
Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018) - sjamella
https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/40877/1/chloe-jafe-i-give-you-my-life-yakuza-documenting-women-japans-mafia
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f4stjack
As far as I know from my thesis on organized crime, Yakuza is a different
breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone (Russian "Mafia",
although I use the word mafia here tentatively because with the exception of
providing illegal goods and services they have nothing in common).

The difference is yakuza is accepted as a semi-legal entity in the minds of
the people.

Historically first yakuza (which were proto-yakuza, like nobody used the term
yet) protected the city against ronin (masterless) samurais who came to loot
the city. (Kaplan & Dubro, p.12) In addition to this they carry a Robin Hood-
esque theme and one of the well known histories about them involves Chobei
Banzuiin who, supposedly, repaired the roads and walls in Tokyo and opened up
a casino.

But the word yakuza appears after a century more or less. Their origins
involve traveling gamblers and street sellers. Even the word itself, yakuza,
is a term for losing hand (ya-ku-sa, cards of 8-9-3)

Another term that's important, and unique if I may say, in Yakuza is the
relation of oyabun-kobun. Oyabun acts as a father figure and kobun is the
child figure. Kobun provides service and commitment to the Oyabun with no
questions or hesitation. and Oyabun protects and helps the Kobun.

Everybody knows about the tattoos so I'll pass this.

Yakuza formalized in the beginning of 1960s with the help of Yoshio Kodama. He
was charged with creating a spy network in China and given the rank of Admiral
for his war effort even though he was a criminal.

If you want to read more about this, these were the books I've used in my
Thesis on this section

Amaruso D. Gangster Incorporated. Glencoe:Free Press

Kaplan, D, Dubro A. (2003) Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld. California:
University of California Press

Lyman M. & Potter, G. (2009) Organized Crime, New Jersey: Prentice Hall

~~~
newswriter99
"Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone"

That's because Hell's Angels is a 1970's outlaw motorcycle group of misfits,
the "Mafia" is (I assume you're reffering to the Italians) is a virtually
defunct organized crime group who haven't been relevant for 60 years, and Vor
V Zakone is a prison group.

They're ALL different breeds from each other.

~~~
barrkel
Mafia is very much not defunct in Italy.

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distantaidenn
This reminds me of when I accidentally "crashed" a yakuza meeting.

I was still (compared to now) new in Japan, and was outside a train station in
Tokyo waiting for my friend. This particular station has a quite nice and
expansive courtyard; however, there is limited seating. So I see what I assume
are two different groups of people seated along a span of three benches, with
one open bench in the middle. I decide to take said bench.

Once I sat down, I realized it wasn't two groups but one. I also noticed that
everyone stopped talking. Suddenly one woman in the group laughed, and
everyone else followed suit.

A larger gentleman in the group then gets up from his seat, and not saying a
word, comes and sits right next to me -- so close that our shoulders are
touching. I was a bit surprised but didn't think much of it, gave him a
"sumimasen (excuse me)" and scooted over a bit further. Once again the group
all laughed. I then gave the group a quick look and noticed all the trappings
of the yakuza: metal briefcases, the hairstyles, the suits, frequent use of
"aniki (yakuza term for big brother)," and yet it still didn't click.

The big guy next to me was laughing the whole time. Finally, my friend showed
up and I left. I tell her about the big guy that sat next to me, and how weird
it seemed. As I'm relaying the story to her, everything fell into place and I
realized -- "Holy f###, those guys were yakuza!"

In obvious hindsight, I realize the big guy was politely telling me that the
seat was not available. My friend still laughs about the story to this day.

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hopfog
I have an interesting Yakuza story that I want to share:

One of my Japanese friends used to work for the Yakuza (without being a
member). His job was to play Pachinko at rigged machines. The way Pachinko
works is that every day some machines are randomly selected to be winning
machines. The Yakuza somehow had intel on what machines were winners and
relayed the info to their crew of seemingly normal gamblers.

