The Yakuza.

[scarface1983]

Ive heard these are a deadly Japanese Mafia and thats all ive heard about them.
Can someone give me some links or tell me more about them please.
Or is there any good movies about these guys?

[Trey]

Yakuza is Japanese organized crime. They got different clans. The biggest clan is called Yamaguchi-Gumi and they got about 90,000 members in Japan. The Yakuza makes billions of dollars a year and the head of the Yamaguchi-Gumi himself, Yoshinori Watanabe, is worth 9 billion. The Yakuza is famous for their tattoo filled bodies similar to that of Triad members but they cover their whole bodies. Fingers are chopped off when they dishonor or have failed in some way. They work a lot with the Taiwanese Triads and some Hong Kong based Triads.

A good movie about the Yakuza is called Brother. It has little to do with the Japanese Yakuza but it is more about how a dishoned Yakuza boss came to Los Angeles and tried to start his own group. Good movie.

[scarface1983]

Thanks for the insight and the info.

I will watch and check that movie out soon.

[fistfullofboomstick]

i heard about a japanese imigrant that was turned away because his pinky was cut off and they were afraid of letting him in the country

[scarface1983]

i heard about a japanese imigrant that was turned away because his pinky was cut off and they were afraid of letting him in the country

Maybe it was just a normal Japanese citizen who had an accident.
Anyways in this day and age you can never be sure.

[BfKCmOney]

Yakuza stands for some #'s I think its 8 for Ya,9 for Ku, and Za for 3,
Which adds up to 20 and is a losing hand to the card game flower cards.
That represents the Bad Hands Of Society

[DeaD-SouL]

Yakuza is Japanese organized crime. They got different clans. The biggest clan is called Yamaguchi-Gumi and they got about 90,000 members in Japan. The Yakuza makes billions of dollars a year and the head of the Yamaguchi-Gumi himself, Yoshinori Watanabe, is worth 9 billion. The Yakuza is famous for their tattoo filled bodies similar to that of Triad members but they cover their whole bodies. Fingers are chopped off when they dishonor or have failed in some way. They work a lot with the Taiwanese Triads and some Hong Kong based Triads.

A good movie about the Yakuza is called Brother. It has little to do with the Japanese Yakuza but it is more about how a dishoned Yakuza boss came to Los Angeles and tried to start his own group. Good movie.

seen that movie too.... its a very good movie

[kenni]

ya, that movie is awesome.

[Godfather]

It's an interesting modern Yakuza movie...definately one I'd reccomend.

[DC]

The Yakuza have a very old history which dates back to the Samurai,
they have a very strict code and are very traditional in the way they operate. I really like there Tattoos (Horimono).


DC

[fantomseed23]

Yakuza is Japanese organized crime. They got different clans. The biggest clan is called Yamaguchi-Gumi and they got about 90,000 members in Japan. The Yakuza makes billions of dollars a year and the head of the Yamaguchi-Gumi himself, Yoshinori Watanabe, is worth 9 billion. The Yakuza is famous for their tattoo filled bodies similar to that of Triad members but they cover their whole bodies. Fingers are chopped off when they dishonor or have failed in some way. They work a lot with the Taiwanese Triads and some Hong Kong based Triads.

A good movie about the Yakuza is called Brother. It has little to do with the Japanese Yakuza but it is more about how a dishoned Yakuza boss came to Los Angeles and tried to start his own group. Good movie.




i love that movie, its a pretty good gangster movie you have to watch it

[MiChuhSuh]

Ive heard these are a deadly Japanese Mafia and thats all ive heard about them.
Can someone give me some links or tell me more about them please.
Or is there any good movies about these guys?

Believe it or not this is the best source you will find on the internet for Yakuza (p.s. their nickname if "Japanese mafia" but they are MUCH older than the Mafia):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza

The only thing is that they don't properly explain what it means to cut off the pinky. Some people in America misunderstood it as the "least important finger" and maybe that was why they chose that. VERY wrong, it's because to properly hold a standard two handed sword, the pinky is the most imporant, and without it you can't really do swordplay.

lol I didn't know till this website though, that some video games had four fingers so they had to change it to not scare Japanese kids hahaha

There are a lot of Koreans in there along with other Japanese minorities, in fact the biggest Yakuza is mostly non-"Japanese". A lot of "middle-rank" Yakuza know/have to know Korean because some big bosses are Korean and a lot of the regular guys are Korean. In Japan, some confuse Korean bad words with mafia slang, such as "mee-chin-geh-seh-kee" (crazy s.o.b.) is just Korean but in Japan is seen as "Yakuza talk"

[MiChuhSuh]

Oh I forgot to say, it's the left pinky that's cut off, the foundation of the sword.

