Top 10 TERRIFYING Facts About the YAKUZA (Re-Issue)

hello I'm Simon Wesley you're watching top tens net and in the video today we're looking at the top 10 terrifying facts about the yakuza just before we get started I do want to say that this video contains a ton of Japanese pronunciations I try to look up the ones I can they're not always available in the various pronunciation dictionaries so I apologize to any Japanese people or people super familiar with Japanese before I get started please don't give me too much of a hard time in the comments the Yakuza is the Japanese mafia and their name essentially means good-for-nothing the name is believed to have been drawn from the lowest hand in the Japanese card game baccarat which is similar to blackjack in the game getting the cards Yakuza 89 3 is the worst possible hands that you can get Yakuza can refer to the crime syndicate as a whole or to an individual gang member who were also called yangu gangster in the video today we've got ten of the most terrifying facts about these notorious gangsters number 10 it resume one of the most noticeable ways members of the Yakuza can stick out are their extensive tattoos called irezumi most of the time it covers their entire torso except for a stripe down the middle of the chest sometimes it can even cover most of their bodies the tattoos are designed to be hidden under the clothes and the stripe down the chest allows them to open their shirt color or wear a robe without revealing them the tattoo process is expensive time-consuming and utterly painful they aren't done with electric needles instead it's performed by hand with a needle made from steel or bamboo the artist dips the needle in some ink and then repeatedly punctures the skin the tattoos can sometimes take years to complete there are several reasons why the Yakuza embraced a resuming first it's expensive so it shows that they have money secondly it's painful so it shows the man is tough for sitting through hours upon hours of the process in recent years the Yakuza have moved away from getting tattoos because of the public backlash the Yakuza also generally try to make an effort to blend in also since the tattoos have gone out of favor there's not so many for two artists you can make these tattoos number nine huge membership it's tough to determine what exactly is the foundation of the Yakuza but some experts think that their lineage can be traced back to the gangs of Ronin which were samurai without masters others think that they came from a group of grifters and gamblers dating back to Japan's feudal era the Gizem is also not one big group either it's comprised of several gangs called Buraku down which means violence groups as of early 2017 there were 22 recognized groups divided into separate clans the largest of these groups is the Yamaguchi Gumi who accounts for about a quarter of all Yakuza members Yakuza membership exploded after World War two by the early 1960s there were one hundred and eighty four thousand 100-year Kooza members but that number dropped to around sixty thousand for several decades in the 1990s they saw a resurgence and there were about eighty thousand members until 2011 when their numbers started to dramatically drop that's when the Japanese government enacted some new laws to combat the Yakuza by restricting their revenue in late 2016 their numbers were the lowest since the National Police Agency started keeping records at about thirty nine thousand one hundred members however this low membership isn't necessarily a good thing Jake Adelstein who is a reporter working in Japan and an expert on the Yakuza told the South China Morning press that the drop in numbers is probably only temporary in December of 2016 Japan legalized gambling and in about five years casinos are expected to start opening that's about how long it's going to take former accuser members to get a clean record adult Stein thinks that this will create a lot of opportunities for the Yakuza they will be able to get reformed gang members into the casino where they will be able to skim profits or blackmail people who news big which will generate huge revenue streams that will in turn allow the Yakuza to employ more members number eight The Godfather of Godfather's the most infamous Yakuza boss was couzo talcum who was the head of the Yamaguchi Gumi Talca was born in a small village on the island of Shikoku he was orphaned at a young age and sent to Kobe where he worked in shipyards in 1929 he started to hang out with members of the Yamaguchi Gumi ins became a blood member in 1936 during this time he got the nickname that had keep for the rest of his life Kubo which means there he got this nickname because he had a tendency to claw and gouge out his opponents eyes in 1936 how come when to jail for slashing a rival gang member to death he was released in 1943 and found Yamaguchi Gumi in shambles because of world war ii after the war in 1946 how come then 33 years old became the leader of the Yamaguchi Gumi after the previous boss from natural causes talca had an amazing gift for organization and he grew the gang to be the largest in Japan the godfather of Godfather's is taka with schools died in July of 1981 at the age of 68 number 7 you bitsa may yet be t'same which translates to finger shortening is the act where a yakuza amputates a piece of his little finger as a way to atone for a mistake or misdeed this act is either voluntary or not often they volunteer as a way to