Yakuza are Japanese organized crime groups represented by several syndicates in the whole country. They also have got many networks in the world especially in the Pacific zone, The United States as well as in Germany. The modern Yakuza derived from two distinct formations: the bakuto involved in gambling – one of the most lucrative activities of the modern yakuza – and the tekiya mainly involved in peddling. But the term yakuza comes from a Japanese card game – Oicho-Kabu – in which players should do a row of numbers, it refers to the lose-handing ya-ku-sa meaning “eight-nine-three”.
At the beginning, yakuzas were recruited among rural dwellers but today they come from different environments. There are many different bands into the Yakuza; those different groups are often called Boryokudan which means “violent gang”. But they frequently refer themselves as gokudo which literally means “ultimate path” (Adelstein, 2009). They are “close societies in their individual groups but the groups are interlinked through a widespread underworld syndicate” (Takahashi and Becker, 1985: 3).There are three main yakuza syndicates; together they would be the largest organised crime group in the world today. First, the largest boryokudan is the Yamaguchi-gumi, it is gathering more than half of the yakuza members, it was created in 1915 and actually continues to grow; it dominates the industrialized part of japan that is Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area as well as Tokyo area and other powerful centres across the country.
The second one is the Sumiyoshi-Kai with more than 20 000 members divided in about 280 clans so it is more a confederation than a united group, and finally the third one is the Inagawa-kai, it is also a confederation of several clans which was the first to expand its illegal activities abroad.
[...] Currently after such an experience more and more victims inform the police which encourage yakuza to act in another way. Now their criminal activities are extremely numerous. They also extort funds still providing their protection but instead of harassing retailers or businessmen they sell in a way their services buying corporate stocks thus they are able to sit in the general assembly. So because yakuzas are relatively worried, firms transfer them massive amounts of money. This practice is called sokaiya. But undeniably one of the most lucrative activities of yakuza is gambling and games. [...]
[...] Moreover today yakuza has got a huge virtual army of thousands of men and women in order to control online traffics and to develop a new form of criminal activity on the web. It is a bright organization evolving with its society and fitting its activities to the new stakes. So Yakuza might become the most threaten society for the world during the next few years, so it becomes the objects of the all the attentions today and it is closely watching by governments. [...]
[...] They were also involved in prostitution which had been become illegal. Actually they made the most of the context of global chaos to illegally appropriate entire districts creating criminal headquarters. But many Korean and Taiwanese mafias tried to also appropriate some territories in order to prey on new black markets. It was a perfect springboard for yakuzas groups because government called upon them to eradicate those foreign mafias as well as end different strikes across the country (the social context was actually weak). [...]
[...] But they more and more spread their activities abroad. Sexual industry is extremely developed in the whole Asia area especially in China, South Korea, Philippines, Viet Nam and Taiwan thanks to numerous yakuza groups established there. But they extend their businesses above all in the United States especially on the West coasts. They have accompanied the large spreading of Japanese population worldwide. Hence they are extremely present above all in Hawaii or in California especially in Los Angeles where they invest in real-estate business. [...]
[...] Business: Pre-World War II period: Different activities of the yakuza evolved with the changings of Japanese politics and social context. At the end of the 19th century, yakuza spread its power to the whole Japanese society. Their activities were covered up by legal organisations (they were mainly linked with the politicians) insuring legally their activities. Moreover, during this period, yakuza groups recruited more and more members allowing them to extend their power. At the beginning of the 20th century, yakuzas were still strongly linked with governments; just before the World War II, Yakuza was ideologically closed to the ultra-nationalist right wing itself closed to the government. [...]
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