Yakuza, also known as gokudō, are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media by request of the police, calls them bōryokudan, while the yakuza call themselves ninkyō dantai. The English equivalent for the term yakuza is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization. The yakuza are known for their strict codes of conduct, their organized fiefdom nature and several unconventional ritual practices such as yubitsume or amputation of the left little finger. Members are often described as males, wearing "sharp suits" with heavily tattooed bodies and slicked hair. This group is still regarded as being among "the most sophisticated and wealthiest criminal organizations".
The Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi is Japan's largest yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe before World War II.
Yoshio Kodama was a Japanese right-wing ultranationalist and a prominent figure in the rise of organized crime in Japan. The most famous kuromaku, or behind-the-scenes power broker, of the 20th century, he was active in Japan's political arena and criminal underworld from the 1930s to the 1970s, and became enormously wealthy through his involvement in smuggling operations.
Uyoku dantai refers to Japanese ultranationalist far-right activists, provocateurs, and internet trolls often organized in groups. In 1996 and 2013, the National Police Agency estimated that there were over 1,000 right-wing groups in Japan with about 100,000 members in total.
Hisayuki Machii, nicknamed the "Ginza Tiger", was the founder of one of Japan's most notorious yakuza gangs, the Tosei-Kai.
Crime in Japan has been recorded since at least the 1800s, and has varied over time.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity is a 1973 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. The screenplay by Kazuo Kasahara adapts a series of newspaper articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi, that were rewrites of a manuscript originally written by real-life yakuza Kōzō Minō. It is the first film in a five-part series that Fukasaku made in a span of just two years.
Kenichi Shinoda, also known as Shinobu Tsukasa, is a Japanese Yakuza, the sixth and current kumicho of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization.
The Kudo-kai is a yakuza group headquartered in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 220 active members. The Kudo-kai has been a purely independent syndicate ever since its foundation, and has caused numerous conflicts with the Yamaguchi-gumi.
The Seventh Aizukotetsu-kai, based in Kyoto, is Japan's yakuza organization. Its name comes from the Aizu region, "Kotetsu", a type of Japanese sword, and the suffix "-kai", or society.
The Dojin-kai is a yakuza organization headquartered in Kurume, Fukuoka, on the Kyushu island of Japan, a designated yakuza syndicate, with approximately 760 members. As well as being known as a militant yakuza organization, the Dojin-kai has also been known as a de facto drug cartel, as its activities have allegedly included large-scale drug trafficking, specifically methamphetamine trafficking, which is traditionally shunned in the yakuza world.
The Kodo-kai is a yakuza criminal organization based in Nagoya, Japan. It is a secondary organization of the Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate in Japan. With an estimated membership of 4,000, it is the second-largest Yamaguchi affiliate after the Yamaken-gumi, and operates in at least 18 prefectures.
Yakuza film is a popular film genre in Japanese cinema which focuses on the lives and dealings of yakuza, Japanese organized crime syndicates. In the silent film era, depictions of bakuto as sympathetic Robin Hood-like characters were common.
Zaitokukai, full name Zainichi Tokken o Yurusanai Shimin no Kai, is an ultra-nationalist and far-right extremist political organization in Japan, which calls for an end to state welfare and alleged privileges afforded to Zainichi Koreans. It has been described by the National Police Agency as a potential threat to public order due to its "extreme nationalist and xenophobic" ideology.
Yoshinori Watanabe was a yakuza, the fifth kumicho of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization. He became kumicho in 1989. He was known for a more low-key approach than his predecessors, partly due to an anti-gang law passed in 1992. He retired in 2005.
Tomohiro Kojiri, a Japanese journalist for Asahi Shimbun, a popular newspaper with its main office is located in Tokyo, Japan, was killed in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture near Osaka. During the shooting at the bureau of Asahi Shimbun, the shooter killed Tomohiro and fired at two other colleagues injuring one. Investigators believed that Kojiri was targeted by a right-wing, political extremist group, known as Sekihōtai (赤報隊), as Kojiri had written a story that was about how the Japanese discriminated against the Korean minority, and typed letters were sent in the group's name claiming responsibility.
Kiyoshi Takayama is a yakuza best known as the second-in-command (wakagashira) of the 6th-generation Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate in Japan, and the president of its ruling affiliate, Kodo-kai, based in Nagoya.
The Kyushu Seido-kai was a yakuza organization based in Fukuoka Prefecture on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 380 active members. Headquartered in the southern Fukuoka region of Omuta, the Kyushu Seido-kai maintains its offices in five other prefectures including Tokyo.
Yamegoku: Yakuza Yamete Itadakimasu (ヤメゴク〜ヤクザやめて頂きます〜) is a Japanese television drama series that premiered on TBS on 16 April 2015. This is Yuko Oshima's first time starring in the lead role of a serial drama. It received an average viewership rating of 6.5%.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity, also known in the West as The Yakuza Papers, is a Japanese yakuza film series produced by Toei Company. Inspired by a series of magazine articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi that are based on memoirs originally written by real-life yakuza Kōzō Minō, the films detail yakuza conflicts in Hiroshima Prefecture.
