Tokyo, du rififi chez les tatoués

Update : Tokyo Yakuza 21/Jan/2014

I am in Tokyo, talking with a policeman, agent specialised in gangs, he tells me coldly that the scary Mexican gangs are now working in Japan and fight with the Japanese Yakuza for narcotics business in Japan (on trafficking amphetamines)

And I read in wikipedia “The Yoshitomi Group is known working together with the Los Zetas and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, in illegal drug trafficking, kidnapping and contract killing in the United States, as the cartel operates in Mexico, the Yoshitomi-gumi are evidently not involved with the human trafficking ring although they are involved in political corruption, that support this cause.”

(Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitomi_Group This page was last modified on 4 January 2014 at 02:05)


Update : Tokyo Yakuza 15/Fe/2007

Difficile de séparer les véritables gangsters des
milieux moins flambeurs intéressés eux-aussi par le
contrôle du centre de Tokyo...

Faits et citations:

Un gros bonnet du milieu yakuza, la pègre japonaise, a
été retrouvé mort jeudi à Tokyo, après un apparent
suicide, au moment où "une guerre de gangs" surgit
pour le contrôle du coeur de la capitale. Kazuyoshi
Kudo, 70 ans, a été découvert sur son sofa par un de
ses "soldats" venu lui apporter son petit-déjeuner, a
indiqué la police, qui dit privilégier l'hypothèse
"d'un suicide." M. Kudo était le parrain du clan
Kokusai, affilié à la "famille" des Yamaguchi, de loin
la plus puissante organisation mafieuse de l'Archipel,
a expliqué une porte-parole de la police. Le gangster
se serait "tiré une balle dans la tête." La police a
immédiatement ouvert une enquête sur un possible lien
entre le décès du chef du clan Kokusai et une récente
guerre de territoires entre syndicats du crime
japonais à Tokyo. Début février, une série de
fusillades entre yakuza a animé le quartier
cosmopolite de Roppongi, artère de bars et de
restaurants, en plein coeur de Tokyo. Un mafieux a
été tué.

Eng:
The boss of a gang affiliated with Japan's largest
crime syndicate was found dead at his home in Tokyo's
Taito-ku on Thursday, apparently after committing
suicide by shooting himself, police said. Kazuyoshi
Kudo, head of the Kokusui-kai, a gang affiliated with
the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate, was found dead at
his home when police arrived at about 9:20 a.m. on
Thursday. A handgun was found near Kudo's body. Based
on evidence found at the scene, police suspect
70-year-old Kudo used the weapon to kill himself.
Investigators said Kudo was lying dead on a sofa in
the second-floor living room of his home, bleeding
from the head. A gang member who found him reported
his death to Asakusa Police Station.

(This month three shootings targeting Yamaguchi-gumi
gangs have occurred. The shootings, believed to have
been carried out by members of gangs affiliated with
the rival Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate followed the
fatal Feb. 5 shooting of a high-ranking member of a
Sumiyoshi-kai affiliated gang. In one incident a
bullet was also shot into a condominium housing a
Kokusui-kai affiliated gang office. On Feb. 8, the
Yamaguchi-gumi and Sumiyoshi-kai reportedly agreed to
discontinue fighting, and conflict between the two
crime syndicates had died down since then. The series
of shootings was believed to have been sparked by a
conflict between the Kokusui-kai and gangsters
affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai over gang turf.
Sources close to the gangs said that despite the
agreement between the two crime syndicates, talk on
the treatment of Kudo had continued. Police said it
was unlikely that Kudo's suicide would lead to more
rivalry between the gangs, but warned that internal
conflict within the Yamaguchi-gumi and Kokusui-kai
related to issues including Kudo's successor could
occur. The Kokusui-kai is based in Tokyo's Taito-ku
and has about 1,060 members and affiliates. Kudo
assumed leadership of the gang in 1991. In 2005 the
gang came under the direct control of the
Yamaguchi-gumi, and Kudo was appointed as a top
advisor to the Yamaguchi-gumi. (Agencies) )



Une guerre des gangs Yakuza a éclaté cette semaine sur
Tokyo pour le contrôle de leurs activités
traditionnelles comme le racket, les prêts usuraires,
le proxénétisme, la drogue, les jeux d'argent
illégaux, les technologies de l'information, les
firmes Internet.

Les deux plus grands syndicats du crime japonais ont
signé une trêve jeudi après de violents règlements de
comptes qui ont fait craindre à une reprise de guerre
des gangs entre le Yamaguchi-gumi basé à Kobe et la
Sumiyoshi-kai de Tokyo après la mort d'un Parrain de la
Sumiyoshi.