[Old Shatterhand]

Oh I forgot to say, it's the left pinky that's cut off, the foundation of the sword.

Sure but I've seen pics of Yakuza in books with more than just the pinky missing. Like they had a bad habit of messing up. Tell me did they have an accident in the kitchen or did they just mess so many times?

[MiChuhSuh]

Formally the left pinky has been used in Japan (look at the May 15 1932 incident in Japan, to send in an appeal to pardon or lighten punishment, someone(s) sent in a box of 11 left pinkies, one for each person on trial)

Maybe if they continued to screw up or they screw up big time they could cut off more than the left pinky.

I really doubt they ever, EVER "mess up". The Japanese are very precise in these self-sacrifice rituals

I don't want to talk tomy step uncle any more about this because he scared the crap out of me lol

[NICKELS]

JUST TYPE YAKUZA IN GOOGLE AND IT WILL SEND YOU TO A WHOLE HISTORY OF IT ....AND MOVIES .

[junior23lbc]

that is a good movie

[perongregory]

Oh I forgot to say, it's the left pinky that's cut off, the foundation of the sword.

Sure but I've seen pics of Yakuza in books with more than just the pinky missing. Like they had a bad habit of messing up. Tell me did they have an accident in the kitchen or did they just mess so many times?

if they continue to mess up they cut the fingers that are left off.

[choisauce]

I think you guys are misunderstanding what it means when a Yakuza cuts off a finger when they "mess up." That doesn't mean they cut off a finger cuz they're just a worthless screw up who messes things up all the time... if that were the case, no Yakuza family or any gang of any level would accept such a retard. it's not like that.

It's not like I'm an expert, but from what I know, the usual reason for a finger being cut off is cuz they killed someone they're not supposed to kill...

Like, for instance, I knew a man before who was a Yak based out of Hawaii... he had the last joints of his pinky and ring finger cut off... Cut off the pinky cuz he killed a low-ranking boss of another family, and cut off the ring finger to get out of the family and live straight.

I've heard of other instances, but they're just stories I've heard. It all pretty much deals with somebody murdered someone from the wrong clique, and they had to give a formal apology to prevent a war, so they cut the finger off and learn their lesson and move on cuz business is all that matters.

[choisauce]

To add, that's why a missing pinky is usually an emblem that deserves respect, rather than shame. Because it means you're a killer who doesn't f' around.

If you "messed up" in some other way, like you owe someone money and never paid back, that kind of "messing up" will be dealt with getting your ass beat or your sister raped and sold rather than getting your pinky cut. Feel me?

[sudnec]

Pretty much most of what everyone is saying about the Yakuza is true. Wikipedia has lots of information regarding the Yakuza. They also operate in areas outside Japan. When you talk about organized crime, the Yakuza is one organized crime group that holds true to what they are labeled after. There is a video floating around the internet of a Business Manager being abducted by members of the Yakuza disguised as construction workers.

I had to do a project on organized crime a couple years back and had to do some research on the Yakuza, along with the Triads, the Mafia, and other smaller organized crime groups/families. The Yakuza have been around for a long time. It first started out as a Robin Hood type of thing (steal from the rich give to the poor) and over the years have evolved to what it is today.

Yakuza stands for some #'s I think its 8 for Ya,9 for Ku, and Za for 3,
Which adds up to 20 and is a losing hand to the card game flower cards.

That flower card game is called Hanafuda which back in the day were hand made specially for the Yakuza by one man from none other than Nintendo way before they were involved in the electronic industry.

[useless_person]

The Yakuza has had wars with the Triads, and I think but maybe mistaken for the Triads it also had wars with the Italian Mafia...

The Triads have alot of wars with the Yardies on London.

The Russian Mafia, Italian Mafia and Columbian Cartel are all together. This makes them pretty powerful...

If Folks or Peoples were all together --- as gangs, not alliances --- working togther, taking on these three organizations --- they have no chance.

Russian Mafia would have crews going around cities doing hits, randomly, and professionally, so no 25 GD's, only a few packing heat, can fight back against a group of expert killers aiming AK47's at them.