They had to play for the whole day and in the night gave the winnings to their
Yakuza contact. The sad thing is that most of his "colleagues" instantly went
back to the Pachinko hall to gamble away their cut.

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paulsutter
I heartily recommend the movie Pale Flower (1964)

[https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-pale-
flower-1...](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-pale-flower-1964)

> “Pale Flower" is one of the most haunting noirs I've seen, and something
> more; in 1964 it was an important work in an emerging Japanese New Wave of
> independent filmmakers, an exercise in existential cool.

~~~
mirimir
For a wilder perspective, I like Takashi Miike. "Rainy Dog" is about a yakuza
henchman whose boss had been killed. So he fled to Taiwan, and worked for
triads as a contract killer. Because no other yakuza boss would have him, and
his tattoos excluded him from mainstream society. Very tragic.

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lovemenot
There's one such Yakuza boss whom I frequently see at my local sento
bathhouse.

His two or three servile bodyguards and quite fantastically beautiful body
tattoo, make him very easy to identify as a top crime boss.

~~~
m_mueller
Are these specific bathhouse that allow tattooes?

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audiometry
Back before it was massively renovated (mid 2000's?) there was a sento in
Tokyo Station. It was called 'Tokyo Kur' I think. I visited probably five
times and every time would see at least one wrinkled old man covered in
tattoos like that. Sadly that sento is long-gone.

~~~
lovemenot
If you're looking for an alternative, some on this list are pretty good.

[https://www.1010.or.jp/english/sento-
location/](https://www.1010.or.jp/english/sento-location/) The domain name is
a pun in Japanese.

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neilv
NSFW for some workplaces. The content is artistic photos, including nudity.

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newswriter99
Can't read this at work, but based on the comments I get the feeling this is a
bit romanticized about who the Yakuza are and how they operate.

After reading about the case of Junko Furuta however, I have less of a
benevolent opinion of Yakuza members.

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z3phyr
I really liked the photography.

Having said that, Are the yakuza 'Great Men'?

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joewee
This article has more content, including photos.

[https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-
photography/article/40877/1...](https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-
photography/article/40877/1/chloe-jafe-i-give-you-my-life-yakuza-documenting-
women-japans-mafia)

~~~
oska
Thank you for providing an alternative. While the subject matter is
interesting, the submitted article was low quality, both in the writing and
whatever editing it received (numerous grammatical and textual errors remain).

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AdrianB1
Is it just me or the article ends quite abruptly? I was expecting a story, not
an intro and a few pictures.

~~~
mxwsn
It's an article about a collection of photography by an artist, not a
photojournalist. Given that, this format seems typical. I would also love to
hear more though.

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Paul_S
I know every country has a similar problem but I still think it's a failure of
the state, even if it's so common. The police know who the criminals are, ffs
civilians know who they are, yet they do nothing and only deal with occasional
spillover. I hate this.

~~~
anvandare
"There will always be crime, so it's better to have organized crime than
disorganized crime." seems to be the idea.

~~~
elboru
Some years ago I would had strongly disagreed with you. But now that I’ve
lived in a city where the organized crime has been “disorganized” I can
confirm it becomes hell, too many small gangs with no big bosses, making small
and big crimes daily under the eyes of everyone, this is worst for the overall
quality of life than having a big mafia that follows certain rules and obeys a
big boss, making their crimes less visible.

~~~
jacquesm
The obvious alternative is _less_ crime, of all sorts, not organized vs
disorganized.

~~~
elboru
Sure, and the past has showed us that it’s possible to live peacefully, but
it’s difficult to reach peace when billions of dollars and thousands of guns
are being handed to the cartels every year. They say everyone has a price, if
that’s true then cartels have the money to buy everyone. A frontal fight has
been tested, and yes big bosses have fallen, but the violence only increases
when big cartels become small cartels (usually antagonist small cartels).
Could an ideology stop this? Can someone or something make corruption
disappear? America legalizing all drugs is the only solution? Could Mexico
legalize transportation without America legalizing consumption?

