If you're in Japan, don't be surprised to see the following scenes:
The 60-year-old uncle rolled up his sleeves and personally participated in the gunfight, the 50-year-old young uncle gave his life to participate in the assassination plan, and the 70-year-old man just took his grandson home from kindergarten and turned around to join the team battle at the intersection.
Is this a moral degeneration or a distortion of human nature?
To understand all this, we must first talk about the gangster culture in Japan
Japan is the only country in the world that recognizes the legitimacy of gangsters, and whenever gangsters are operating under the laws enacted, they are issued a legal permit. Correspondingly, the Japanese gangs are very disciplined, and the Hong Kong gang boss Chen Huimin has praised the Japanese gangs many times:
"Now Japanese gangs are also very disciplined, never bullying the people, unlike the gangs in Hong Kong who specialize in bullying the people, the Japanese gangs only have to do things with the big bosses of the big business groups, and they will not do things with the people." 」
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Japan's strongest gang: the Yamaguchi group</h1>
With the outbreak of the Korean War, many underworld organizations sprang up throughout Japan, with about 3,380 of them, the Yamaguchi Group, the Sumiyoshi Kai, and the Inagawa Kai being the three giants. Among the big three, the Yamaguchi group is the largest, most powerful, and most famous gangster.
The Yamaguchi group has a lot of similarities with China's Green Gang and Hong Kong's 14K. The selection of the boss of the Yamaguchi group is the same as that of the Hong Kong 14K, which is based on the elder system, that is, the boss needs to be qualified and capable.
If you are chatting with a Japanese friend, saying that you were the group leader when you were in elementary school, helping your classmates collect homework and deal with various problems. Then the Japanese friend will probably ask you with a frightened face: You joined the underworld in elementary school? That's because the word "group leader" in Japan generally refers to the leader of the underworld.
As famous gangsters, they all have a strict organizational system within themselves, taking the Yamaguchi group in Kansai as an example, the organizational system is divided into titles from high to low: the big boss is called the group leader, the second boss is called ruotou, the third boss is called the chairman of the committee, the small leader is called the cadre, and so on, in addition, the Yamaguchi group also has its own badge.
The boss of the yamaguchi group's first generation (Ichimoku) was named Haruyoshi Yamaguchi, who was originally a dock worker and belonged to the "Hiroto", and there were more elements of gambling stalls at that time. But Haruyoshi Yamaguchi is not well known in the history of the Yamaguchi group.
In 1925, at the age of 44, Haruyoshi Yamaguchi retired, and his eldest son, Yamaguchi, was appointed as the boss of the Yamaguchi group. During the Second Generation Period, the Yamaguchi Group did not show mountain dew among many gangs. What really made the Yamaguchi group rise and dominate in Japan was Kazuo Miyo Mudaoka.
Right one Kazuo Taoka
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Kazuo Taoka appears</h1>
Kazuo Taoka, the son-in-law of the second generation, Yamaguchi Noboru, is more economically savvy and knows that whether the gang can operate for a long time depends on whether the gang has enough funds to operate. So he spread the sources of wealth and made money in many ways. At this time, the Yamaguchi group's means of accumulating wealth generally included five major projects: pornography, gambling, poisoning, usury, and collection of protection fees.
Huang (customs), gambling (private casinos and sports betting), drugs (mainly selling awakening agents in Japan), usury (including debt collection for banks, securities and financial companies), protection fees (mainly from small traders, etc.).
For the protection fee, the average gangster will not go to the store to ask for it with you. For example, you opened a Chinese restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo, and at the opening ceremony, according to Japanese customs, there will generally be friends and relatives to send wreaths to congratulate (we usually use flower baskets and greeting cards in Japan, and in Japan, we use wreaths), and you suddenly find that there is a wreath that Daming will send, and you think that you have not known any Daming company when you first arrived. So you inquire around, only to find that this Daming company is a triad society in Tokyo, and the Daming Society is owned by someone from the Yamaguchi group. They send you wreaths to celebrate your opening, implying that you have opened a shop on their site, and you have to pay a protection fee to ensure that the weather will be smooth.
The opening ceremony in Japan celebrates the sending of wreaths
If you don't want to get into trouble, find a middleman to go to the Daming Club for tea and negotiations. They say they charge a protection fee of one million yen a year, and if you think it's too expensive, you'll bargain. If the protection fee is too low, the chances of them going to your store to eat and drink in the future are greatly improved. You can even say very toughly that Uncle I just don't pay money, then in the middle of the night three more people smashed glass, throw dead cats at the door, harass customers in the store, can be described as invincible. Of course, you can also call the police, Japan received the alarm must be out of the police, but Daming will say that I just sent a wreath, ah, it is not written on the protection fee. It is difficult to condemn them in this way, on the contrary, you have sinned against them, and you will be terrified when you walk at night.
At the same time, Taoka fiercely grasped the construction of the organization, and the first emphasis on the Yamaguchi group was "unity", emphasizing discipline within the gang, and as a member of the underworld, he had to listen to the boss.2 In addition, he also laid down strict gang rules, such as: no leaking gang affairs; no cannibalism; no private robbery; no violation of rules; no bandits; no flirting with women in the same gang, no gang members, and so on.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > yamaguchi group's fight with the "alien gangs."</h1>
After stabilizing the interior, it is followed by a fight against the outside world, annexing other gangs, or cooperating with other gangs. Tatsuka first started by fighting the "foreign gangs" around Kobe, the so-called "foreign gangs" are mainly Koreans.
