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The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State
The Japanese mafia - known collectively as yakuza - has had an extensive influence on Japanese society over the past fifty years. Based on extensive interviews with criminals, police officers, lawyers, journalists, and academics, this is the first academic analysis in English of Japan's criminal syndicates.
Peter Hill argues that the essential characteristic of Japan's criminal syndicates is their provision of protection to consumers in Japan's under- and upper-worlds. In this respect they are analogous to the Sicilian Mafia, and the mafias of Russia, Hong Kong and the United States. Although the yakuza's protective mafia role has existed at least since the end of the Second World War, and arguably longer, their sources of income have not remained constant. The yakuza have undergone considerable change in their business activities over the last half-century. The two key factors driving this evolution have been the changes in the legal, and law-enforcement environment within which these groups must operate, and the economic opportunities available to them. This first factor demonstrates that the complex and ambiguous relationship between the yakuza and the state has always been more than purely symbiotic. With the introduction of the boryokudan ( yakuza ) countermeasures law in 1992, the
relationship between the yakuza and the state has become more unambiguously antagonistic. Assessing the impact of this law is, however, problematic; the contemporaneous bursting of Japan's economic bubble at the beginning of the 1990s also profoundly and adversely influenced yakuza sources of income. It is impossible to completely disentangle the effects of these two events.
By the end of the twentieth century, the outlook for the yakuza was bleak and offered no short-term prospect of amelioration. More profoundly, state-expropriation of protection markets formerly dominated by the yakuza suggests that the longer-term prospects for these groups are bleaker still: no longer, therefore, need the yakuza be seen as an inevitable and necessary evil.
Peter Hill argues that the essential characteristic of Japan's criminal syndicates is their provision of protection to consumers in Japan's under- and upper-worlds. In this respect they are analogous to the Sicilian Mafia, and the mafias of Russia, Hong Kong and the United States. Although the yakuza's protective mafia role has existed at least since the end of the Second World War, and arguably longer, their sources of income have not remained constant. The yakuza have undergone considerable change in their business activities over the last half-century. The two key factors driving this evolution have been the changes in the legal, and law-enforcement environment within which these groups must operate, and the economic opportunities available to them. This first factor demonstrates that the complex and ambiguous relationship between the yakuza and the state has always been more than purely symbiotic. With the introduction of the boryokudan ( yakuza ) countermeasures law in 1992, the
relationship between the yakuza and the state has become more unambiguously antagonistic. Assessing the impact of this law is, however, problematic; the contemporaneous bursting of Japan's economic bubble at the beginning of the 1990s also profoundly and adversely influenced yakuza sources of income. It is impossible to completely disentangle the effects of these two events.
By the end of the twentieth century, the outlook for the yakuza was bleak and offered no short-term prospect of amelioration. More profoundly, state-expropriation of protection markets formerly dominated by the yakuza suggests that the longer-term prospects for these groups are bleaker still: no longer, therefore, need the yakuza be seen as an inevitable and necessary evil.
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 22, 2019
The English-language literature on Japanese organized crime, the bōryukudan or yakuza, has always lacked a scholarly, book-length analysis of its origins, structures, and relationship with the state. This condition stands in marked contrast to the extensive and detailed scholarly journal articles and book chapters exploring selective aspects of the yakuza or the yakuza as one important aspect of broader social and political dynamics in Japan. In The Japanese Mafia, sociologist Peter B. E. Hill has written an important volume that fills this gap.
The Japanese Mafia is not the first English-language volume on the yakuza. Florence Rome's 1975 book The Tattooed Men offered a glimpse into the rituals and personalities of Japanese organized crime. Researchers long have read David Stark's excellent 1981 doctoral dissertation on the yakuza, with its extensive fieldwork and personal observations of the day-to-day operations of an organized crime group and bemoaned the fact that the work was never revised and published in book form.1 In 1986, investigative journalists David Kaplan and Alec Dubro overcame an array of publishing obstacles and released a path-breaking book on Japanese organized crime entitled The Yakuza. Rich in detail, often embarrassingly so for many Japanese politicians and law enforcement personnel, by the early 1990s National Police Agency officials often pointed with pride to the sections of the book their interviews helped to influence. The updated and expanded version of The Yakuza, published in 2003 by the University of California Press, retains the earlier volume's strengths in substantive detail. But by its very nature, and in contrast to The Japanese Mafia, the work by Kaplan and Dubro places much less emphasis on theoretically informed scholarship on organized crime and the ramifications of such scholarship for both understanding Japanese society and broader cross-national comparisons of the relationship between organized crime and the state.
