Japan’s yakuza gangs in decline as young spurn life of crime
‘Extreme path’ followers are dying out, says former member who helps those who want to go straight
‘In 50 years, perhaps less, I think the yakuza will be extinct. They will be the stuff of movies and legends, just like the ninja. Gone’
JAPAN’S feared yakuza gangs are dying out in the face of intensifying police pressure and a lack of interest among young people in a career of crime.
A recent unprecedented death penalty against a gokudo – literally, a member of “the extreme path” – has sent shockwaves through the country’s historic criminal networks and comes on the back of a raft of creative new laws targeting gangsters and their affiliates.
Coupled with the fact that younger people no longer find the work appealing, the yakuza – a byword for violence and a shadow over Japanese society since the 17th century – are now struggling to find new recruits, with some former members even helping the disaffected to leave the underworld.
“In the old days, we used to go around and show off our tattoos. It was the way we walked, talked and acted,” said Satoru Takegaki, who for 32 years was part of Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest gang in Japan.
“But now yakuza don’t show their tattoos. They keep a low profile. They don’t want to attract attention. And when you factor in fewer young people and less money, it’s clear why so many people are not joining gangs or leaving them,” said the 70-year-old, speaking to The Sunday Telegraph. “In 50 years, perhaps less, I think the yakuza will be extinct. They will be the stuff of movies and legends, just like the ninja. Gone.”
As recently as 2011, there were 70,300 known yakuza, but that figure had fallen to just 25,900 by 2020. It’s a far cry from the heyday of the 1960s, when gangs with regional strongholds across Japan had more than 184,000 members.
Mr Takegaki is among those contributing to chipping away at those numbers. In the Yamaguchi-gumi, he spent more than three decades working first as an enforcer, and then a senior member. He says he cannot remember how many prison terms he served.
But by 2005, he had become disillusioned. It was becoming harder to make money, he says, while newcomers were ignoring long-held traditions.
“I joined in 1972 because I was attracted by the sense of honour then, the sense of fighting for our community. But things changed,” he said.
The last straw was when the son of his boss was fatally machine gunned.
“My sempai was retiring and I was in line to take over, but I was getting older and slowing down, so I decided that it was time to leave.”
It turned out to be a wise decision. The gang later splintered into rival factions and descended into internecine warfare on the streets of Kobe and Osaka. One faction head, Keiichi Furukawa, was shot 10 times in 2019.
Mr Takegaki set up an NGO, Gojinkai, in the city of Hyogo to help others leave behind a life of crime and ostracism.
Japanese society remains extremely wary of former gang members, few of whom have much education or work skills, so most end up in construction or similar jobs. He helps ex-gang members who come out of prison to find a place to stay and some sort of work.
“I want to help people who leave gangs but have nowhere to go for support or assistance. It would be easy for them to go back to crime,” he said.
He estimates that his organisation has helped around 60 people quit their yakuza lifestyle – and more and more people are keen to follow suit.
This summer, the authorities sent the clearest signal yet that the days of yakuza gangs are numbered.
A court in Fukuoka on Aug 24 sentenced Satoru Nomura, the head of the Kudo-kai underworld group, to hang for ordering four attacks, including the shooting of a former police officer.
It was the first time a yakuza leader had been given the death penalty.
Successive governments have also passed sweeping new laws that make it far harder for yakuza to earn a dishonest living. Armed with new powers, police are cracking down on the traditional sources of income of gambling, the sex industry, drugs and protection rackets.
One of the most creative items of legislation makes it illegal to do any form of business with a gang member, so insurance companies, for example, can no longer insure a gangster’s car. That may not entirely dissuade anyone from a life of crime, but it serves as one of many small inconveniences that can dissuade some, said Mr Takegaki. Another law has made it illegal for a business to pay protection money to a gang, severing a key source of income.
“The new laws have crippled the gangs,” said Shinichi Ishizuka, a law professor and director of the Criminology Research Centre at Kyoto’s Ryukoku University. “I heard a story not long ago about a gang member who went to play a round of golf. The course would not allow him to play because they feared they would be prosecuted for taking money from a yakuza. It’s the same in a lot of restaurants or bars,” he said. “And [this] together with the aging of society and fewer young men wanting to join a gang, I expect them to continue to get smaller.”