Les Yakuza se consacrent de plus en plus au
blanchiment d'argent sale et emploient à cette fin des
méthodes de plus en plus sophistiquées. Les Yakuza
sont célèbres pour leurs tatouages, leur obéissance
aveugle à leur organisation et leurs rituels,
notamment celui de l'auto-amputation d'un doigt pour
ceux qui se rendent coupables de manque de loyauté

"Les forces de l'ordre recensaient fin décembre 84.700
Yakuza dans l'Archipel, soit 1600 de moins qu'un an
plus tôt, indique un rapport de la police. Sur ce
nombre, seuls 41.500 travaillaient à temps complet
pour un syndicat du crime, les 43.200 restants ne
prêtant qu'un concours ponctuel aux organisations
mafieuses.

Ces criminels à temps partiel choisissent peut-être
délibérément cette situation "pour infiltrer plus
facilement les milieux d'affaires et le monde
politique", a expliqué une porte-parole de la police
nationale. "Qu'ils soient à plein temps ou à temps
partiel, ce sont tous des criminels".

"Outre leurs activités traditionnelles comme le
racket, les prêts usuraires, le proxénétisme et les
jeux d'argent illégaux, les Yakuza se consacrent de
plus en plus au blanchiment d'argent sale. Ils
emploient à cette fin des méthodes de plus en plus
sophistiquées.

Il existe au Japon quatre grandes "familles"
subdivisées en plusieurs centaines de clans. D'après
la police, la violence liée à la pègre est en
constante diminution depuis qu'en 2004 la Cour suprême
a statué que les chefs mafieux étaient responsables
des meurtres commis par leurs affidés. Sur les 53
fusillades signalées au Japon en 2006, 36 étaient le
fait de gangsters, soit 29% de moins qu'un an plus
tôt." (Texte et agences)

D'autres détails en anglais :


Police moved Thursday to ward off a swelling turf war
between Japan's two largest underworld gangs, sending
dozens of investigators to raid the offices of one of
the groups believed to be behind the violence. Ending
a yearlong hiatus in gang violence, the 43-year-old
boss of a gang affiliated with the Tokyo-based
Sumiyoshi-kai syndicate was shot to death on Monday.
The killing is believed to have prompted three more
shootings this week at gangland headquarters in Tokyo.
The murderer remains at large. No other injuries have
been reported. Hoping to keep the violence from
escalating, police on Wednesday arrested two members
of a gang that belongs to the Sumiyoshi-kai syndicate.
The two are suspected of firing shots into the front
door of an office used by the rival Yamaguchi-gumi.

About 40 officers, many in full body armor, also
raided the offices of the Sumiyoshi-kai affiliate on
Thursday. Police refuse to comment on the motive for
the shootings, but shooting into the doors or windows
of a rival gang's offices are the hallmark of
underworld retaliation in Japan. The Yamaguchi-gumi,
which with 21,000 members is the largest in Japan, and
8,000-strong Sumiyoshi-kai have frequently been
involved in turf wars in recent years. Police say the
strife has been generated by the Yamaguchi-gumi's
rapid expansion of its operations in Tokyo, the
Sumiyoshi-kai's traditional base. The Yamaguchi-gumi
is based not in Tokyo but in Kobe. The high-profile
violence has alarmed residents of Tokyo, where
shootings are rare, and police have moved quickly to
quell it.

Like gangsters in other parts of the world, Japan's
are involved in extortion, gambling, the sex industry,
gunrunning, drug trafficking, and real estate and
construction kickback schemes. Because handguns are
strictly banned, most shootings in this country
involving them are related to gangland violence.
Despite the recent respite in violence, crackdowns on
gangsters -- known here as "yakuza," which means
roughly "good for nothing," have had limited results.
The number of gangsters nationwide -- including
"freelancers" who aren't formal gang members but are
loosely allied with the groups -- has grown to about
84,500, down slightly from two years ago but up
considerably from the 61,000 or so in 1991, according
to police figures. The majority belong to the
Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai, which
is also based in the Tokyo area. (Agencies)

Extracts of : David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro

"Yakuza Japan's Criminal Underworld"

CHAPTER TEN

OLD MARKETS AND NEW

At the height of the bubble economy, police in Chiba
Prefecture, home to Tokyo's Narita International
Airport, finally started keeping tabs on just how many
yakuza were heading overseas. The officials
identified 2,916 yakuza traveling abroad in 1988, and
3,696 during the first nine months of 1989. Those
numbers are likely conservative, given the yakuza who
undoubtedly slipped through uncounted. The newspaper
Asahi reported that of some 87,000 yakuza in 1989, an
estimated 10,000 went abroad. Half of the gangsters
identified by Chiba police were headed to South Korea,
followed by the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Saipan, and Guam. Only thirty-five said they
were going to the United States, a likely response to
tougher screening by U.S. Customs and Immigration
officials. Asked why they were traveling abroad, most
said they were tourists, traveling for golf, sex,
gambling, and gun-firing practice. Chiba officials
duly notified Japanese Customs to target the gangsters
on their return home, yet oddly no notice went out to
law enforcement overseas. The insular Japanese police
opted not to alert foreign officials that several
thousand gangsters were heading their way.

