In 2021, there was an alternative gangster movie released in Japan, it was "Sopranos and Families".
The film changed the old routine of Japanese gangster movies of sword and shadow, quick revenge, and struggle for power, and actually focused on the end of the Japanese yakuza, and the whole story describes the story of Japanese yakuza being ostracized by society in recent years, gang members have no food and clothing in their old age, and even their families are broken.
After the release of the film, it once caused heated discussions in Asia, and the Japanese gangsters represented by the "Yamaguchi Group" have become grasshoppers after the autumn and are not moving.
Japan's Yamaguchi-gumi was once the world's most profitable yakuza organization, and before the 2008 financial crisis, Yamaguchi-gumi and its offshoots earned $6 billion a year, making more profits than most multinational companies in the world.
In recent years, Japan has frequently broken strange news, such as gangsters appearing on the street, but the deceased and assassins are old men in their sixties and seventies, who ran out of breath after killing people and were thrown down by the police.
In order to survive, some gangster old people secretly went to the sea at night to fish for sea cucumbers, and were caught by the police, and their fishing gear was actually homemade; In order to pay the wages of his subordinates, some gangster brothers actually went to steal watermelons from the store to sell, and quarreled with customers who bought melons, and were called to the police.
From the "extreme boy" who dominates the underground world to the old man who steals watermelons, the ups and downs of Japan's "Yamaguchi-gumi" are incomprehensible.
So why did Japan ever have such a powerful yakuza organization? How arrogant were the Yamaguchi group and other "violent groups" at their peak? Why is Yamaguchi-gumi now a "senior club"?
1. The underground order that runs through Japanese history
Gangs, is a common civil organization in human history, mostly appeared in the bottom society, originally a kind of organization for poor people to survive to huddle for warmth, ancient China was also called "meeting party", "group family" or "Daomen".
The nature of gangs is diverse, and most of the early gangs have strong professional and regional characteristics, mainly to survive in difficult environments.
Among them, professional gangs include the most common docker gangs in the world, fishing boatmen gangs, and veterans gangs; Regional gangs are famous for the Chaoshan Gang and Hakka Gang in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as the Irish Gang and the Mexican Gang in the United States.
These early gangs, which were only for survival, once they grow, become purely profit-oriented gangs that survive by wandering through the gray area. For example, the mafia in Italy, the Razor Party in Britain, the triad in Hong Kong, and the Yamaguchi-gumi in Japan.
Gangs in various countries have their own stories, especially a large number of gangs represented by the Japanese "Yamaguchi Group" are the most special.
In other countries, gangs are enemies of the state and are surrounded and suppressed by the government, but in Japan, "violent groups" are legal associations that can be registered with the government and get away with it as long as they are not caught by the police.
Japan's yakuza also has a long history, taking the Yamaguchi-gumi as an example, which dates back to the era of Japan's great economic development in the early 20th century.
At the end of the 19th century, as Japan won its first national fortune war in a thousand years, the Sino-Japanese War, the reparations of the Great Qing Dynasty allowed Japan to earn the first pot of gold, and the economy began to develop rapidly.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Japan basically completed industrialization and joined the ranks of the great powers. However, after all, Japan has many small people, scarce resources, insufficient economic strength, and ranks last among the great powers in terms of economic level and industrial output value.
The living standards of the Japanese people are even less high, and they are ridiculed as the "Poor Egg Empire". Japan's rural population moved to the cities in large numbers to earn a living during this period, eating at stations, docks, markets, and red light districts.
During this period, there were several professional and weakly organized gangs in Japan, namely the gambling "Botu", the small merchant group "Oya", and the "Fool Company" composed of hooligans and orphans, as well as various regional "groups" of dockers.
Don't underestimate these organizations, in Japanese people, in addition to the police, it is basically these underground organizations that control order:
"Botu" opens casinos and lends money by the way, which can affect finance;
"Houses" are groups of merchants who control the circulation of goods in the market and have a great influence on the local economy;
As for the hooligans, it is a big hidden danger to public security, and the police often reach a tacit agreement with them, allowing the hooligans to collect protection fees or engage in gray trade within a certain range in exchange for security stability.
Born in 1881 to a native of Kobe, Yamaguchi was a dock coolie whose job was much more decent than that of a farmer at the time.
