Hi it’s Nobita. Thank you for taking
your time to watch my video. I think yakuza is one of the things
Japan is well-known for globally but there’re still
many things unknown and I’ve been
asked about it a lot. So today, I’m going to talk with
an ex-yakuza leader 1 on 1 and ask him about
his experience. Hopefully, this video will help you know
about yakuza a bit more in some way. Ok, let me tell you how
I got into it. I've worked as a carpenter
since junior high school. When I was 18,
I had a heart disease and my back got strained. So, I couldn't work
as a carpenter anymore. At that time,
I wanted to be a financier. Then, I jumped into the finance shop.
And that was run by the leader of the yakuza. I had been a motorcycle gang
and doing in a lot of fights. The leader of that yakuza was
a famous violent faction in Fukuoka. I joined the yakuza
because I admired him. The world of the yakuza
looks gorgeous. There's an image of the yakuza as being rich
and able to make love to any woman they want. But basically,
we start as apprentices so we have to follow someone else
to learn the manners and etiquette. For example, there's
a proper way to hold a tray. We learned how to hold the tray,
where to place the tea, where to place the wet towel
and how to fold it, and so on. The yakuza world
has to be extremely clean. The toilets have to
be super clean, too. For example, let's say
the other yakuza comes to visit us. And when they see the bathroom,
they can tell true color of that yakuza. They can tell if the orders
are being given properly by whether or not they are
well cleaned or not, or whether or not the shoes
in the doorway are in order. They'll think
they can beat us. I was about 20 years old at the time,
so I didn't understand those things. One day I finished cleaning
the bathroom sloppily and reported to my boss. Then the boss started to lick
the urinal like this. I thought,
"What?!" If you're told to clean the
toilet bowl so you can lick it, maybe you
end up with a mess. But he really did lick it. And he told me "Next time you're
going to figure out" if you can get me to lick the toilet
bowl or not, Think about it yourself.” After that,
I cleaned it up really well. I'm sure his mouth
was full of germs. There is no rule that you have to do Yubitsume
because you did something. I had a cut on my left hand pinky,
and there's a reason I cut it off. At the time, there was
a boss who I adored. One day, I lied to the boss
about a little thing. But I liked
that boss so much and I couldn't stand the fact
that I lied to him and betray anymore. So I did Yubitsume. But this is just
one example. Another example, someone couldn't stand to be
surpassed as a yakuza and ran away because
he couldn't pay his dues. Then, when he came back,
he was told to take responsibility so come back with
his finger cut off. There are a lot of
organizations in gangs and sometimes they get in
trouble with other organizations. In some cases, when somebody
comes back from a loss he takes the blame and
cuts off his fingers. (With a knife?) Basically, do you know what
chisels carpenters use? Put the fingers like this,
and hold the chisel like this and tap it on top of the chisel,
and it drops right off. And make sure to
wrap the rubber here. Otherwise, after cutting it off,
a lot of blood will come out. If the rubber is wrapped,
no blood comes out at all. (It's very painful, isn't it?) Actually, the pain varies
from person to person. In my case, I cut it off
of my own choice. I had a sense of duty
to do and take it. I didn't use a chisel,
I cut it off by myself with a knife. Normally, it would be
painful and unbearable. But I had a sense of duty,
so I didn't feel any pain at all. Curiously, people who don't want to do it
but forced to do, it hurts. Off topic, but let's say the boss
tells you to kill someone. You can kill someone
because you have a sense of duty. But if you're in a fight and you want to kill
him in person, you can't kill a person easily. By being told what to do by the boss,
you get a sense of duty. The fascination of being the yakuza is
that we're willing to risk our bodies for the boss. Being devoted to your boss. (Is that the motivation?) That's right. Six months after joining the yakuza
when I was 18, the president of my gang
was killed. At that time,
three presidents were shot. The topmost person in
the pyramid structure and the two immediate followers below him
were shot. The topmost president survived. One of the immediate followers,
after being shot twice, turned enemy's gun on himself,
protecting the top president. And then he was shot
four times and died. It's hard to describe what it means
to put someone's life on the line. As a result,
he really put his life on the line. I think it's a big deal. I have a tattoo too,
so let me show you a little bit of it. I used to have up to my wrist, but I'm working
as an architect now, so I've removed it here. The custom of tattooing started
with the fishermen. Many fishermen used to
be thrown overboard to die. So they had it so
they could see who they were when they came
out of the water as dead bodies. Another story is that
in the Edo era, prisoners would get their tattoos
like this when they went to prison. To cover it up, they put
the tattoo out over it and it became part of the
culture of the yakuza. (Do you put it in a yakuza organization?
