Bad economy revives Yakuza violence! U.S. connection?

25 February 2016 (09:08 UTC-07 Tango 01) 06 Esfand 1394/16 Jumada al-Ula 1437/18 Geng Yin 4714

“This is a tough time for them as their revenue sources have shrunk dramatically…because of tougher laws…pressuring members for regular payments…some do not want to pay and that’s why there was a split.”-Yamanouchi Yukio, attorney for Yamaguchi-gumi

An attorney representing some of the larger factions of Japan’s mafia (known as Yakuza in the United States) is blaming the declining economy for recent shootings between rival gangs.

He says because of the bad economy members of the biggest Yakuza group, Yamaguchi-gumi, are having a hard time paying their membership dues, with many Yamaguchi-gumi members breaking away forming new Yakuza gangs.  The result is a spike in violence.

Yakuza violence had been subdued after Japan’s government passed tougher anti-Yakuza laws because of the Yakuza war in the 1980s.  However, news reports say a new ‘Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi’ gang has somehow avoided being officially classified as a violent gang and is immune from those laws, which helped it to become the third largest Yamaguchi-gumi group in only a few months time!

The formation of Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi took place at the end of 2015.

Attorney Yamanouchi warned that because of declining revenues the various branches of the Yamaguchi-gumi are now in survival mode.  A former Yakuza bodyguard blames it on an obsession with money: “…loyalty and brotherhood….are long gone…..It’s now all about money-money and money alone. It is no longer duty or honor.”-‘Takegaki’, explaining why he left theYamaguchi-gumi

While looking over recent Yakuza articles I found a picture of current neo-imperialist Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo with U.S. politician (and professed ‘christian’) Mike Huckabee standing next to a man the Japanese National Police associate with Yamaguchi-gumi;  Nagamoto Icchu.

Nagamoto was arrested and charged in 2012 with strong arm loansharking.