avoid the large punishments like being kicked out or killed possibly by being forced to commit suicide it stems through a punishment that was inflicted on gamblers who didn't pay their debts in feudal Japan besides causing a lot of pain it also makes it difficult for a person to handle a sort if they couldn't handle a sword they couldn't defend themselves and it would make them more vulnerable it was adopted by the Yakuza because it might affect them in hand-to-hand combat and while handling guns so it would discourage members from doing something wrong there was also a benefit to the Yakuza if their members are weaker because they would need to depend on their boss even more there are different accounts of how the ritual is done but what stays the same is that the Yakuza has to do it to himself 1 accounts of the ritual is that it's done while the boss supervises there is a cloth that is laid flat and the offensive places his left hand on the cloth palm up then using a sharp knife called a tanto they cut at the pinkie and the distal interphalangeal joint which is the top knuckle once that is done they wrap it up and handed the boss another version which was pulled from court testimony made the act sound a lot less ritualistic the actual procedure is to take a little silver knife on a table and you pull it towards yourself and bend over and your bodyweight will snap your finger off the finger that is severed is put in a small bottle with alcohol and your name is written on it and it is sent to whoever you're repenting to as a sign that you are sorry in 1993 a government survey found that 45% of the accuser members were missing part of their little finger and 15% had to perform the act more than once yet some a doesn't happen as often anymore because the Yakuza has been trying to blend into society and missing pieces of your finger is a good way to stick out number 6 taro masa gatos liver taro masa gato is the founder of the got a goomy which is a large Yamaguchi Gumi affiliated gang when he was in power he was one of the most dominant and successful Yakuza bosses in the country which is why he was called the John Gotti of Japan since got it was a notorious gangster who allowed to enter the United States this presented a problem for Gatto in 2001 because the 59 year old gangster needed a liver transplants liver problems are pretty common among the Yakuza because gangsters who run red-light districts aren't exactly known for their clean living also their tattoos are so dense that it blocked sweat from exiting their body meaning fewer toxins leave their body taking a toll on the liver supposedly liver damage as a sign of pride among the Yakuza for example they will say things like I drank enough to destroy three livers however due to restrictive organ transplant laws transplants are hard to get in Japan this led to him striking a secret deal where he gave the FBI information on the Yakuza and he donated money to the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles in exchange for a liver transplant for himself and three of his underlings the transplant stayed a secret until Jake Adelstein published a story about it in 2008 UCLA claims that the men each paid $400,000 in cash for their livers and gato donated $100,000 however Adelson uncovered that gato and one of the other Yakuza gangsters each paid 1 million dollars for their livers also got it would have been number 80 on the wait list for a liver but he managed to get a transplant in six weeks two other people including the second person on the wait list died in area hospitals around the time that gato got his transplants when the UCLA Medical Center was asked about the transplants on men who attitude and missing pieces of their pinkies they declined to comment after getting the transplant got I went back to Japan and he remains the leader of the gato goomy until 2008 in his retirement he joined the buddhist priesthood and published an autobiography this was a best-seller and his royalties were donated to charity number 5 the Yakuza are heavily involved in Japanese politics and the Japanese elite the Yakuza plays an interesting role in Japanese society for many years Japanese society but grudgingly accepted that the Yakuza were part of the culture so the Yakuza worked out in the open they are also longtime donors and supporters of the Liberal Democratic Party LDP which is a right-wing party that has been in power in Japan since 1955 with the exception of five years between 1993 and 1994 and 2009 to 2012 every so often a scandal erupts when it's exposed that a politician received money from the Yakuza or one of their business fronts many times it's not enough to ruin a career ban the politician doesn't use resign one of the biggest political scandals though happened during one of the few years when the LDP was not in power instead the Democratic Party of Japan DPJ was in power and they ran on a platform of cleaning up the government and cracking down on the Yakuza but then in October of 2012 the DPJ appointed a man named Kai Shu Tanaka as the Minister of Justice it turned out that he was heavily connected to the Yakuza ruins the fact that the head of their justice system was mobbed up well it shocked Japan today I resigned a few weeks later besides money another way that the Yakuza helped the LDP is by whipping up support in rural areas in these areas the campaign Chiefs are Yakuza who also heads the agricultural cooperative they were also connected to