Protests after Yakuza hosts Halloween event, hands children cookies
24 replies, posted
Residents of the Japanese city of Kobe are spooked after Japan's largest Yakuza organization held a Halloween Day event at crime ring headquarters, according to a Japanese press report.
Television network NHK reported Wednesday Yamaguchi-gumi held the event in Hyogo Prefecture and welcomed children with gifts of cookies.
Yamaguchi-gumi sources said they were holding the Halloween event because "the children like the holiday," but police said the crime ring could be making a strategic move to appease local residents.
Residents have responded with protests outside Yakuza headquarters, after keeping silent the previous year, according to NHK.
More than 100 protesters on Tuesday gathered at the site, holding banners that read, "deport violent gangs," and criticizing the crime ring for its bad influence on minors.
Japan’s Yakuza distribute treats to children at Halloween event
Honestly, this is playing right into their hands. By allowing crime syndicates to operate in the open with no intervention and then raise a stink when they do something as harmless as hosting a halloween party for children, it just makes the people complaining look lazy and hypocritical.
The Yakuza understands optics better then anyone. This whole was probably planned to make them look respectable and harmless and make thier opponents look petty.
yeah, man, they're so cool.
in all seriousness though, the yakuza in japan are pretty puzzling to me. they seem to operate a lot differently than any crime equivalent in western nations.
It's organized crime. Appealing to citizens.
Al Capone used to do the same back in the day, like housing soup kitchens for the homeless and paying widowers and families support if their loved ones got caught in a crossfire and died.
They hold a lot of political and economic influence. They are sort a chimera of mobsters, 20th-century "political machines", and feudal-era shogunate. (Which many Yakuza claim to be direct descendants of)
Uhh, where are they gonna deport them to?
Pretty much the same thing police here in the US do, basically.
What about all other usual illicit activities you'd expect from a mob?
They tend to run the operations of the Pachinko parlors. Gambling is illegal in japan, but they're loopholing it by letting pachinko players trade in their winnings for prizes. Then they go to the shop next door which will offer to buy the prizes from you. Since the parlor itself isn't paying out money, they aren't considered gambling.
That sounds fairly tame, I'm assuming that the Yakuza are involved in much worse aside from this?
Yes, also gun smuggling and drug trafficking. They don't just operate in Japan, they have operations in SEA/Asia and the USA/America too.
I can't believe Japan is letting those pretentious psychos with delutions of grandeur operate in the open like that.
it seems like Japan doesn't have a RICO equivalent like the US, so they have to charge individual crimes, and the legislation they do have isn't enough to give the police the tools to end these organizations.
From Wikipedia:
The Yamaguchi-gumi are among the world's wealthiest gangsters, bringing in billions of dollars a year from extortion, gambling, the sex industry, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, real estate and construction kickback schemes. They are also involved in stock market manipulation and Internet pornography.
Honestly can't blame them, seems like some sketchy shit the Yakuza have easily used to kidnap and traffic kids or some shit.
Reading this over again, I just realized I was describing politicians as well.
So wait, the Yakuza has a headquarters that's well known to be where they operate? How does that work?
That's Japan for you babyyyyyy
The Yakuza run public offices and wear badges that denote family affiliation out in the open. They're embedded into Japanese society at this point, and since they supposedly keep non-affiliated crime on their territories in check, nobody bothers to get rid of them.
They're sex industry is scummy as fuck, they often lure girls in and then move them to another city under 'contract' and because of Japan's ancient laws still on the books they're legal contracts.
Wouldn't you rather have the names positions and favors of criminals than force them underground where they can operate much more freely? Wouldn't you also like having criminals contribute to society by donating to charities, helping with cleanup duty and rescue operations? Like it or not there will always be crime It's just Japan chose to centralize that crime and keep it on a leash.
japan is so civil that even their country-wide mob is "caring" and keeps the peace... mostly. I mean, they're a mob and they still do crime shit but it isn't like here in the states where you have gangs that will kill you just for driving down the street.
No they're pretty hostile to anyone who isn't Japanese and from the areas so even an American Japanese person can experience some hate from them.
They do plenty of legal things too, so they can operate freely under the guise of that. As long as they don't have a warrant on people there, the police can't really do anything about it.
Cause killing someone for driving down the wrong street brings in no money. Running your crime syndicate like a business is better in the long run than simply acting like thugs.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.