Yakuza gang publishes magazine for members

Next thing ya know they'll be on Facebook, Twitter & Google+. Imagine the wacky "selfies" with mirror flare...

No matter how romanitc they want to make it, they make their money on the suffering of others. Let's start at the "not so bad" end. Prostitution - Personally, if it was just selling sex, I wouldn't care, but too often prostitution and human trafficing go hand in hand.

Gambling - Again, I really don't care. I don't gamble, but if somebody else wants to, that's their business. My fear is when it gets into sports and pressures are brought to bear on sports figures to throw matches. Also, gambling is a huge money maker to fund their less worthy enterprises.

Loan Sharking - This is not so great. I suppose one could make an arguement that the nobody is forced to borrow from these guys. However, they intentionally prey upon the ignorant, weak, and vulnerable. Once you borrow from them, you are in forever.

Extortion - This is intollerable. nobody should have to pay to be "protected." This is nothing less than the treat of violence to leach out funds that they are too lazy to earn themselves. I am glad that local business associations are banding together to ward them off.

Fraud - See above. Nothing more than trying to get money they did not earn by lying, cheating, and stealing (all things that these "honorable men" are particularly good at).

Drug Distribution - Nothing good to say here. Perhaps the Chinese are right when they impose death sentences on this type of activity. Drugs destroy lives and these scumbags make money providing it.

Violence and other bufoonery - Makes me wish Japanese police were more like their American counterparts in their willingness to taze, spay, and club.

Yakuza are scum and no amount of marketing will change that. Japan needs a RICO law that would make being a memeber of these groups in and of itself a crime. They need to be imprisoned in large numbers for long periods. Their assets should be siezed and liquidated, and mythologizing them should be strongly discouraged.

The Japanese Mafia already has a magazine - it's called President.

But I kid. Seriously is the arm of the law so short in this country that the Yakuza can openly glamorize themselves in a magazine. This will just encourage a new generation of wannabes and punks to dress up in gaudy clothes and go around trying to scare people, under the watchful noses of a toothless police force.

Scum absolute scum, police are in their pocket no point asking for help.

They prey on the wealthy at upper end hostess clubs as well, especially in Ginza.

They usually go about bringing lawsuits against innocents that can't be won, such as assault against girls, where the girl, taxi drivers, lawyers, doctors, witnesses are all in on it, then ask to settle at exorbitant prices.

Eg. A wealthy guy takes a hostess home, gets in the cab, helps her out of the car. A few weeks later, a group of lawyers turn up their door with a few Yakuza, say the girl is bruised from where guy assaulted her, produce a doctor and a report, taxi driver and other bystanders as witnesses saying she was assaulted by that person, as well as the girl herself. Unless you will settle for x yen, the case goes to court, where it can't possibly be won. The guy pays and the Yakuza disappear forever.

Wow gangster haiku, for all we know it might become a new sensation

My feeble attempt

Bullet Whizzing My heart pounding Metal on flesh Stairway to heaven?

clap clap clap ulysses very very deep!

sensationalized and romanticised for the gullible, prolly help with recruitment too

This week's hot stories:

Switchblade or kitchen knife - which one is for you? Smack Dat! Disciplining trafficked Filipinas. Extortion - your corner, your price. Making the cut: you don't need two pinkies anyway Scarred for wife: turn your ugly facial cuts into manly chick magnets Dealing with the police - they'll be your byatch for life.

I wonder if they are on google groups too. Maybe the cops should be taking this recent miss made by the gov as inspiration and start checking yak net activity.

Cannot imagine Al Capone running a newsletter for "cohesion in the organization."

Target Audience: Low-level Yakuza that run the taiyaki stand are your local pre-OBON festival.

A poem: Whatever you do/ Don't anger the oyabun/ I miss my pinky.

Only thing left for the Yakuza to do is have a 'Boy band" with fancy synchronized dance moves and singing in the same key,heck why not do a japanese yakuza tarento show?

Back in the seventies they published a similar magazine called "Yamaguchi-gumi Jiho".

This month: Best Yakist!

The gangs, which are not illegal,

Association of criminals are legal in Japan ? Speaks volume.

I wonder whether they have a sudoku or crossword section, or whether the cartoon will be as funny as ののちゃん.

Freakin' hilariously sad. I could just imagine of other crime syndicates had "official" magazines for their group. The Russian mafia gets "Krobolov", The Chinese Triad should get "Shingguanding" and the Italian mob gets "Whatsamattawityou" or something to that effect...

