The Yakuza, an ethnic mafia in Japan, is an entity that exists primarily to commit crime in search of profits. Strictly speaking, it is not illegal to

Yakuza Mine | Samurai, Ronin, Kabuki-mono: The Crazy Ones

submited by

Style Pass

2024-12-14 03:30:06

The Yakuza, an ethnic mafia in Japan, is an entity that exists primarily to commit crime in search of profits. Strictly speaking, it is not illegal to belong as a member of a criminal cartel. The policing approach here is to approach it as companies with employees who commit crimes.

People view Japan as a domiciliary society, viewing travel and travellers with curiosity, and perhaps suspicion. Japanese history, however, burgeons with examples of roving factions: monks, story-tellers, traders, journeymen, lawbreakers, and outsiders. Distinguishing among these groups proved difficult, as their work frequently intersected. Criminal societies rose and fell amid the constant stream of social groups throughout the centuries.

Originating in the distant past, yakuza, also known as gokudō, the extreme path, are an organized crime syndicate. The police and media refer to them as bōryokudan, violence groups, while the yakuza call themselves ninkyō danta, chivalrous organization. They could be the oldest organzined crime cartel in the world, following their first unmasking in 1612.

Their clothes matched their outrageous behaviour. Carrying longswords and using them indiscriminately, they often killed strangers just for the fun of it in an action called tsuji-giri, a hideous rite in which a samurai would waylay a passer-by to test the sharpness of a new blade.