crime

New anti-yakuza legislation comes into effect to clamp down on gangs

31 Comments

A new law came into effect Tuesday aimed at further reducing the ability of organized crime gang members to target local businesses for extortion.

The revision to the 1991 Anti-Organized Crime Law was drawn up in response a series of attacks carried out on businesses by suspected gang members, particularly in the Kyushu region, say police.

The new laws will enable police to arrest on the spot anyone who is believed to be engaging in gang activities, such as extorting protection money from local business owners, Fuji TV reported.

Police say the new laws will be used to restrict the activities of the Kudokai, Dojinkai and Kyushu Seidokai crime gangs based in Fukuoka Prefecture. Kitakyushu has been a hotbed of criminal activity with several attacks on businesses in the last month.

NPA Commissioner General Yutaka Katagiri told a news conference that the success of the new law in Fukuoka will set an example for the rest of the country.

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31 Comments
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How about a stand my ground defense for businesses owners that kill dirty yaks?

That would scare these punks back into the sewers where they came from.

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

good start, but most of us know the hub of Yakuza activity is in Kansai, especially around Kobe. Yamaguchi gumi and all that lot.... Only targeting Fukuoka is a very strange move...

2 ( +5 / -3 )

The Fukuoka gangs apparently didnt have the capital to pay off law enforcement to leave them alone like the Kansai based gangs did. :D

11 ( +14 / -3 )

The politicians are talking about or even coming up with similar laws every 3 years or so, or so it seems to me. I know that eradicating them would be impossible.

I've read that the Yakuza are in big financial trouble atm. The gov should focus on that now and further undermine their economic/financial basis. In other words, if the gov makes any laws against them, they should aim at destroying their money sources.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

What was wrong with existing laws? I do believe that extortion has been illegal for quite a while. It seems to me all this is window dressing for doing nothing.

Hire the Chinese to take care of the yakuza. In a month there would be a lot of fresh organs on the market.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

New laws will have no effect if there is no one willing to put them to use. I think that the police officers need to be given better incentives to take down these crooks. Or perhaps strict punishments for any officer who is found allowing illigal activities to continue. Then maybe we would see more action.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

@Kabukilover

"What was wrong with existing laws? "

The existing laws aren't good enough. Yakuzas in Fukuoka are doing whatever they want nowadays. It's almost like it's another country. It's hard to believe that they have grenades, machine guns and last month they even found a cannon in one of their warehouses !!

This new law makes it a lot easier to arrest yakuza members if they belong to the three groups that they mentioned.

Now they will need to legalize plea bargain and cops going undercover to going after them even more

4 ( +4 / -0 )

New laws will make nodifference. Bit like the new bicycle rules - unless enforced just a bunch of words.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

isn't this law like 20 years too late? i guess it made too much sense to include this in the AOC law the first time.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

new laws will enable police to arrest on the spot anyone who is believed to be engaging in gang activities

So before this new law, police could only watch the gang activity and do what? Report it to the next level up of management until it finally got forgotten by one and all?

Aren't police generally enabled to arrest people doing illegal activities? Or are the enabled only to arrest non-yakuza?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Yeah, the news laws will 'allow' police to arrest extorting gangsters, but that doesn't mean they will. Let's just see how many actual arrests are made with this new law, shall we? The cops know who the offending Yaks are, where they are and what they are doing, so they should be able to round them up quickly, but I bet they don't.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This sounds pretty vague. Engaging in gang activities? Does this include being at the gang headquarters? Because it should. Clearly the gang members aren't meeting up at their offices to discuss yesterday's baseball game. Perhaps a better law that should be instated is one that requires the police to have spines and quit taking bribes.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

What's the point? We all know that in Japan, the police and the yakuza cooperate with each other.

Reading this has astonished me:

A spectacular continuation of the kind of relationship that existed between the official government authorities and the guilds in Tokugawa and Meiji Japan, is the mutually beneficial relationship enjoyed today between police and yakuza (gangsters). The gangsters are given an informal monopoly on certain activities that are on the edge of legality or just inside the illegal zone, and in exchange for that they serve the police by controlling crime. More organized crime means less unpredictable crime.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

We will always have mafias, in this case, the yakuza for Japan, it is just a part of our CORRUPT human nature.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Japanese politics dealing with the Yakuza: make laws and not enforce them.

Every three years or so, similar laws, local or national, are made.

