Yakuza VS the people

[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."

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

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Davey said:

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?

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