Yakuza and Organized Crime in Japan

The yakuza is Japan's organized crime syndicate. Although the yakuza has old roots in Japan, the yakuza did not prosper until after World War II. Nevertheless, the yakuza is an ingrained part of Japanese culture. For example, Japanese cinema often has been filled with popular images of yakuza gangsters (Economist, 1990, pp. 1921). Yet the Japanese cinema is not exploring some unknown underground culture, because the yakuza is usually not such a secretive organization. Until recently, the yakuza has been readily identifiable in the biggest cities of Japan. Often, the offices of the yakuza are readily identifiable, and the members are attired in tasteful business suits with business cards to match. One crime syndicate even prints its own internal telephone directory; the offices are staffed 24 hours a day. However, the nonchalant appearance is beginning to change in the face of Japan's recessio

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, p. A1). Unfortunately, the financial scandal in Japan has not been solved with the comparative ease in which the United States was able to resolve its own banking crisis during the late 1980s (Holley, 1996, P. A1). A typical reason for the languid pace of the reform of the Japanese financial system is that the yakuza not only contributed to the speculative "bubble," but also now contributes to preventing meaningful reform. During the rise of the economy, the yakuza took in cash from traditional sectors for organized crime. The yakuza moved from the fringes of the Japanese economy controlling prostitution (Heazle, 1993, pp. 3839), running pachinkomachine parlors, and drugrunning, to both the Japanese stock marketfueling its drive upwardand the real estate market, causing a speculative" bubble. The need for capital was so widespread that many legitimate businesses sought and knowingly took in money from groups associated with the yakuza. Specific examples of money taken in from the yakuza include the following: jusen (Japanese equivalent of Savings and Loans in the United States) which started lending money to yakuzalinked developers; real estate companies which lent money or rented out space to yakuza related companies;
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2800
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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