Did the Yakuza/major Organised criminal gangs have any real presence in Japan prior to the world wars? What exactly is their purpose and place in Japanese society? From what I’ve read they were mainly a phenomenon that came about after the Meiji Reformation and industrialisation, with the US occupy becoming their big money maker with all the US cash flowing, and suddenly thugs being hired to intimidate people out of land or to pimp out women etc, all become valuable I wouldn’t classify the bandits present for all Japanese history prior to this as the same kind of thing, they just attacked travellers In comparison the Italian mafia has deep historic roots in Sicily, long before Italy industrialised. And they had major influence before the world wars in Italian politics.One of the things Mussolini did that’s pretty universally accepted as a good and popular move was smashing the mafia gangs for example, and as a result many left for the USAWhat I’ve found unusual about the yakuza is the massive level of open cooperation. Between them and the Japanese government who obviously publicly want to convict them, but also seem to accept they’re some kind of necessary evilThe major yakuza organisations in modern Japan for example>have legitimate massive shares in Japanese companies, and make much money through this legally >have official public offices for business meetings where you can just walk in and talk to them whenever >have a history of responding to major natural disasters with aid for people much quicker than the actual government (this is typically in a bid to gain some of the reconstruction money that will be earmarked so it goes to one of their construction companies but still, explains the more positive relationship they have with the public)While their influence and membership has much declined from their peak of the 60’s to 80’s, it didn’t get destroyed nearly as much as the US mafia. Even though Japan introduced similar RICO style laws
>>17088988Yes.
