending labor or buying and selling shares. However, the tightening of laws against organized crime, especially two ordinances from 1992 and 2010 that prosecute their activities and impose high penalties, altered the modus operandi of the Japanese mafia.
“They have gradually become more invisible and anonymous, engaging in crimes such as fraud, robbery and theft. In other words, it can be said that the methods by which the yakuza obtain their income They have gone from intimidation to deception“said the expert.
And he added that “in recent times they have collaborated with semi-organized groups known as hangure to carry out activities such as fraud, robbery, theft, drug trafficking and human trafficking.”
The anti-yakuza laws managed to decimate the institution, but at the same time made it difficult for members who decide to leave the underworld to integrate into society. The so-called “5-year clause,” which prohibits companies and individuals from making payments to members of the yakuza, makes it difficult for those who have recently left the institution to open bank accounts, rent a house or even contract a mobile phone line. “As a result, they become marginal people and with resentment towards society,” said Hirosue.
The art of tattooing, known as irezumi, is one of the most recognizable symbols of the yakuza. “In Japanese culture, tattoos were traditionally associated with risky occupations such as coal miners and fishermen. The reason was that in case of accidents where the face became unrecognizable, they could help identify the victim,” Hirosue said.
But, as the centuries passed, they became almost exclusive symbols of organized crime. The images of koi carp, dragons, cherry blossoms, samurai warriors and other traditional Japanese elements project aspects of the wearer’s personality, achievements or life history, as well as their commitment to the criminal group. “Originally they had the meaning of declaring an oath to never return to society in general and to live like a yakuza for life after joining the organization,” said the expert.
Although less and less, Tattoos continue to be frowned upon in Japan, where they are linked to crime, and tattooed people are banned from many public spaces.from saunas and swimming pools to beaches.
In addition to tattoos, the yakuza uses insignia, flags, and other visual elements to identify its members and show their affiliation. These symbols include references to nature and Japanese mythology with specific meanings within yakuza culture such as loyalty, strength, or the ability to overcome adversity.
Another element that distinguishes the Japanese mafia from those of other countries is that They hardly use firearms and resort little to violence compared, for example, to Latin American cartels. “They rarely use firearms due to the harsh penalties that come with them, and when they do use weapons, they are generally bladed weapons,” Hirosue said.
These are usually razors or knivesheirs of the so much used by samurai, and less frequently katanas, although they generally do not need these resources to enforce their law. “When they want to resort to physical force, such as violence and intimidation, they can simply mention the name of your group to exercise power,” said the expert.
However, he noted, when the yakuza resorts to violence, the result can be fatal: “What makes the yakuza fearsome is their willingness to resort to murder if faced with conflicts of interest, which ultimately ends the death of his opponents.
