Anton says the yakuza keep their tattoos covered up in public because they’re very aware that tattoos are frowned upon. “They’re the ones who brought upon this frowning, obviously, because they started tattooing themselves.”

Lotus

five sepals

The yakuza have done their best to portray a noble image within the public sphere. They dress nicely, are respectful and talk politely – when not trying to make money. Violence for the most part happens between gang branches or non-yakuza gangs within Japan. The yakuza are even known to reduce some crime.

Decorative tattooing was seen by the Japanese government as ways for criminals to cover up their ink that they received as punishment. Laws against tattoos were enforced in 1936 after the war between Japan and China broke out, banning tattoos entirely.

The leader of any gang or conglomerate of yakuza is known as the oyabun (“boss”; literally “parent status”), and the followers are known as kobun (“protégés,” or “apprentices”; literally “child status”).

Yubitsume (指詰め, “finger shortening”) or otoshimae is a Japanese ritual to atone for offenses to another, a way to be punished or to show sincere apology and remorse to another, by means of amputating portions of one’s own little finger.

The answer is: No, not in any meaningful way. More than anything else, organized crime groups in Japan value Yamato-Damashi—the traditional, and xenophobic, Japanese warrior spirit. You’re a foreigner, so you’re the problem.

The Yakuza are just overall more powerful in today’s times. 50, 40, even 30 years ago the answer would have been the Traids, but in the past 20 years the Yakuza have rapidly expanded their operations and influence while the Triads have just declined.

Unfortunately, no such pathways to reintegration currently exist. Social acceptance is unattainable for most who renounce their membership in organized crime groups. As a result, they have no option but to resort to illegal activity to survive. I witnessed this myself during my study of ex-yakuza.

A gaijin in the organisation? Straight away, the strangest thing is that a foreigner – a gaijin – gets to become a member of a Yakuza family. Not only that, but Lowell quickly rises to become a member with key responsibilities – at one point he becomes the main boss’s bodyguard.

Even though the police had attempted to crack-down organized crime, the Yakuza simply diversified their portfolios, allowing them to withstand the pressure of law-enforcements. The purpose of the law is to “control the intimidation and violent acts carried out by the boryokudan (violent groups)” (NPA).

This has been attributed by some researchers to, amongst other factors, extremely low levels of gun ownership (1 in 175 households), a greater chance of detection (according to police data, 98 per cent of homicide cases are solved), the rejection of violence after the Second World War, the growth of affluence without …

In a ritual known as “yubitsume,” yakuza members are required to chop off their own digits to atone for serious offenses. The left pinkie is usually the first to go, though repeated offenses call for further severing.

This group is still regarded as being among “the most sophisticated and wealthiest criminal organizations”. At their height, the yakuza maintained a large presence in the Japanese media and operated internationally.

The little finger, or pinky finger, also known as the fifth digit, or pinkie, or ”’baby finger”’, is the most ulnar and smallest finger of the human hand, and next to the ring finger.

Kenichi Shinoda

Yakuza don’t know how to use guns, for the most part. There’s no place to practice.

Kenichi Yamamoto (山本 健一, Yamamoto Ken’ichi, March 5, 1925 – February 4, 1982) was the founder of the Yamaken-gumi yakuza gang, who were based in Kobe, Japan. It is the largest affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi….Kenichi Yamamoto (yakuza)

Today, the American Mafia cooperates in various criminal activities with Italian organized crime groups, such as the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra of Naples and the ‘Ndrangheta of Calabria. The Italian-American Mafia has long dominated organized crime in the United States.