The Japanese Mafia is not the first English-language volume on the yakuza. Florence Rome's 1975 book The Tattooed Men offered a glimpse into the rituals and personalities of Japanese organized crime. Researchers long have read David Stark's excellent 1981 doctoral dissertation on the yakuza, with its extensive fieldwork and personal observations of the day-to-day operations of an organized crime group and bemoaned the fact that the work was never revised and published in book form.1 In 1986, investigative journalists David Kaplan and Alec Dubro overcame an array of publishing obstacles and released a path-breaking book on Japanese organized crime entitled The Yakuza. Rich in detail, often embarrassingly so for many Japanese politicians and law enforcement personnel, by the early 1990s National Police Agency officials often pointed with pride to the sections of the book their interviews helped to influence. The updated and expanded version of The Yakuza, published in 2003 by the University of California Press, retains the earlier volume's strengths in substantive detail. But by its very nature, and in contrast to The Japanese Mafia, the work by Kaplan and Dubro places much less emphasis on theoretically informed scholarship on organized crime and the ramifications of such scholarship for both understanding Japanese society and broader cross-national comparisons of the relationship between organized crime and the state.
November 23, 2020
En aio teeskennellä että olisin ymmärtänyt ihan kaiken, mitä tässä kirjassa käsiteltiin, sillä tekstissä oli paljon lakikiemuroita ja hankalia termejä joita en kesken lukemisen jaksanut ryhtyä tarkistamaan (koska muuten olisin joutunut keskeyttämään lukemisen joka toinen minuutti, ja kun on jo muutenkin lyhyt attention span niin en olisi saanut tätä koskaan luettua). Mutta sen verran mitä ymmärsin - tässä kirjassa on valtavan paljon mielenkiintoista tietoa mm. siitä, miten yakuza-ryhmät rakentuvat, miten yakuza toimii, millainen asema yakuza-ryhmillä on Japanissa ja millaisia toimia poliisi sekä muut järjestäytynyttä rikollisuutta torjuvat tahot ovat aikojen saatossa toteuttaneet yakuzan aisoissa pitämiseksi - ja miten yakuza-ryhmät lähes poikkeuksetta löytävät keinon kiertää lait ja löytävät mahdollisuuden jatkaa bisneksiään.
Erityisen kiinnostavaa oli se, miten tässä kirjassa spekuloitiin sitä ovatko botaiho-lait eli järjestäytynyttä rikollisuutta vastaan asetetut lait aiheuttaneet enemmän haittaa kuin hyötyä. Kuten kirjassa kerrotaan, tavallisten japanilaisten asenne yakuzaa kohtaan on lakien asettamisien myötä muuttunut ankarammaksi, mutta monet silti näkevät yakuzat "välttämättömänä pahana": monen tavallisen japanilaisen mielestä yakuza on se ryhmä, joka pitää huolen siitä, että alamaailman rauhattomuudet eivät aiheuta häiriötä siviileille. Botaiho-lait sekä poliisin kiristyneet otteet ovat kuitenkin vieneet yakuza-ryhmiltä niiden tavalliset tulonlähteet, ja siksi yakuzojen määrä on supistunut ja toiminta on muuttanut muotoaan - eikä välttämättä parempaan suuntaan. Kumpi on parempi: suuri joukko säyseitä yakuzoja, vai pieni määrä aggressiivisia yakuzoja?
Erityisen kiinnostavaa oli se, miten tässä kirjassa spekuloitiin sitä ovatko botaiho-lait eli järjestäytynyttä rikollisuutta vastaan asetetut lait aiheuttaneet enemmän haittaa kuin hyötyä. Kuten kirjassa kerrotaan, tavallisten japanilaisten asenne yakuzaa kohtaan on lakien asettamisien myötä muuttunut ankarammaksi, mutta monet silti näkevät yakuzat "välttämättömänä pahana": monen tavallisen japanilaisen mielestä yakuza on se ryhmä, joka pitää huolen siitä, että alamaailman rauhattomuudet eivät aiheuta häiriötä siviileille. Botaiho-lait sekä poliisin kiristyneet otteet ovat kuitenkin vieneet yakuza-ryhmiltä niiden tavalliset tulonlähteet, ja siksi yakuzojen määrä on supistunut ja toiminta on muuttanut muotoaan - eikä välttämättä parempaan suuntaan. Kumpi on parempi: suuri joukko säyseitä yakuzoja, vai pieni määrä aggressiivisia yakuzoja?
March 10, 2024
Highly recommended for anyone who's interested in Japan or the functioning of organized crime groups. A clear and succinct explanation of the raison d'être, history, and structure of the Yakuza & it's influence on society (and vice versa)
It does, however, only go up till 2002. An updated version would be welcome.
It does, however, only go up till 2002. An updated version would be welcome.
June 22, 2017
Interesante libro si no cazás una de los Yakuza y te da paja buscar en Google. Parece un trabajo práctico de la facultad con datos y gráficos y bla bla pero olvidate que haya alguna interpretación o algo más "sociológico".
April 28, 2025
Interesting read if you're into that kind of thing.
February 25, 2016
This is a very scholarly work on the Yakuza. The book starts out defining just what a mafia is and what is isn't. One thing organized crime is, according to the book, is actually an organized business that provides illegal goods and services such as gambling, loan-sharking, narcotics, and sexual services.