As a child, Yamaguchi attended the Japanese government's literacy elementary school, and later joined the army in 1906 in order to make a living. However, there was no war to fight in Japan at that time, and Yamaguchi Haruyoshi spent 4 years in the army, did not achieve an inch, and finally retired.
After returning to his hometown, Yamaguchi Haruyoshi became a fisherman, but this poor and monotonous life did not suit his appetite.
In view of the strong physique and tenacity he had developed in the army, he later returned to the dock where his father had worked all his life and worked as a foreman in a dock workers' organization called the "Kurahashi Group".
At that time, there were many organizations of different sizes in the port, and workers huddled together, fighting with various ship owners and capitalists while fighting each other for work.
In this process, the drama of big fish eating small fish was constantly staged, and in the end, the dock was often unified by a small number of organizations, and the largest gang in Kobe Port at that time was called the "Oshima Group", and Haruyoshi Yamaguchi later joined the organization and served as a front-line leader for 3 years.
In 1915, Yamaguchi Haruyoshi recruited dozens of men and horses and formed his own organization, the Yamaguchi-gumi.
At first, the members of the Yamaguchi-gumi were all dock workers, but later they gradually joined some fishermen and shopkeepers, and the main industry changed from moving goods at the dock to buying and selling seafood, and controlling some of the catch and dry goods in the Kobe market.
Second, 50 years ago, they were "righteous"
Yamaguchi-gumi dominated the Kobe area in the 20s, and then in the 30s and 40s, due to World War II, Japan's domestic regulations were very strict, and Yamaguchi-gumi's business was blocked, and he switched to the entertainment industry and pornography.
During this period, the organization set a series of rules - the boss is called "pro-division", the boss has several cronies, called "younger brother", then dozens of group leaders, called "sub-points", and then the peripheral group leaders and ordinary juniors.
This relationship is the hierarchical relationship of fathers, uncles, children and nephews, and outsiders, and this "family" relationship divides gang men into three, six, and nine classes, and the internal hierarchy is strict and almost insurmountable, unless the approval of the previous level, the younger brother can be promoted.
After promotion, ordinary gang members can also share funds, business, and subordinates, which is equivalent to having their own assets and living a good life overnight.
After the end of World War II, Japan began to recover in the 50s, and the United States came to Japan's aid from mouth to mouth, wanting Japan to be responsible for supplying the Korean War.
Later, the United States asked Japan to undertake some Western light industry, and the Japanese economy was able to quickly get out of the post-war decline. At the same time, the Japanese government and military were reformed, and the strong military government fell, replaced by a "weaker" democratic government.
The early democratic government had no army, only police, but Japan's postwar period was full of uncertainty, and the grassroots level was almost anarchic. After the war, millions of demobilized soldiers returned to Japan, and these soldiers robbed society of resources and caused security problems.
In addition, the return of Japanese nationals from Southeast Asia, the three eastern provinces, the Korean Peninsula, and Taiwan, and the smuggling of Korean refugees after the outbreak of the Korean War all caused trouble to Japan.
During this period, the Japanese market was very chaotic, various forces formed their own factions, invaded each other, and the Japanese government was not as strong as before, and the management was hectic.
In this case, the gangsters were brought out by the police and acted as "black gloves" to maintain order, fighting violence with violence, fighting chaos with chaos, and assisting the police in maintaining order in slums, custom streets, and black markets.
In Japan at that time, the "Korean gang" was the number one hidden danger in China, not only calling for wind and rain on the underworld, but also having the intention of confronting the Japanese government and wanting to form its own small government.
The new Japanese government and the Japanese people hate the Koreans, but it is difficult to sanction this force. In an emergency, the local government of Kobe took the lead in contacting the civilian Japanese violent groups to wage war with the Koreans.
In the dispute, the "Yamaguchi Group" fought with the North Koreans on the docks, markets, and custom streets, and the real swords and guns caused each other to bleed, forcing the North Koreans to shrink their power and spit out the profits they ate.
At that time, there were many unemployed soldiers in Japan, these people were strong in combat and highly organized, and the "Yamaguchi Group" quickly absorbed these people into the gang, and their strength increased greatly.
In the late 50s, the Japanese economy had basically returned to the pre-war level, the population was increasing, the market was increasing, the people's material requirements and spiritual enjoyment were increasing, and the "Yamaguchi-gumi" also changed direction and began to march into legal industries.
