Japan for the Uninvited

The yakuza is one of the most famous and most romanticised criminal groups in the world.

Traditionally seen by many Japanese people as a modern incarnation of the samurai, the yakuza were tolerated for a long time.

They are distinctive for extensive tattooing, missing pinkie fingers and hairstyles 20 years out-of-date.

In 1991, new “Anti-Boryokudan” legislation outlawed organisations that employed a high proportion of former convicts, radically altering yakuza structure and making recruitment much more difficult.

• Yakuza (Wikipedia)
  
• ‘The Yakuza, the Japanese mafia’ (The Crime Library)
  
• Introduction to Yakuza Japanese