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Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018)

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21–30 of 38 posts

Re: Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018)

#24

As far as I know from my thesis on organized crime, Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone (Russian "Mafia", although I use the word mafia here tentatively because with the exception of providing illegal goods and services they have nothing in common). The difference is yakuza is accepted as a semi-legal entity in the minds of the people. Historically first yakuza (which were proto…

Thank you, your comment really adds a whole lot of context missing in the article. Your description of the oyabun-kobun practice (親分子分慣行) also made me realise why to me “I give you my life” feels like such a weird translation for “命預けます”, the feeling that springs to mind is more akin to “I leave my life in your care” which clearly highlights that the relationship does not only go one way.

Re: Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018)

#25
post #24

As far as I know from my thesis on organized crime, Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone (Russian "Mafia", although I use the word mafia here tentatively because with the exception of providing illegal goods and services they have nothing in common). The difference is yakuza is accepted as a semi-legal entity in the minds of the people. Historically first yakuza (which were proto…

Thank you, your comment really adds a whole lot of context missing in the article. Your description of the oyabun-kobun practice (親分子分慣行) also made me realise why to me “I give you my life” feels like such a weird translation for “命預けます”, the feeling that springs to mind is more akin to “I leave my life in your care” which clearly highlights that the relationship does not only go one way.

Glad to be of assistance. Thank you for your comment!

Re: Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018)

#26
I have an interesting Yakuza story that I want to share:

One of my Japanese friends used to work for the Yakuza (without being a member). His job was to play Pachinko at rigged machines. The way Pachinko works is that every day some machines are randomly selected to be winning machines. The Yakuza somehow had intel on what machines were winners and relayed the info to their crew of seemingly normal gamblers.

They had to play for the whole day and in the night gave the winnings to their Yakuza contact. The sad thing is that most of his "colleagues" instantly went back to the Pachinko hall to gamble away their cut.

Re: Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018)

#27

As far as I know from my thesis on organized crime, Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone (Russian "Mafia", although I use the word mafia here tentatively because with the exception of providing illegal goods and services they have nothing in common). The difference is yakuza is accepted as a semi-legal entity in the minds of the people. Historically first yakuza (which were proto…

"Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone"

That's because Hell's Angels is a 1970's outlaw motorcycle group of misfits, the "Mafia" is (I assume you're reffering to the Italians) is a virtually defunct organized crime group who haven't been relevant for 60 years, and Vor V Zakone is a prison group.

They're ALL different breeds from each other.

Re: Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018)

#28
Can't read this at work, but based on the comments I get the feeling this is a bit romanticized about who the Yakuza are and how they operate.

After reading about the case of Junko Furuta however, I have less of a benevolent opinion of Yakuza members.

Re: Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018)

#29

As far as I know from my thesis on organized crime, Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone (Russian "Mafia", although I use the word mafia here tentatively because with the exception of providing illegal goods and services they have nothing in common). The difference is yakuza is accepted as a semi-legal entity in the minds of the people. Historically first yakuza (which were proto…

"Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone" That's because Hell's Angels is a 1970's outlaw motorcycle group of misfits, the "Mafia" is (I assume you're reffering to the Italians) is a virtually defunct organized crime group who haven't been relevant for 60 years, and Vor V Zakone is a prison group. They're ALL different breeds from each other.

The Italian mafias peaked 60 years ago or so, but they have been very relevant the past 60 years, just maybe not as open

1963 mafia killed JFK

1980's stole massive amounts in gas taxes https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://...

Early 90s window scheme where mafia received kickbacks from all large developers in nyc https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://...

Re: Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018)

#30
post #24

As far as I know from my thesis on organized crime, Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone (Russian "Mafia", although I use the word mafia here tentatively because with the exception of providing illegal goods and services they have nothing in common). The difference is yakuza is accepted as a semi-legal entity in the minds of the people. Historically first yakuza (which were proto…

Thank you, your comment really adds a whole lot of context missing in the article. Your description of the oyabun-kobun practice (親分子分慣行) also made me realise why to me “I give you my life” feels like such a weird translation for “命預けます”, the feeling that springs to mind is more akin to “I leave my life in your care” which clearly highlights that the relationship does not only go one way.

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