When Japan annexed Korea in 1910, many Koreans have fled to Japan to make a living, and during World War II, many Koreans came to Japan as laborers. By 1959, there were 600,000 Koreans in Japan. With the defeat of Japan, the Koreans in Japan began to stir, deeply feeling that their motherland had been invaded, and now they wanted to find the Japanese to take a good breath.
The Battle of the Yamaguchi Group was a battle with the Koreans' "Mingyouhui", when there were more than 600 members of the Mingyouhui, and the Yamaguchi Group sent people to attack the Mingyouhui for half a month, resulting in the killing of many of its members and the near-death of the gang boss. In the end, the Korean gang was subdued, and the boss of the Mingyoukai led fourteen of his men to concede defeat to Taoka, and according to the rules of the Yamaguchi group, 15 people were cut off their tail fingers.
Yamaguchi also fights with Chinese gangs, and Jackie Chan's "Shinjuku Incident" movie reflects the Chinese (Fukukiyoshi gang) elements of Japanese gangsters to some extent. From the perspective of Chinese origin, the gangs in Japan at that time were mainly divided into three gangs: the Northeast Gang, the Shanghai Gang, and the Fuqing Gang, of which the Fuqing Gang has been fighting with the Yamaguchi Group, mainly because the Fuqing Gang is doing small business, and the Japanese gangs always take the opportunity to extort protection fees, so life is difficult to sustain.
It is said that at least 5 of the descendants of the "Yamaguchi Group" (Wakato's position) were killed by the Fuqing Gang. After the Yamaguchi group played in the 1980s, it was also frightened, and later the 14K in Hong Kong was also dedicated to reconciling the relationship between each other. After many years, if the Yamaguchi group encountered the Fuqing gang looking for stubble to fight, they would often choose to call the police.
As the Yamaguchi group grew in power, too many people wanted to join them in deceiving food and drink. The boss of the Yamaguchi group was very annoyed, so he decided to raise the threshold for joining, which was not to increase the academic qualifications of the recruited members, but to join the ceremony that must first be pointed. One is to show that he has made up his mind, and the other is to show that he is a cruel person.
But the cruel people are also afraid of pain, so they first go to the awakening agent, and when the strength of the drug comes up, they shout and chop off their fingers. In addition, the younger brother of the Yamaguchi group often confesses to the boss after making a mistake, and when the finger is not enough, he cuts the finger of the foot.
The So-called gun shot the head bird, the Japanese police watched the Yamaguchi group growing larger and larger, worried that the tail would not fall, targeted launched a large-scale encirclement and suppression of it. In 1967, Japan dispatched thousands of policemen to launch a thrilling "Battle of Renyi" in Hiroshima and other places.
The Battle of Renyi caused the Yamaguchi group to suffer heavy losses, but Kazuo Taoka soon recovered. By the early 1970s, Kazuo Taoka was even more powerful.
On July 11, 1978, the leader of the third generation of Megitaoka Kazuo was shot and injured by Naruto Kiyoshi, a member of the Matsuda Group's Great Japanese Justice Regiment, in Kyoto City, and afterwards, under pressure from all sides of the Yamaguchi Group, Narukai Kiyoshi fell off a cliff and committed suicide, and the corpse was bitten by wild dogs in the wilderness. The body was found by scenic patrol dogs.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > business management concept to run the underworld</h1>
In July 1981, Kazuo Mitsuyo Meda died of illness.
As soon as The yamaguchi group's boss, Tatsuoka, died, the Yamaguchi group was infighting and divisions, and the fourth generation of Takekaka Masahisa was killed by the Ichiwakai who had been founded by the Yamaguchi group by taking the initiative to break the door (meaning expelling the division).
Watching the boss being killed, the Yamaguchi group first truce with the Fuqing gang, and then bought weapons from the Bamboo Gang in Taiwan and 14K in Hong Kong, and fought with Yamamoto Hiroshi of the Ichiwakai, and the entire 80s of the last century was basically a yamaichi struggle, and finally the Yamaguchi group eliminated the traitors in their eyes.
In 1989, the Yamaguchi group elected the fifth generation boss, Yoshinori Watanabe, a very intelligent person who managed the Yamaguchi group well, and its core principle was to learn from Japan's large conglomerates and use corporate management concepts to run the underworld.
On the other hand, Watanabe realized that the underworld is the underworld not to confront the police, that is, it will eventually be killed for a while, so during his reign he has always restrained the gang members to avoid confrontation with the police. Watanabe's biggest difference from the previous bosses is that they think that those who give them protection money are food and clothing parents, and they should be close to them, and when they ask for money, they should be gentle and not shout and kill all day.
In 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck Japan. As the boss of the Yamaguchi group, Watanabe was even more a pioneer, personally handing over the materials sent by gang organizations across the country to the victims, and the disaster relief activities lasted for 3 and a half months, gaining great respect from the people.
In 2005, the 64-year-old Watanabe retired, and the 63-year-old Shinoda Kenichi served as the sixth generation.
As we all know, Japan is now an aging society, Japan has done statistics, Yamaguchi group members are most 50 to 59 years old, accounting for 20% of the total number of people; 60 to 69 years old accounted for 15%; 70 years old or older is 6%; and in 2020, aging is more serious.
So at the beginning of the article, it is not surprising that you can see that the 70-year-old veteran singled out the 50-year-old assassin, and it is estimated that they have to sit down and rest for a while before fighting.