Starting 12:00 AM today until 11:59 PM tommorow, 100 GD's die in Chicago per hour while only 5 of the Russians get clipped back...

Let me see, a group of 5 highly trained 35 year olds with AK47's clipping GD's at a rate of 25 every two hours, along with about 100 other similar groups, or 500 Russian Mafia hitman groups...

That's alot of GD's dead...

No offense, brothas...

Plus Italians sniping major bosses etc aka anyone who can run the gang right...

Columbians trying to outsell them. 80 billion dollars a year compared to 100 million dollars a year seems more to me --- Columbians to GD's...

Why pick GD's, no reason...

And back to point --- The Russians, Italians and Columbians make a great alliance. The Russians have over 100,000 hardcore members, while the italians have over 25,000 with over 500 crime families, and I'm not sure about the Columbians but I'm pretty sure they somehow connect to FARC, that 10,000 man Gurilla group...

[junior23lbc]

great info

[choisauce]

Russian Mafia would have crews going around cities doing hits, randomly, and professionally, .

I've never heard the words "randomly" and "professionally" used in the same sentence by anyone whose info is at all worth knowing.

My friend, that's quite an imagination you got there.

[SPOOKY1_SURX3.]

lol

[thewestside]

Taken as a whole, the Yakuza are among the world's largest and most powerful criminal confederations. The Yakuza are highly structured and criminally diverse organizations that have thoroughly penetrated Japanese society, including the legitimate economic sphere, through their extortion-like practice of "sokaiya." There are an estimated 3,000 Yakuza groups and subgroups based in Japan. According to Japan's National Police Agency, 60 percent of the estimated 90,000 members and associates of Yakuza families are affiliated with one of three groups: the Yamaguchi-Gumi, Sumiyoshi-Kai, and Inagawa-Kai. These groups control most organized criminal activity in Japan, including gun trafficking, drug smuggling, alien smuggling, prostitution, illegal gambling, extortion, and white-collar crime through infiltration of legitimate businesses.

Academic specialists on Japanese organized crime have estimated the annual revenue of the yakuza at about $13 billion.

While most of their criminal operations are in Japan, Yakuza groups have established a presence throughout Asia, Australia, and the Western Hemisphere. The Yakuza have used their international networks primarily to acquire narcotics, guns, or illegal immigrants-- particularly women for prostitution--for the Japanese market.

Yakuza groups acquire most of their heroin and methamphetamine from Chinese criminal groups in Taiwan and Hong Kong and may have established relationships with South American trafficking organizations for obtaining cocaine.

China, Taiwan, and Russia are major sources of firearms for the Yakuza; Japanese police officials have estimated that 90 percent of the illegal weapons seized each year come from overseas because of Japan's strict gun control laws.

The Yakuza also rely on their international connections for illegal aliens to work in the prostitution, entertainment, and construction enterprises they control in Japan. The Yamaguchi-Gumi group, which includes 900 affiliated gangs throughout Japan, runs extensive prostitution rings that prey on women from Latin America, Russia, and Southeast Asia.

Some of the Chinese migrants smuggled into Japan continue on to the United States, but there is only fragmentary evidence indicating that Yakuza groups are directly involved in smuggling illegal aliens into this country.

Although most Yakuza criminal relationships overseas are used to facilitate their own criminal activities, some Yakuza families are establishing more longterm alliances with other international crime organizations. The Russian connection appears to be particularly important to Yakuza groups; in 1992 the Japanese press reported that the head of the Yamaguchi-Gumi had announced his intention to establish working relationships with the Russian mafia. Russia has become a major source of firearms and prostitutes, and a growing source of drugs, for the Japanese Yakuza. The establishment of regular flights between major Japanese and Russian cities and relaxed travel restrictions are likely to facilitate long-term ties between Russian and Japanese crime groups.

One of the most significant threats posed by Japanese organized crime groups is their investment in legitimate businesses in foreign countries to launder proceeds from their criminal operations in Japan. The Yakuza reportedly have invested heavily in US and Canadian real estate, ranging from golf courses to hotels. By playing the stock market, Yakuza groups have also laundered criminal proceeds through US financial institutions, according to US law enforcement.

Japanese criminal activity in the United States has primarily involved fraud and money-laundering activity.

The Inagawa-Kai yakuza crime group, which is involved in drug and arms trafficking, extortion, investment frauds, and money laundering, has invested heavily in Hawaii and the states on the west coast of the United States.