At this time, the boss of the "Yamaguchi Group" was Kazuo Okada, known as the "eternal big brother", this person was a street gangster, who was imprisoned for multiple murders before and after World War II.
After entering the 70s, as Japan's first "post-war babies" grew up, social competition became more and more fierce, and many rural unemployed and hooligans had nowhere to live in the cities, so they had to choose to join gangs.
At that time, the Japanese government was confronting the domestic left-wing movement, after all, the left wing is a civil political faction, and the Japanese government did not dare to let the police violently attack, and these jobs fell on gangsters such as the "Yamaguchi Group".
As a result, the "Yamaguchi Group" confronted the left in the civil and private sectors, and then pinched the handle of the government and the police to blackmail the other party in exchange for the government's compromise on gangster crimes.
Throughout the peak of Japan's economy in the 70s and 80s, more than 20 yakuza organizations in Japan thrived, such as Yamaguchi-gumi, Inagawa-kai, Sumiyoshi-kai, Affinity-kai, Matsuba-kai, etc. They use territory as boundaries, each controlling the local underground order.
Taking the "Yamaguchi-gumi" as an example, their main position is Kansai, and their business is drug smuggling and trafficking, human smuggling, organizing the sale of spring, selling fake alcohol, lending money to collect debts.
In addition, during the Japanese economic bubble, the "Yamaguchi-gumi" also speculated in stocks and land, but when the bubble burst in the 90s, it lost money.
Third, the eldest brother died violently, and the Yamaguchi group became a "mad dog"
In the 90s, the "golden age" of prosperity in Japan ended, the economic bubble burst, and the Japanese paid for the madness ahead.
Not only did a large number of companies and wealthy people go bankrupt overnight, but even the business of the Yamaguchi-gumi was hit hard. According to the memories of some old gangsters, even if they beat the creditors to death and threw Molotov cocktails to the real estate company, they could not squeeze out a drop of oil.
As the number of vicious crimes in the 90s increased year by year, gangs fought in the streets, often injuring innocent people.
At that time, it coincided with the death of Kazuo Okada, who had ruled the Yamaguchi-gumi for decades, and the Yamaguchi-gumi faced a power vacuum and a crisis of division in the 80s and 90s, and the "Ichiwakai", which split from the "Yamaguchi-gumi", became a competitor of the "Yamaguchi-gumi".
In the chaotic battle between the two sides, even the fourth-generation eldest brother of the "Yamaguchi Group" Masahisa Takenaka was shot and killed indiscriminately, and the Japanese police said:
"Because of economic difficulties, these violent groups have abandoned the so-called morality and become mad dogs that bite people when they see them."
The "Yamaguchi-gumi" is the largest yakuza group in Japan, with a total number of more than 20,000 people, hundreds of groups and dozens of leaders across the country, all loyal to one boss - the fifth generation "kin" Watanabe Yoshinori.
Such a huge organization naturally needs huge funds to feed. But the Yamaguchi-gumi's legitimate business made little money, and in the end they spent a lot of energy on drug trafficking and organizing the sale of spring, almost monopolizing these gray areas.
The Japanese government also felt pressure at this time, because after the end of the Cold War, the government did not need these "black gloves" to do some dirty work, on the contrary, these people collected protection fees, extortion, and caused public resentment.
In 1992, Japan introduced the "Violent Group Response Law" to restrict the behavior of these gangsters, and all extortion and protection fees will be investigated by the police, and even arrested from some legitimate businesses.
This move made it difficult for gangs such as the Yamaguchi-gumi to survive, but at that time the drug market was booming internationally, selling drugs, opening casinos, and becoming the main industry of the gangsters, which was shown in the famous director Takeshi Kitano's masterpiece "Extremely Evil Non-Dao".
On the bright side, gangsters named by the government began to whitewash and set up their own companies, and gang members became "members" and became employees with status.
In order to survive, after the "Yamaguchi-gumi" was named by the government, they are also actively changing their image, such as the 1995 Hanshin earthquake, the "Yamaguchi-gumi" actually sent a large number of people and horses to rescue the disaster in the earthquake area, and the "Yamaguchi-gumi" used this to do publicity and attract a lot of popularity.
At that time, Japan was in the midst of the "employment ice age", and some young people joined the yakuza to become junior brothers in order to mix and eat, but many of them were intimidated by the brutal yakuza order, and the number of mobile people in the "Yamaguchi-gumi" was also increasing.