Observers say the reality of the criminal underworld is one of brutishness and risk, where only a few achieve the wealth and standing to which they aspire.

Not too much unlike the so-called "law-abiding" world.

All gangs are scum. Cops know what they do...they dont ban them. Doesnt take a genius to realise the gov gets money of em.

@Wackness: These whom you described are not Yamaguchigumi type yakuzas, They are tekiyas. Crippled people and poor people Japanese Govt coukd not do, WW I, WWII, Air raid victims, etc were included in tekiya groups to do these small buasiness.

Go and Shogi? It seems that old oyabuns are tired of controlling rude young members. They can retire now but it seems they want to shift their shady business to legitimate business such as magazine publishing. Sudoku and Crossword puzzles, they could not think in their out-of-dated mind, I'd bet. Sometimes, Japanrdr Govt used yakuzas to help. In 1960, Violent Right Wing opposed then Prime-Minister Kishi's invitation of Pres. Ike. Everywhere yakuza groups in Japan organized Welcome Ike Party, to defend from Right Wind attack. Ike did not come but then PM Kishi was attacked by a knife when he came back to Japan. The same time after Socialist Chairman Asanuma was assassinated. It is more peaceful now. You see why Obama's request to crush yakuzas did not get Japanese Govt response. New members, oyabuns may be despising. Maybe this magazine may go on like Shukan Gendai? Maybe oyabuns will have their families live in peace? Better to be despised and tell people their Shujin is a Publisher, Editor,Writer, etc. Maybe recruit manga artists?

Organized crime is a drain on the legal economy no matter how "fashionable" it is. You've got billions of yen being siphoned off by people who don't contribute much of anything to society and, in many activities, cause harm. I too am a big fan of the Chinese method of dealing with this. Chairman Mao had this topic nailed.

virtuoso-

well done! I shall have to remember it for when I next teach my English haiku lesson in high school.

I too am a big fan of the Chinese method of dealing with this.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-06/premier-li-keqiang-wants-more-chinese-in-the-cities

Most protests in China are from farmers being "pushed off their land." -Then the Gov local sells it for ~8x to insiders.

His farmhouse was forcibly seized in 2011 after he refused to accept a low offer of compensation, he says. Then, Xing says, in January of this year, he was beaten up by thugs hired by a real estate developer in cahoots with local authorities, who wanted his remaining land.

Poetry and fishing diaries? It's kinda sweet.

Does it have a centerfold?

Makes me wish Japanese police were more like their American counterparts in their willingness to taze, spay, and club.

Of course you would! Because America is a perfect example!

Well, they basically run the country anyway...

The Japanese police let the yakuzas loose so that they can control crimes better. It's one of the reasons why the crime rate in Japan is relatively low. Maybe this is done at the expense of the suffering of the innocent, such as the victims of human trafficking.

so, yaks stop other people's crimes so that they can do the crimes instead, but somehow this keeps the crime rate low???

beg to differ T Anderson.

yak crime is simply ignored or often complicitly cooperated in by the police, which is why the organized crime rate may seem low.

as for average ppl crime rate being low, i think very low unemployment rates combined with a lot of people even in this day and age living with their extended families probably contributes to a sense of social responsibility.

The Japanese yakuza, just like mafias all over the world, well are made of scum, parasites, who thrive on violence, scaring innocent people like you and me into giving them PROTECTION money etc..here in Japan, they get young Japanese girls to prostitute themselves for DRUGS, many of the girls are forced to have UN PROTECTED sex with their Japanese Johns, or should I say Taros, since they believe NO JAPANESE HAVE AIDS, but we all know that is BULL $hit! So do you all still find these parasites of Japanese society very romantic?? They beat up, humiliate and end up killing the NON JAPANESE prostitutes too. My family has many many LAWYERS in old Mexico, we know what to do with these wise guys if they are caught SOUTH OF THE BORDER, believe you me, these yaks never want to end up in our lovely Mexican jails!!

I agreed with you up til your last couple lines, budha mexicano.

Like, sorry, but the whole country of Mexico is controlled by rival mafia gangs who seem to have no problem accomplishing their goals of making money by victimizing the weak, killing who they want with impunity, leaving decapitated bodies around for fun, etc etc. making j yaks look like Charlie Brown's gang.

Maybe your lawyer tribe should start by putting the Mexican mafia away before going after jpns.

"The Japanese police let the yakuzas loose so that they can control crimes better. It's one of the reasons why the crime rate in Japan is relatively low."

LOL

"senior gangsters' fishing diaries"

What about junior gangsters' pachinko diaries?