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No More Golf or Pizza for the Yakuza

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By Wolf Richter   www.testosteronepit.com

Tokyo's organized crime exclusionary laws went into effect in October—and they're already creating havoc. The laws criminalize doing business with boryokudan ("violent group" or colloquially yakuza). In an ingenious twist, paying off the yakuza in an extortion racket is also a crime. Now restaurants have to stop paying protection money. Even victims of blackmail—hush money is an outright industry in Japan—commit a crime if they pay.

First, there's a warning. But if violations persist, authorities will add the business or person to a public list of perps who have a "close relationship" with the yakuza. Instant loss of face. And then the financial nightmare: customers flee, banks shut their doors, government agencies won't renew licenses, office leases get terminated—all based on the organized crime exclusionary clauses in their contracts. Individuals may lose their jobs, as comedian and TV host, Shimada Shinsuke, found out.

If contact with the yakuza continues despite all this, a person risks up to one year in the hoosegow and a fine of ¥500,000 ($6,400).

It hit the golf industry hard.

“If customers are yakuza, we ask them to leave even if they're in the middle of playing," said the general manager of Akabane Golf Club (Mainichi, article in Japanese). He is also the chairman of the Council of Golf Clubs for the Expulsion of Organized Crime in Tokyo. How would he know if someone is a yakuza? "We refer the names of suspicious people to the police,” he said.

And the pizza delivery industry is in uproar.

"We don't know if the address we deliver to is the place of a yakuza," said the Delivery Business Safety Driving Council. But don't panic. "One or two pizzas are OK,” the Council said, “but delivering a huge amount of pizza, knowing that the customer is a yakuza is a no-no." They're planning to invite police officers to a study meeting with store managers.

A famous temple in Tokyo is grappling with the new laws. A number of its members are yakuza, and the graves of top yakuza are always full of incense. They held a huge funeral for one in July, but no more. Small family-and-relatives-only funerals of yakuza are tolerated. Not big ones. “But it's difficult to decline a request for a funeral made by a powerful yakuza," a temple official conceded.

The publishing house of a magazine that reports on the yakuza was also fretting over the implications of the new laws. "In order to get an interview, we take them out to dinner," the editor said. He was worried about having a “close relationship” with the yakuza, which could make him a criminal. The police clarified with legendary precision: “If it's within regular news gathering activities, we don't see it as a violation of the law.”

And there was a first arrest—in the construction industry, a yakuza stronghold. In Fukuoka prefecture, where organized crime exclusionary laws went into effect in April 2010, violent acts against companies are a serious problem; of the twenty cases reported nationwide during the first half of 2011, twelve involved firearms, and ten of those took place in Fukuoka.

Kikuchi Kogyo, the owner of a front company in Fukuoka, had obtained some contracts through his brother who used to be a member of Dojin-kai, one of the 22 registered Yakuza syndicates. Kikuchi paid a big part of his revenues to Dojin-kai and subcontracted out all of the work.

In January 2011, Tokyu Kensetsu, a mid-size construction company, took advantage of the new laws and notified Kikuchi that it would cease all transactions with him. Kikuchi threatened them and demanded continued subcontracts or ¥100 million yen in "retirement pay." He even bought some stock in Tokyu Kensetsu and threatened to expose their ties to organized crime at the next shareholder meeting. October 18, he was arrested for attempted extortion.

And the soul searching began. While people appreciated the company's decision to be courageous, some feared a possible increase of revenge acts by desperate gangsters.

Meanwhile, in Oita prefecture, a rental car company got its knuckles rapped for having rented a car to a yakuza. In Ishikawa prefecture, a remodeling company got in trouble for replacing some frigging wallpaper.

If you're not sure, the police said, consult with the local police office. And take two aspirin.

"We have to improve our image," said Masatoshi Kumagai, one of the yakuza bosses. Yakuza are on decline, he said, and...  'We Have To Evolve Our Business Model'

Wolf Richter   www.testosteronepit.com

 

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Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:40 | 1832188 vato poco
vato poco's picture

Coming soon! From those wonderful folks who brought you Pearl Harbor! What'll you bet the Japanese media is going to be getting a massive document dump soon? Hard drives, banking records, *lots* of videos starring Japanese pols and hookers; laughing about Fukushima; bowing respectfully to their tattooed masters....all showing beyond a doubt that the yakuza has bought & paid for about 80% of all the pols out there, from the local dogcatcher to national levels?

This could be fun! *Much* crying, extra-low bows, and endless apologies on TV for years to come. Suicides.....What'd they *think* was going to happen when the gangsters had them sign receipts for the cash envelopes? "As a registered Yakuza organization, we must of course keep scrupulous records in order to comply with corporate governance laws. You understand, I'm sure."

Don't piss into the wind, boys. Whoops! Too late!

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:35 | 1832162 bill1102inf
bill1102inf's picture

At least in Japan, when WE wrote their constitution for them, we made healthcare a RIGHT.  

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:54 | 1832265 vato poco
vato poco's picture

Would that be the same constitution that makes immigrating to Japan a virtual impossibility? Works for me. Tell you what, Ace: we build an enormous fence on the southern border, and pass draconian laws criminalizing the employment of illegal aliens, and set up a 'crimestoppers' reward system for turning in and deporting illegals, and allow the cops to make unannounced business sweeps and roadblocks looking for illegals featuring humiliating perpwwalks and lots of media coverage...and I'll cheerfully agitate witcha for the 'right' of healthcare. Deal?