And these people with gangster backgrounds but no organization flow into society, bringing greater hidden dangers.
They move around society to commit crimes, petty theft, or extortion, demanding money in the name of the organization, but not responsible for the gang. The police are anxious about this kind of "lone wolf" crime, and society has begun to dislike people with gang backgrounds.
Finally, at the beginning of the 21st century, Japan stipulated that even if gangsters leave the gang, they must be supervised for 5 years, and they cannot go to work, rent a house, get a bank card, or even enter a bathhouse.
This move left the gangsters with no way out, but it did greatly improve public security in Japan, and the number of people joining the gang was greatly reduced. Since then, Japan's yakuza has encountered its own problem, that is, the personnel are not connected.
Japan's "low birthrate" for decades, there were already few young people, but now because of social propaganda, the yakuza can absorb fewer and fewer young people, and the total number of "Yamaguchi-gumi" has suddenly dropped to 8,000, and it has been divided into several parts.
Finally, in 2008, the Japanese government made a ruthless move, which became the straw behind the words that crushed the Japanese yakuza.
Fourth, a bad move by the Japanese government has stifled the future of the yakuza
In 2008, Japan's Organized Crime Countermeasures Act was amended to add a strange clause:
"Violent groups are not allowed to reward members and their families who are in prison or on trial."
This law is confusing, why bother with rewards within people's gangs? Isn't this idle and has nothing to do?
In fact, this law is the most ruthless move against large gangsters such as the "Yamaguchi Group".
People who have seen Hong Kong movies are familiar with it, once the gang wants to "do big things", such as topping the tank, killing, transporting goods, and intimidating, it is the big brother's words, telling the group leader below: "Bring the small one to draw lots, draw dead lots, and go to do things." ”
"Draw lots" this kind of bowl of water level, let the gang maintain balance, and the little brother who draws dead signatures is not a loss, he helps the gang do things, such as to transport drugs, to kill, whether things are done or not, as long as they go, even if they are caught, the gang will also give "settlement fees".
This amount of money is quite enough for him or his family to live well, which has also become the unspoken rule for gangsters to do dirty things.
But in 2008, Japan announced that "violent groups" would not be allowed to reward criminal men, and the police were watching, and if they violated it, they would arrest people, which was equivalent to cutting off the ability of gangs to do things internally.
From now on, the younger brothers are not willing to work for their lives, because they sacrifice themselves for the eldest brother, they can't exchange anything, they go to jail themselves, their wives and children are hungry, and others eat fragrant and drink spicy, isn't that a fool?
Even if it is a gang like the "Yamaguchi Group" that treats the eldest brother as a father, once this "unspoken rule" is gone, it is impossible to let the younger brother work for nothing, after all, most people mix gangs just to eat a bite and earn some money to spend.
With the introduction of the decree, the criminal activities of gangs such as the "Yamaguchi-gumi" have been greatly reduced, and the children have not been given money, the younger brothers have no enthusiasm, and more and more people have left the gang.
After that, the Japanese government's rope tightened more and more, even monitoring the mobile phones and landlines of gang members, and who they called, the police then called and asked if the other party had been blackmailed, and when there was such a suspicion, the police arrested people.
Even a gang boss in Japan had surgery, called the hospital after the operation, said that he was not very well, and was greeted by the police on the charge of "extortion".
In the past two years, in order to survive, many low-level "Yamaguchi groups" have basically only retained their gang identity, and they have already done their job. Even the eldest brother persuaded some old men to find a job by themselves, buy a pension insurance, and the organization can not give you a pension.
As a result, the "Yamaguchi Group" who used to be dressed in suits and shoes and rampaged through Japan frequently exposed strange news.
For example, stealing agricultural products for a living, illegally fishing with homemade and rudimentary fishing gear, and some old men hiding their identities to work as porters or shop assistants, being entangled by some drunkards and bad teenagers, and calling the police to save themselves.
There are also stolen watermelons to sell, and as a result, they quarreled with people and were arrested by the police, which is really black humor.
According to the current development direction, in another 10-20 years, Japan's vigorous "Yamaguchi Group" may die, and even "Japanese gangster" will become a term representing the past.
Literature / Commerce
Resources:
1, "Japanese yakuza is increasingly declining", Wu Limited
2, "The Shady Scene of the Yamaguchi Group - The Secrets of the Yamaguchi Group, the largest triad organization in the East", Xiao Liang