Yakuza , also known as gokudō , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , while the yakuza call themselves ninkyō dantai . The English equivalent for the term yakuza is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization.
An early example of irezumi tattoos, 1870s
The Kabukicho district of Shinjuku has historically been known as a popular yakuza hangout in Tokyo.
Yakuza often take part in local festivals such as Sanja Matsuri where they often ride the shrine through the streets proudly showing off their elaborate tattoos.
Poster for the 1948 Akira Kurosawa film Drunken Angel, a yakuza eiga-genre film
Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, rebel forces, and separatists, are politically motivated. Many criminal organizations rely on fear or terror to achieve their goals or aims as well as to maintain control within the organization and may adopt tactics commonly used by authoritarian regimes to maintain power. Some forms of organized crime simply exist to cater towards demand of illegal goods in a state or to facilitate trade of goods and services that may have been banned by a state. Sometimes, criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts protection money from shopkeepers. Street gangs may often be deemed organized crime groups or, under stricter definitions of organized crime, may become disciplined enough to be considered organized. A criminal organization can also be referred to as an outfit, a gang, crime family, mafia, mob, (crime) ring, or syndicate; the network, subculture, and community of criminals involved in organized crime may be referred to as the underworld or gangland. Sociologists sometimes specifically distinguish a "mafia" as a type of organized crime group that specializes in the supply of extra-legal protection and quasi-law enforcement. Academic studies of the original "Mafia", the Italian Mafia generated an economic study of organized crime groups and exerted great influence on studies of the Russian mafia, the Chinese triads, the Hong Kong triads, and the Japanese yakuza.
American Mafia mobster Sam Giancana
Jamaican gang leader Christopher Coke
Tattooed yakuza gangsters
From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Kowloon Walled City in British Hong Kong was controlled by local Chinese triads.