Monday
Oct062008
Yakuza Wars
Monday, October 6, 2008 at 10:34
From: Japan Focus
David McNeill & Jake Adelstein
A bloody dispute between two rival Yakuza groups in a southern Japanese city has led to a historic fight-back by local people. But rooting out the mob from society will not be easy.
“Get lost.” Not a promising start to an interview but this is hardly a standard interviewee: a flint-eyed gangster sporting a crew cut and a boiler suit. His two colleagues glower from behind oversized sunglasses and thick layers of suspicion. Rippling tattoos snake out of the rolled-up sleeves of Goon No. 1. “Kieusero,” [Fuck Off], he growls before slamming down the shutter of his office garage.
David McNeill & Jake Adelstein
A bloody dispute between two rival Yakuza groups in a southern Japanese city has led to a historic fight-back by local people. But rooting out the mob from society will not be easy.
“Get lost.” Not a promising start to an interview but this is hardly a standard interviewee: a flint-eyed gangster sporting a crew cut and a boiler suit. His two colleagues glower from behind oversized sunglasses and thick layers of suspicion. Rippling tattoos snake out of the rolled-up sleeves of Goon No. 1. “Kieusero,” [Fuck Off], he growls before slamming down the shutter of his office garage.
A reputation for unpredictability and violence keeps journalists away from the Japanese mafia, or yakuza, but a vicious turf battle between two rival gangs in Kyushu in the south of the country has made them reluctant media fodder. The two-year war has resulted in seven deaths and two dozen shootings and bombings. Now, in a remarkable act of collective courage that has electrified the fight against organized crime in Japan but divided the city of Kurume, local people are taking the gangsters to court.
