Reddit Reddit reviews Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld

We found 8 Reddit comments about Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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8 Reddit comments about Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld:

u/George_E_Hale · 32 pointsr/japan

>Doesn't mean they aren't the most violent and hated syndicate in Japan, though.

This. The yakuza gumi and their "acts of kindness." These groups are very good at maintaining the image of public-conscious servants, all the while running extortion rackets, keeping a hand in human trafficking, loan sharking, and all manner of embezzlement, not to mention strongarm and intergang violence.

Recommended reading: Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld

I just hate to read articles like this where people view them through such rose-colored lenses. It's naive and plays right into their purpose.

Mind you, they do keep control of petty crime. Some of the most "crime free" areas are yakuza districts, but then this is often the case with any organized crime group.

u/RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS · 21 pointsr/japan

You may as well take it as a given because it is true, but this book is quite good in explaining the relationship between the right wing and the Yakuza and how the US encouraged both as a measure to suppress communism.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0520274903/

u/LittleHelperRobot · 9 pointsr/japan

Non-mobile: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0520274903/

^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?

u/xaliber · 6 pointsr/AskHistorians

Since you mention Japan, I recall a brief chapter on David Kaplan and Alec Dubro's Yakuza (it's not a history book, but it was used in "Organized Crime and Crime Organizations" class I took) regarding bakuto, the assumed precursor of the modern yakuza.

Bakuto were gamblers in Edo period who would travel from town to town. They were hired by government officials to gamble with laborers and earn back the money for the government from the laborers' wage (and they get some percentage as a payment). As the amount of bakuto increased during the Edo period, they organized themselves into larger groups and work in cohort with the tekiya (black market peddlers).

They are not "Thieves Guilds" as imagined in popular depiction per se, though.

u/otokononakaotoko · 3 pointsr/AskHistorians

The association between what became the modern conception of "Yakuza" and gambling is as old if not older than at least the Edo/Tokugawa period of Japan. What we think of as Yakuza or modern crime was the combination of two samurai era gangs/social groups (depending on how you look at them) called Tekiya (peddlers) and Bakuto (gamblers). It is true that there was a huge focus on gambling in the wake of the war, but that's really only the tip of the iceberg. Organized crime essentially ran all of the black markets (essentially the only markets) in major cities in the wake of WWII, creating a monopoly on all goods bought or sold. This was often in the form of protection money paid to crime syndicates, nominally to protect market vendors from danger but in reality a tax on both their goods and a right to be in the market. But even this pales in comparison to the links between organized crime and politics in the wake of the switch in American policy. Initially, the focus of the occupation was to punish those authoritarians who had committed crimes against the world and in Japan during the war, but as the spectre of communism rose on the world stage this was quickly reversed. Those criminals who had been locked up in places like Sugamo Prison (reserved for many of the worst war criminals, those class as Class A) were not only released but helped back into political office. Often the enforcers they would rely on to keep the peace and break up strikes were a newly reinvigorated Yakuza, who suffered during the interwar years by diminishing numbers. TO be honest this is a hastily done post that doesn't do the subject near enough justice, but a fantastic book on the history and origins of the Yakuza is

http://www.amazon.com/Yakuza-Criminal-Underworld-David-Kaplan/dp/0520274903

which if you have any interest in the subject you should definitely look into.

Also, that book is the source for my post.

u/Bhazor · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

The Yakusa is a fascinating entity where the truth is far stranger than the fictional stuff. I highly recommend Yakuza by David E Caplan. An in depth academic history of the Yakuza from the Edo to the modern era.

u/mushu-fasa · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Perry Link, Richard P. Madsen, and Paul G. Pickowicz, eds., Popular China: Unofficial Culture in a
Globalizing Society (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002)


It may be a little outdated, but it gives a great look into modern Chinese cultural trends.

Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook by Patricia Ebrey has great primary sources if you want to learn about Chinese culture that way, and it stretches all the way back to ancient times.

Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld by David Kaplan and Alex Dubro is a great book to read if you want to learn about the Yakuza and how they have effected Japanese political history.

u/steal_this_eel · 1 pointr/todayilearned

"They aren't Yakuza" that's not what the book "Yakuza" says; it has a whole chapter devoted to this practice. https://www.amazon.com/Yakuza-Criminal-Underworld-David-Kaplan/dp/0520274903/