Yakuza VS the people

[Davey]

I found an interesting article the other day that I want to share with you. It's about the Yakuza and they way the government are trying trying to fight against the organized crime by using the citizen instead of just the police. Read it and I would like to have your opinion about it. I also want to know if you agree with the current head of the Yamaguchi gumi that if the Yakuza would be disband the public order would deteriorate immediately?

[h=1]Yakuza gangs face fight for survival as Japan cracks down on organised crime[/h]New laws threaten to name, fine and jail ordinary citizens who knowingly do business with established crime syndicates

After decades of tacit acceptance, Japan's yakuza gangs are facing their biggest challenge: not from the police, but from ordinary citizens who are under pressure to shun the mob or be named and shamed.
Tokyo recently became the last of Japan's 47 prefectures to introduce local laws aimed at depriving crime syndicates of income by targeting firms that knowingly do business with them. Under the nationwide ordinances firms that help the yakuza earn money will be warned, and their names made public if they refuse to sever their ties. Repeat offenders face fines of up to 500,000 yen (£4,200) and company officials can face jail terms of up to a year.
The idea, say law enforcement officials, is to shame businesses into turning their backs on the mob. "It is going to be more difficult for the yakuza to collect funds," said Akihiko Shiba, a former police superintendent who is now a lawyer specialising in corporate compliance. "Police once concentrated on the gangs themselves, but the new approach is clamping down on those who help the gangs make money."

Faced with depleting returns from traditional cash cows, many became active in the stock market, earning their money via front companies that appear to be respectable. The national police agency warned in a 2010 report that some firms had no idea they were dealing with the underworld.

But Japan's most powerful yakuza don ridiculed the latest crackdown. Depriving large numbers of gang members of their livelihoods could damage public safety, Kenichi Shinoda, head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, said in a rare media interview. "If the Yamaguchi-gumi were to be disbanded, public order would deteriorate immediately," he told the Sankei Shimbun.
The result, he warned, would be the creation of a population of dispossessed mobsters who could turn to violent crime to make a living. "Yakuza gangs are amazingly gentlemanlike," he said, citing the traditional respect for seniority that binds gangs together. "[We] adhere to those values more than ordinary people do."

read the whole article

 

[Astroboy]

trying to fight against the organized crime by using the citizen instead of just the police.

This is not an aim of the new legislation, but it is aimed to cut any tie netween ordinary citizen and Yakuza organized crime. In fact, the new legislation is prepared to let ordinary citizen use it as "excuse" not to deal with or work with or trade with yakuza for whatever legitimate.

The existing law is inappropriate for dealing with yakuza's organized crime because even yakuza members are citizen having "human rights" and being protected by "law". Yakuza utilized legal pithole, survived and expanded historically.

 

[Half-n-Half]

They could also make organized crime illegal.

 

[noyhauser]

I found an interesting article the other day that I want to share with you. It's about the Yakuza and they way the government are trying trying to fight against the organized crime by using the citizen instead of just the police. Read it and I would like to have your opinion about it. I also want to know if you agree with the current head of the Yamaguchi gumi that if the Yakuza would be disband the public order would deteriorate immediately?

Hah, I love it. If you don't support us, there will be trouble! Isn't that racketeering in another guise?

 

[Astroboy]

Organised crime syndicates in Italy, i.e. the mafia, are now the "number one bank" in the country.
Italyﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s Financial Turmoil Turns Mafia Into Nationﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s Largest Bank | Economy Watch

Financial business of Italian mafia seems to be much bigger than Japanese yakuza Sala-kin (loan-shark).

 

[OsakaMarie]

Good luck to the government! The problem is that the feeling that society would deteriorate if Yakuza's activities are hindered is not only restricted to the Yakuza community but is well established among the genenral population. In these conditions, not sure if anything's going to work...