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

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

#31

Post by elboru »

anvandare wrote: post #20
Paul_S wrote: post #13

I know every country has a similar problem but I still think it's a failure of the state, even if it's so common. The police know who the criminals are, ffs civilians know who they are, yet they do nothing and only deal with occasional spillover. I hate this.

"There will always be crime, so it's better to have organized crime than disorganized crime." seems to be the idea.

Some years ago I would had strongly disagreed with you. But now that I’ve lived in a city where the organized crime has been “disorganized” I can confirm it becomes hell, too many small gangs with no big bosses, making small and big crimes daily under the eyes of everyone, this is worst for the overall quality of life than having a big mafia that follows certain rules and obeys a big boss, making their crimes less visible.

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

#32

Post by tomatotomato37 »

newswriter99 wrote: post #27
f4stjack wrote: post #18

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.

I thought the mafia was still influential in Italy, albeit less as a criminal organization and more a system of business cartels?

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

#33

Post by barrkel »

newswriter99 wrote: post #27
f4stjack wrote: post #18

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.

Mafia is very much not defunct in Italy.

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

#34

Post by distantaidenn »

This reminds me of when I accidentally "crashed" a yakuza meeting.

I was still (compared to now) new in Japan, and was outside a train station in Tokyo waiting for my friend. This particular station has a quite nice and expansive courtyard; however, there is limited seating. So I see what I assume are two different groups of people seated along a span of three benches, with one open bench in the middle. I decide to take said bench.

Once I sat down, I realized it wasn't two groups but one. I also noticed that everyone stopped talking. Suddenly one woman in the group laughed, and everyone else followed suit.

A larger gentleman in the group then gets up from his seat, and not saying a word, comes and sits right next to me -- so close that our shoulders are touching. I was a bit surprised but didn't think much of it, gave him a "sumimasen (excuse me)" and scooted over a bit further. Once again the group all laughed. I then gave the group a quick look and noticed all the trappings of the yakuza: metal briefcases, the hairstyles, the suits, frequent use of "aniki (yakuza term for big brother)," and yet it still didn't click.

The big guy next to me was laughing the whole time. Finally, my friend showed up and I left. I tell her about the big guy that sat next to me, and how weird it seemed. As I'm relaying the story to her, everything fell into place and I realized -- "Holy f###, those guys were yakuza!"

In obvious hindsight, I realize the big guy was politely telling me that the seat was not available. My friend still laughs about the story to this day.

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

#35

Post by jacquesm »

elboru wrote: post #31
anvandare wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There will always be crime, so it's better to have organized crime than disorganized crime." seems to be the idea.

Some years ago I would had strongly disagreed with you. But now that I’ve lived in a city where the organized crime has been “disorganized” I can confirm it becomes hell, too many small gangs with no big bosses, making small and big crimes daily under the eyes of everyone, this is worst for the overall quality of life than having a big mafia that follows certain rules and obeys a big boss, making their crimes less vi…

The obvious alternative is less crime, of all sorts, not organized vs disorganized.

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

#36

Post by elboru »

jacquesm wrote: post #35
elboru wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some years ago I would had strongly disagreed with you. But now that I’ve lived in a city where the organized crime has been “disorganized” I can confirm it becomes hell, too many small gangs with no big bosses, making small and big crimes daily under the eyes of everyone, this is worst for the overall quality of life than having a big mafia that follows certain rules and obeys a big boss, making their crimes less vi…

The obvious alternative is less crime, of all sorts, not organized vs disorganized.

Sure, and the past has showed us that it’s possible to live peacefully, but it’s difficult to reach peace when billions of dollars and thousands of guns are being handed to the cartels every year. They say everyone has a price, if that’s true then cartels have the money to buy everyone. A frontal fight has been tested, and yes big bosses have fallen, but the violence only increases when big cartels become small cartels (usually antagonist small cartels). Could an ideology stop this? Can someone or something make corruption disappear? America legalizing all drugs is the only solution? Could Mexico legalize transportation without America legalizing consumption?

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

#37

Post by audiometry »

m_mueller wrote: post #9
lovemenot wrote: post #8

There's one such Yakuza boss whom I frequently see at my local sento bathhouse. His two or three servile bodyguards and quite fantastically beautiful body tattoo, make him very easy to identify as a top crime boss.

Are these specific bathhouse that allow tattooes?

Back before it was massively renovated (mid 2000's?) there was a sento in Tokyo Station. It was called 'Tokyo Kur' I think. I visited probably five times and every time would see at least one wrinkled old man covered in tattoos like that. Sadly that sento is long-gone.

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

#38

Post by lovemenot »

audiometry wrote: post #37
m_mueller wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these specific bathhouse that allow tattooes?

Back before it was massively renovated (mid 2000's?) there was a sento in Tokyo Station. It was called 'Tokyo Kur' I think. I visited probably five times and every time would see at least one wrinkled old man covered in tattoos like that. Sadly that sento is long-gone.

If you're looking for an alternative, some on this list are pretty good.

https://www.1010.or.jp/english/sento-location/ The domain name is a pun in Japanese.

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