Or at the store?) Some organizations have
an exclusive carver while others let them in
at the shop. There are no rules. (Basically everyone
gets a tattoo?) Some organizations
used to force to put. Nowadays, having a tattoo
can be a disadvantage so the upper management
won't force it. There's no rule that
they must have it. Five to ten years before
I joined the yakuza, they were forcing their
eyebrows to be tattooed as well. Because, it's hard to go back to straight
when the tattoo is even on the eyebrow. That's why they forced the
eyebrows to be tattooed (=Mayumonn). Not getting paid a salary. Working on your own
with the yakuza coat of arms. There's a monthly payment to
the head of the organization. We need to do a lot of things
to earn money. When I first became the yakuza,
all I did was blackmail. When I slowly figured out
the rules of society, I worked as a temporary help
business in the construction industry. I'd send people to
different places and then I'd go in as an
intermediary and take money. But most of us were brokering
and selling methamphetamine and things that they had stolen. Most people do
that kind of thing. I'd commit a case and then
I'd go to jail for about five years. When I came back
from prison, I was dealing with women
in a brothel to get money. In that time, it was impossible to run a brothel
without the gangsters getting involved. Otherwise, the shop would
surely have been closed down. Now, it can be run regardless,
but at the time, it wasn't possible at all. Many of the people who ran the
brothel were from the underworld. Sometimes the brothels
get in trouble with each other. Or the customer
causes a problem. For example, raping a girl
working at the brothel. In those situations,
the yakuza would be a backer. In short, the yakuza
was a problem solver. (What's the background?) Not that there's
any kind of background. Traditionally, the yakuza "fight for the
oppressed against the oppressor." In the old saying,
the yakuza = chivalry. Helping people who are really in trouble
is the way of life and style of the yakuza. I joined the volunteering for
the Great East Japan Earthquake 2011 I couldn't stand still, and I just
wanted to do something to help them. I took all the younger members and
loaded all the supplies we could carry and we were in Miyagi Prefecture
for about two weeks. Recently, Hitoyoshi City in Kumamoto Prefecture
suffered damage from floods. As Kumamoto Prefecture
is a place associated with me, I've tried to do as much as
I can in volunteer work now. As background, when it comes to money,
there are no profits. The money just
goes out. But if someone is in trouble,
I just want to help them I joined the yakuza
when I was 18. I really admired the boss
at the time. But as I grew older, I found myself
disagreeing with the boss. When I had to go to jail for the second time,
the relationship was still bad. At that time, my boss and I
got into an argument. And then the boss told me that
he was going to excommunicate me. For me, I thought it was
simply a family quarrel but then he suddenly
cut the connection. After all this devotion, I thought he cut
the connection with me for a mere quarrel. And it was a very difficult time
to live as the yakuza. When I thought about it in many ways,
I thought my life wasn't going to end here. Later on, when I got out of prison,
I actually hadn't been excommunicated yet. The boss told me that I was excommunicated,
but his boss hadn't yet given his permission to do so. I went to prison without knowing that so when I came back from prison,
I knew that I hadn't been excommunicated. I went to prison
for three years. I decided to return to a normal life
and spent three years in prison. So I was very
determined. By the time I got out, a large
sum of money raised and I was going to be
given an even better post. But I didn't think I could make it
through the rest of my life if my will was
wavering on that. That's when I decided to return
to a normal life and quit the yakuza. (Any regrets?) Well, I don't have any regrets, ever. But I reflect
on it a lot. There's a lot of crazy
in the yakuza world. I've done a lot of things that
weren't quite right myself, like prison time. Again, I have no regrets,
but I do reflect on it. There were a lot of horizontal
connections at the construction company, and I caused a lot of trouble
for the president there. When I was arrested, The company was suspended of
nomination by the police because they would
be connected to me. It was outed that this company
was involved with the yakuza and that it should not
be associated with them. I think that's
the hard part. It used to be that the yakuza
was a necessary evil. But when the yakuza are
no longer able to work, as they are today, they're
no longer a necessary evil. Getting involved
with the yakuza makes life difficult even for people
who aren't yakuza, too. Yeah, it's so
heavily regulated today. You know, fraud is popular now,
but it wasn't in the past. The yakuza used to tell
them not to commit fraud. But now they're being forced into
a situation where they have to do that. So, in the end, the more tightening up,
the more all sorts of crimes will be committed. (It's going to have a
negative impact?) Yeah, a lot. The label of being out of prison
and quitting the yakuza doesn't come off. We're looked down. Sometimes people say that the
gang leader was so great back then but now he looks
like he's fallen behind. And, normal people think that
he's a bad guy who's going to jail. There are a lot of
prejudice against me. Actually, there're a lot of people today
who want to quit the yakuza or the gangsters and work hard,
but they're looked at like that. There's nothing
to aim for. It just comes with that label and
can't fit in with the general public. And they do the same bad thing
over and over again. So, I want to be able to
send a message to those people. Even a former yakuza leader
can get to this point if really worked hard. Actually, I do study a lot,
though probably I don't seem so. I did study A LOT and
got all the qualifications I needed. The results are
coming in now. Now I can confidently tell people that
if you work hard, you can change your life. I hope I can be a role model for all of those people
and give them something to live for. If there's one person who has done bad things,
but has been able to change his life that makes people want to do
their best too, doesn't it? I want to build
those things up. It's only natural for people who went to elementary,
middle, high school, and college to point at people like us. It is only proper. That's what I've done, so
I'm gonna have to live with it. But the most important thing is that
what you're going to do from now on. The point is that the present is important.
We can't change the past. It's a common phrase,
but we CAN change the future. I believe I've changed my life.
this guy was sent to jail by his boss, used to work in construction before and after he left yakuza... that's basically real life goro majima
Is it weird that I'd like to sit down and buy him a beer or two? I'll bet he's got some stories to tell that weren't mentioned in the interview.
Interesting about the finger thing though. I didn't realize it was optional.
I'm glad he mentioned the whole thing about the cleaning and apprenticeship. It reminded me of a guy in this documentary (segment starts around the 45:30 mark) who had been in the firm for 7 years but was working as a housemaid for the oyabun - washing and folding laundry, cleaning, making breakfast. That was literally all he was doing. I get the angle that they are devoted to their boss, but I couldn't help but wonder if he'd known that would be his day job, would he ever have signed up? Was he disappointed deep down but couldn't admit it to anyone lest it seemed disloyal and because he'd already invested so much time? It seemed kind of tragic; he could have got a regular job like that in a hotel or something without any of the stigma or consequences for leaving...
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the stuff about serving properly, tray etiquette etc. seems quite reminiscent of vassal/feudal/tea culture, which I guess might be a throwback to some yakuza's claim that they're descendants of ronin.