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:44 | 1832211 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

Exactly the type of thing you'd want to do to a former enemy in order to keep them enervated and subjugated-- undermine personal responsibility and increase their dependency on the State.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:33 | 1832146 Doubleguns
Doubleguns's picture

When getting a hunting license in Japan one of the questions they asked my neighbors was do I associate with the Yakuza, next questions was do I associate with anyone that LOOKS like they might be Yakuza. In Japan ugly friends with permed hair and tatoos obviously can get you in trouble. They seriously believe that if you hang around the shit house, you smell like shit.

That was 1988. Fortunately they did not ask about my Harley Davidson and the neighbors did not mention those friends. I got my license. Seems they are getting really serious when your business license is now in jepardy.

 

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:12 | 1832042 DOT
DOT's picture

Guilt by association; always a good policy.

Just by interacting with another human, you become guilty of their " crime".

Well come and get me I'm guilty of everything !

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 09:58 | 1831968 vato poco
vato poco's picture

While they're at it, they should criminalize pessimistic thoughts, too. As well as criticism of Tokyo Electric Power, which will have that minor radioactive....er, "industrial by-product" spill cleaned up any day now.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 09:18 | 1831663 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

Wow.  How awful if they pass laws like this in Chicago or New York.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 09:01 | 1831488 Vlad Tepid
Vlad Tepid's picture

Maybe we can contract with the Japanese government:  They send the yakuza over here to run the country and we ship the legislative, exective and judicial branches to them because apparently Japanese police and regulators have some teeth.  Our poor branches would be out of work within the week. When their regulators have run out of work, they can be outsourced to Wall Street to clean up that mess too.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 08:58 | 1831471 spanish inquisition
spanish inquisition's picture

Who is often the first responder when there is a disaster in Japan? Yakuza. Despite the government stating there is no problem and doing nothing, Yakuza are helping out. The age old traditional agreements between criminal organizations (Gov't and Yakuza) are being violated. It is time to strike back and go legit with the Yakuza Party! Platform points 1. Our rates are always reasonable will be less than what the government extorts from you. 2. We will be there with aid as soon as possible 3. We will speak to and represent the people, rather than be a mouthpiece for Tepco. 4. Our word is our bond and payable with a little finger.

GO YAKUZA PARTY!

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 08:41 | 1831354 Raskolnikoff
Raskolnikoff's picture

Just arrest every male in Japan that has a perm and a tattoo and the problem is solved.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 09:48 | 1831900 fourchan
fourchan's picture

and a short pinky.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 09:09 | 1831583 CPL
CPL's picture

Who knows maybe they'll use Ninja's to clean out the rotten political top end.  It's been done before, it'll be done again with the pressures being place on them.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 09:06 | 1831513 CPL
CPL's picture

Right now the Yakuza are the only ones supporting the population on the ground.  They were the first to offer aid in the nuclear incident and help relocate people.  It is the efforts from the Yakuza that funded the engineers and scientists on the the ground to obtain true radioactivity readings.

 

What's happening right now is the government has lost face to their largest criminal element which is acting in the best interests of it's nation.  It also turns out they collect less in terms of "taxes" to deliver better services than the GoJ.

 

So if you were the government of japan and had a 1000 year old criminal society that did a better job than you plus it has outlived every Government to rule Japan over that 1000 years.  Where do you think your threat is?

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 08:37 | 1831326 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

So I guess one might simply question exactly who the real criminal is here?  Fine line between patriot and criminal.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 07:44 | 1831137 stopcpdotcom
stopcpdotcom's picture

"one of the 22 registered Yakuza syndicates". Do they have to register to be criminals legally?

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 07:54 | 1831156 Azannoth
Azannoth's picture

Yes here it's called being elected to CONgress

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 08:38 | 1831331 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Careful now, don't want to be labeled as a terrorist now do you?  

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 02:47 | 1830973 Coldfire
Coldfire's picture

...one of the 22 registered Yakuza syndicates.

Surreal. But the 23rd syndicate - Japan Inc. - is a jealous god.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:49 | 1832230 philipat
philipat's picture

Does that mean we don't have to worry any longer about Olympus? Or Japan's 250% debt to GDP ratio or it's total xenophobia even avoiding immigration in the face of it's declining population? Japan is totally fucked.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 09:10 | 1831592 TruthHunter
TruthHunter's picture

Surreal. But the 23rd syndicate - Japan Inc. - is a jealous god.

<fnord>  Or is it jealous goddess? <fnord/>

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 07:15 | 1831091 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

US typical style. If you understand the US, you understand gangs.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 09:07 | 1831558 LFMayor
LFMayor's picture

Still bitter about us saving your sorry national ass 60 years ago?  Face it, your grand pappy just wasn't up to the task.

Or is that we kicked the piss out of your sorry national ass?  Again, face it, your grand pappy just wasn't up to the task.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 07:48 | 1831149 EvlTheCat
EvlTheCat's picture

"If you understand the US..."

Well that leaves you out.

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