The origins of the Yakuza, or Yakuza-like groups, can be traced back at least to the year 689 C.E. when a Japanese law was passed banning gambling. Definite organized gambling groups are noted in documents from around 1185 on. After the end of World War II organized crime went through a series of changes that the author details.
Right after the war unemployment was high and many people faced starvation. The police had been disarmed, and American authorities did not concentrate on organized crime. Black-market trading underwent a tremendous growth in this time, and these were tied in to yakuza groups. Gang wars followed though, as did a reorganization of the gangs and a relative level of peace between them.
Present day recruitment of yakuza members is difficult, though, one reason being the 'soft and pampered Japanese youth.'
The author goes into the various links between the yakuza and the right-wing movement in Japan.
The author then goes into the structure of modern-day yakuza groups which is fairly complex. The yakuza also have their own set of rules for their members and enforce those rules, which include:
1. Do not disobey your superiors
2. Do not betray your gang or fellow gang members.
3. Do not fight with fellow members.
4. Do not embezzle gang funds.
5. Do not touch the woman of a fellow gang member.
The most important of these is obedience, number 1.
Low-ranking members may sometimes turn themselves over to police and claim they are responsible for a crime committed by a member of higher rank in the group, and take the punishment for them. This can have benefits for the member who does that. Members can be rewarded for various things by money and promotion. Punishments including shaving off of their hair, confinement, fines, temporary explulsion, beatings, finger amputation, outright ostracism, and death.
Membership of minority groups in yakuza gangs is high. This would include Koreans and burakumin. Recruits are generally found among those who have already started out on a life of crime.
Shinogi refers to the various sources of income for the gangs. This includes protection money which can be for small business or even large construction businesses. Services are provided for this protection which can, for example, include yakuza gang members arriving at a bar quickly to stop some fight that had started there.
Drugs are a source of money, of course, as is gambling, including pachinko machines. Supplying workers to the construction industry is profitable, as is prostitution. Loan-sharking is another source of income. This can include the collection of debts. Fake social movements can be profitable. There are also some legitimate businesses that can be used for making money.
The author then goes into how organized crime is dealt with in Japan, and how the yakuza isn't as powerful or glamorous as it used to be. The economic downturn has also hit the yakuza groups, and some of them have financial problems. The legal climate has also worsened for them in Japan. The yakuza will not disappear, the author says, but they will change in various ways and may not be as powerful as they have been.
The origins of the Yakuza, or Yakuza-like groups, can be traced back at least to the year 689 C.E. when a Japanese law was passed banning gambling. Definite organized gambling groups are noted in documents from around 1185 on. After the end of World War II organized crime went through a series of changes that the author details.
Right after the war unemployment was high and many people faced starvation. The police had been disarmed, and American authorities did not concentrate on organized crime. Black-market trading underwent a tremendous growth in this time, and these were tied in to yakuza groups. Gang wars followed though, as did a reorganization of the gangs and a relative level of peace between them.
Present day recruitment of yakuza members is difficult, though, one reason being the 'soft and pampered Japanese youth.'
The author goes into the various links between the yakuza and the right-wing movement in Japan.
The author then goes into the structure of modern-day yakuza groups which is fairly complex. The yakuza also have their own set of rules for their members and enforce those rules, which include:
1. Do not disobey your superiors
2. Do not betray your gang or fellow gang members.
3. Do not fight with fellow members.
4. Do not embezzle gang funds.
5. Do not touch the woman of a fellow gang member.
The most important of these is obedience, number 1.
Low-ranking members may sometimes turn themselves over to police and claim they are responsible for a crime committed by a member of higher rank in the group, and take the punishment for them. This can have benefits for the member who does that. Members can be rewarded for various things by money and promotion. Punishments including shaving off of their hair, confinement, fines, temporary explulsion, beatings, finger amputation, outright ostracism, and death.
Membership of minority groups in yakuza gangs is high. This would include Koreans and burakumin. Recruits are generally found among those who have already started out on a life of crime.
Shinogi refers to the various sources of income for the gangs. This includes protection money which can be for small business or even large construction businesses. Services are provided for this protection which can, for example, include yakuza gang members arriving at a bar quickly to stop some fight that had started there.
Drugs are a source of money, of course, as is gambling, including pachinko machines. Supplying workers to the construction industry is profitable, as is prostitution. Loan-sharking is another source of income. This can include the collection of debts. Fake social movements can be profitable. There are also some legitimate businesses that can be used for making money.
The author then goes into how organized crime is dealt with in Japan, and how the yakuza isn't as powerful or glamorous as it used to be. The economic downturn has also hit the yakuza groups, and some of them have financial problems. The legal climate has also worsened for them in Japan. The yakuza will not disappear, the author says, but they will change in various ways and may not be as powerful as they have been.
September 21, 2016
блин ну отвыкла я от research papers. но интересно. Япония блин.такая Япония
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