Click the title to access the chapter ten

Iraq war "absurd"! Opposition leader Ozawa Ichiro tells press

Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the opposition DPJ,
Democratic Party of Japan, said Tuesday at the Japan
National Press Club he would have urged U.S. President
George W. Bush not to start an "absurd" war in Iraq
in 2003 if he was prime minister at the time.

Ozawa also said the Japanese government should have
explained clearly the reason why Japan made the
decision to support the Iraq war, criticizing the
government for following what he termed as such a
problematic tendency in Japanese society of not being
assertive enough.

His comments came after recent controversial remarks
by Foreign Minister Taro Aso calling the U.S. policy
on Iraq "very naive" and Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma
saying the U.S. led invasion of Iraq was "wrong." "I
would have told Mr. Bush, "Don't do such absurd
things if I had been in the position" of Junichiro
Koizumi who was then prime minister of Japan, Ozawa
said in a press conference at the Japan National Press
Club.

"It is fine to say "we will cooperate," but what I
want to say is that you should clearly explain your
own thoughts such as "we will cooperate because of
this and that." Don't make nonsense quibbles," Ozawa
said.

On domestic politics: Ozawa stressed the importance
for the DPJ to attract voters in the local elections
in April and the House of Councillors election in July
by explaining party policies simply and easily.

As for the revision of the Constitution, which Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to realize and highlight
as one of the major issues for the upper house
election, Ozawa said it will be difficult to become a
point of issue in the election campaign because the
public will be more interested in themes which are
closer to their daily lives.

Grilled on secret expenses by politicians: Ozawa also
indicated he may voluntarily disclose details of his
office expenses, which have been criticized by some
Cabinet ministers and senior ruling camp lawmakers for
their huge amount. "There would certainly be time
when such a method should be taken," Ozawa said.

Unclear office expenses have recently surfaced among
both ruling and opposition lawmakers, becoming a
political problem that has attracted public attention
in Japan especially since the resignation of
administrative reform minister Genichiro Sata in
December.

The Political Funds Control Law allows lawmakers to
report office expenses without attaching receipts,
thus leading some lawmakers to allegedly book
unrelated expenses.

On socia issues: Ozawa said previously at the
Parliament that Japan's income gap the top issue for
the opposition. "Politics should exist for the sake
of those who are vulnerable socially and
economically."



On minister Yanagisawa's comments : When Yanagisawa's
Health minister remark on "child-bearing machines" was
first questioned, many lawmakers in the ruling
coalition thought he should resign. One upper house
lawmaker of the Liberal Democratic Party said: "We
lost women's votes." (Yomiuri)



Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had issued
a warning to his health minister for degrading women
as "child-bearing machines", as approval for his
government continued to slide. Abe was grilled in
parliament by the main opposition, which said that the
premier had responsibility for the gaffe by Health
Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa. "If the remarks are true,
they are unforgivable, not as a politician but as a
human being," main opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa had
said previously in a parliamentary debate. (Text &
Agencies)

Whatever Mr Yanagisawa will voice from now on will be
targeted by media and there is not much he can say.
Maybe time to reflect on this latin maxime :
"Consultor homini tempus utilissimus." (Time shall
teach you all things)

"Marianne" et les japonaises émancipées

Dans la serie, les japonais sont ils des robots, ce
que j'ai presente l'autre jour sur mon blog,
http://asiangazette.blogspot.com/ les evenements se
sont precipites pour le ministre de la Sante, ainsi
j'ai ete invite a commenter les propos du ministre,
monsieur Yanagisawa, qui estimait, par une metaphore
douteuse et qui n'en finit plus de faire scandale au
Japon, que les japonaises etaient des "machines a
enfanter" au point que sa tete est demandee.

Pour les medias, c'est une mine d'or, un focus a donc
ete fait dans le celebre programme du samedi soir "TBS
Broadcaster" http://www.tbs.co.jp/bc/cast.html ou l'on
a evoque longuement cette affaire avec des collegues,
et j'ai presente l'exemple de la politique de natalite
en France, (comme quoi...) et c'est au titre de
journaliste - correspondant francais au Japon que j'ai
ete invite a commenter la situation politique
japonaise et a expliquer ce qui se faisait en France
(2,0). Il m'arrive d'etre invite de temps a autres
sur cette chaine au titre de chroniqueur ou
d'interviewe.

Ici (caracteres en lettre orange) je parle de
"Yanagisawa qui a ouvert la boite de Pandore" avec un
accent sur la necessaire reforme des politiques
sociales, educatives, d'egalite des chances, de
politique familiale et de liberte d'enfanter ou non
etc, et ne me suis pas prive de commenter les
comportements des hommes politiques et des japonais
macho... TBS en redemandait. Mon intervieweuse,
Mukoyama chan, etait toute ouie... Marianne et son
emancipation, un theme en or l'an prochain pour le
150e anniversaire des relations franco japonaises,
voire, un theme electoral...?