Some powerful politicians, big corporations, top police guys and yakuza/far right wing dons are buddy-buddy, as is known. They also fear the possible power vacuum that might be filled by foreign mobs if the J yaks were removed.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Won't the Yakuza soon direct their wrath at the police? The NPA? Even the politicians?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

They should making a law to arrest yakuza members, period. If they are not criminal, they are not yakuza by definition.

The existing laws aren't good enough.

I agree. The current policy is like those American sheriff comedies with the cops stopping the cars at some as just one meter further they can't arrest the outlaws, big plan on the laughing faces of the meanies, generic, CM. In Japan, they can arrest the thug in the shotengai, but if he has a foot in the yakuza head office where he brings the extorted money, he's safe as it's legal to have an office. Isn't it ?

Won't the Yakuza soon direct their wrath at the police?

Not soon, always. Which is why the cops make sure it's a big huge crime occurring to arrest one of them.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

they should aim at destroying their money sources

Yes, and extortion is a large part of that, but it is more than just the money, the act of payment provides them defacto control by recognizing their authority based on violence.

That directly subverts the authority not only of the police but of the modern state, in general, because one of the primary principles of the modern state is that the state has a monopoly on the use of physical force to maintain law and order.

This law is important for breaking down that scenario by enabling people to stand up to yakuza that are trying to extort them because the police can arrest them immediately on any such claim by a business owner.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

who gets arrested when the yaks pay the cops?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Glancing through a magazine the other night I came across several pages that featured pictures of about 10 or so yakuza bosses. All were dressed nicely in coat & tie and all looked like your average businessmen. However, taking a closer look at them ... I wouldn't want to cross any of them the wrong way. Let the cops do that ... if they dare ...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The new laws will enable police to arrest on the spot anyone who is believed to be engaging in gang activities, such as extorting protection money from local business owners, Fuji TV reported.

So... what's to keep crooked businesses from calling the cops on people when they ask for a refund? And how are engaging and gang activity defined anyway?

Far to vague to be of any use, and vague enough for innocent people to get caught up with no way to fight it (once you're under arrest, you cease to be a human in their eyes, and even false arrests can get someone fired from their job and never be able to hold another)

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

you think laws or harsh penalties stop crime ? why wasnt all crime eradicated in the dark ages then ? Sounds to me like the police gets carte blanche to do what they want and the real gangsters are still the ones with guns who dont give a f and will fight back. I gots a little experience even if i'm not a metropolitan. Stuff like this won't change a thing. Au contraire it might lead to more civil harassment by police

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

about as meaningful as the gambling,anti child porn and anti discrimination laws here. Cherry picked justice.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Who will arrest the Police that are paid off by the Yakuza?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

aimed at further reducing the ability of organized crime gang members to target local businesses for extortion

Huh...? What am I missing here...? Extortion is a CRIME.... If you commit Extortion, YOU GO TO JAIL... Oh, but I guess they give the Yakuza a pass, otherwise how would they stay in business..?

The new laws will enable police to arrest on the spot anyone who is believed to be engaging in gang activities, such as extorting protection money from local business owners

Here's something you might not have thought that works very well in the rest of the civilized world, YOU DON'T ALLOW CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS TO EXIST... PERIOD...

Follow the money... And if they don't report it, you get them for tax evasion... Pretty Simple stuff...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

New law targeting the yakuza ?? So let me see if i got this right,Yakuza bosses are gonna start obeying now that a"LAW" has been passed ?? isn't breaking the "LAW" how these guys make a living? If they followed laws there would probably be no yakuza.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

not holding my breath...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Not so sure your characterization of the Yamaguchi gumi being all that is correct, but even if accurate, this move would make sense:

Attacking the flanks causes the center to contract.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Richard,

Methinks you don't understand how things (are supposed to) operate in Japan. The Yakuza and regular follks are supposed to be like oil and water. Recently, some gangsters have been violating that truth, through extortion of businesses non-traditionally 'regulated' yakuza areas of the economy. Meaning, the yaks can extort all they want from hostess bars, and restaurants in areas near such places, but not mom and pop shops.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I recall seeing a photo from around 1945-1948, where gangsters were protesting their rights to earn money. The picture had a gangster holding a sign saying "Gangsters have rights too". My response then is the same as it is now - No, you don't! Business owners should have the right to protect themselves by any means necessary from these scum.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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