Organized Crime

[The Gaffer]

You two, get a room already!

I agree that gangs are very damaging, and that the harm they do is mostly to the very poor and the already criminal. That's not a reason to sweep it under the carpet.

The feeling I get is that as long as they don't interfere with nice middle class people too much, they will be tolerated. They may even be seen as an important law-enforcement agency: having one powerful gang ruling the underclass is far better than a miscellany of petty gangs all killing each other and extracting protection from the same (poor) people.

[Nurvingiel]

It seems that the Yakuza (which Mari already mentioned) operates this way. There is not a lot of violent crime. IIRC, the Yakuza mainly engage in white-collar crime.

I'm not saying that an organization that punishes mistakes by having you cut off your own finger is a positive force, but they might have something to with the low crime rate.

I think, though, that the low crime rate is because in Japan (as my friend who lived there for a while said), "Everyone has enough." There are hardly any homeless people, some of the most vulnerable of society. This might be one factor.

<edit>
Another thing about the Yakuza is that they're all tattooed. Therefore, having a tattoo is very frowned upon in Japanese society, to the point where you might not be allowed in some bath houses if you have one. (I think they'd cut a tattooed foreigner some slack though.)
</edit>

Correct me if I'm wrong Mari.

[Mari]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

Correct me if I'm wrong Mari.

Hehe, thank you. Just wanted to say there are a lot of homeless actually. Many of them are between 16 and 40 years old and live in internet-cafes or manga-cafes. However they are often registered as having a temp-job and mail-boxes can be rented. Therefore they don't show up in the official homeless rates.
It's quite sad.

Tattoos are indeed associated with the yakuza, though it is not true that all members of the yakuza have a tattoo, or miss a finger.

Plus, I should have made a distinction between yakuza and 'bouryouku gangs', the latter typically resorting to violence and also being politically active. Sometimes as enforcers, sometimes for their own ideas.
Very very simply put, the 'b gangs' kill you, but the yakuza make you want to kill yourself just to get out of your (financial) misery.

[Nurvingiel]

Originally Posted by Mari

Hehe, thank you. Just wanted to say there are a lot of homeless actually. Many of them are between 16 and 40 years old and live in internet-cafes or manga-cafes. However they are often registered as having a temp-job and mail-boxes can be rented. Therefore they don't show up in the official homeless rates.
It's quite sad.

That is sad. I guess that's why I didn't know about it. I guess not everyone in Japan has enough then.

Are there any government programs to help the uncounted homeless people? How does one live at an internet or manga-cafe anyway? (At least there's a roof over their head..?)

Originally Posted by Mari

Tattoos are indeed associated with the yakuza, though it is not true that all members of the yakuza have a tattoo, or miss a finger.

I didn't mean to imply that each member would have those features. But if Takeshi Kitano's movie "Brother" is any indication, some of them might be missing a finger.

Originally Posted by Mari

Plus, I should have made a distinction between yakuza and 'bouryouku gangs', the latter typically resorting to violence and also being politically active. Sometimes as enforcers, sometimes for their own ideas.
Very very simply put, the 'b gangs' kill you, but the yakuza make you want to kill yourself just to get out of your (financial) misery.

They probably have driven people to suicide too.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

They probably have driven people to suicide too.

Similar to Citibank in that, then.

[Mari]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

Are there any government programs to help the uncounted homeless people? How does one live at an internet or manga-cafe anyway? (At least there's a roof over their head..?)

No government programmes really that I know of, but I should ask my friend who is doing her thesis on it. Technically these people have a job. They are registered with a number at an agency and get an email on their phones when there is a job for them. They get paid by the hour (around 700 to 1000 yen) and have to use that money for food, renting a locker (400 yen per day), etc. and in the aforementioned cafes you can pay to stay all night. Those places have showers and everything which you can use for free and you have your own booth. It's approximately 1000 yen per night. Though manga cafes are cheaper since they might not have all sorts of facilities.
A lot of youths who got kicked out of school or from home live like this.

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

I didn't mean to imply that each member would have those features. But if Takeshi Kitano's movie "Brother" is any indication, some of them might be missing a finger.

I know, I was just saying.

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

They probably have driven people to suicide too.

Yups. >_<

[The Gaffer]

Blimey, what an existence.

It's important to distinguish between official crime rates and people's experience of it though. Usually the latter is very different from the former.

Though there is a distinct lack of rational thought about crime generally. Despite all the evidence that crime is falling, the papers are fully of scare stories.

Our gangs are mostly petty and disorganised. They don't usually have guns and tend to keep to their own little turf, preying on the most vulnerable.

[Mari]

Originally Posted by The Gaffer

Despite all the evidence that crime is falling, the papers are fully of scare stories.

That is very much true. I had some very interesting classes on the 'demonization' of youths after 2 or 3 violent cases. All of a sudden the Japanese newspapers were making a fuss out of it, blaming the police and the schools, causing a nation-wide review of things and causing the penalties to get more severe.
But actually, the rate of solving crimes in Japan is really high. The rate of solvings of murdercases is almost 100%