Yakuza run construction companies many of the rice growers who are part of this cooperative also worked construction jobs because they don't make enough from growing rice obviously since people in the area are depending on the Yakuza for work the Yakuza can be very influential when it comes to drumming up votes for the LDP who I feel it's important to mention again have been in power for 57 of the last 62 years number for human trafficking according to the International Monetary Fund in the United Nations Japan has the fourth biggest GDP behind the United States China and the European Union they are one of the most technologically advanced societies and they have some of the lowest crime rates in the world their murder rate is only 0.3 people despite how advanced and prosperous the country is Japan has a horrifying human trafficking problem since 2001 the US Department of State has released the trafficking in persons CIP report measuring countries on their human trafficking problems and what steps their governments are taking to combat the problem there are four levels tier 1 tier 2 tier 2 watch list and tier 3 then there is a category 4 special cases tier 1 countries are the best at handling human trafficking this includes countries like the United States Australia Canada and many countries in Europe Japan on the other hand has never been ranked higher than a tier 2 country and dipped to tier 2 watch list in the past tier 2 are countries whose governments do not fully meet the trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards but are making significant efforts to meet those standards other tier 2 countries include Iraq and the northern triangle countries which are El Salvador Han Duras and guatemala the northern triangle is the most violent area of the world that isn't at war and it's on par with Japan in terms of human trafficking much of the human trafficking in Japan is handled by the Yakuza the Yakuza got their start in human trafficking during World War two when they worked with the Japanese Empire to provide comfort women to soldiers the women were often from South Korea and other countries that were invaded by Japan in World War two after the war the Yakuza set up brothels which were frequented by American servicemen they also set up sex tourism destinations in East Asia for Japanese men who were earning better incomes after the war and could travel inexpensively based on the strength of the yen however in the 1980s women's groups started to protest sex tourism so the Yakuza made a change instead of men traveling to have sex with prostitutes as they simply brought foreign women to Japan and set up brothels in red-light districts these brothels are still in business and found throughout Japan today it should also be noted that sex tourism it didn't end it just changed the Yakuza now sends men out of the country to have sex with children as for why Japan hasn't cracked down on the Yakuza's human trafficking activities it probably doesn't hurt that the government that they financially supporting campaign formed has been in their constant power for 60 years number 3 host and hostess clubs in Japan there are these places called host and hostess clubs where patrons can come and meet a woman who is called a hostess or a man who is called the host stands they have drinks and converse however the host and hostess clubs also have a rather sinister side as they are either owned by the Yakuza Roy Yakuza are associated according to Jake Adelstein what happens is that a woman visits a host clubs you have a boyfriend experience with one of the hosts as they drink the host encourages the women to keep buying expensive drinks for which they get a commission sometimes the women rack up huge bills and when they can't pay the yakuza may force them to work off their debt which can be done through prostitution this can even happen to girls under the age of 18 who are blackmailed or forced into prostitution in order to pay off what they owe if forcing women especially teenagers into prostitution to pay off a bar debt wasn't bad enough the Yakuza also have a system in place so that the woman will never be able to pay off the debt for example they'll only be able to work off the interest or they'll be invited to host birthday parties and then they are charged money to attend the party which creates more debt essentially the Yakuza made these women sex slaves because on the night out they sent a bit too much money number two they are one of the wealthiest organized criminal syndicates in the world besides the sex trade another major source of income for the Yakuza is drugs especially methamphetamine the Yakuza reportedly account for one third of the multi-billion dollar East Asian meth trade as for how much money the Yakuza organization makes as a whole that's tough to say because there are so many groups and they are comprised of hundreds of clans the last figure was from 1989 and it was estimated they were making about 1.3 trillion yen which is about 10 billion dollars today there are more recent estimates about how much revenue the biggest group yamaguchi-gumi generates and it's believed to be in the neighborhood of 6.6 billion dollars this makes Yamaguchi Gumi at one of the richest gangs in the world number one their bloodiest war there have been several Yakuza wars over the past several decades but the bloodiest started in 1985 the roots of the war date back to July the 23rd nineteen eighty one when casualty Okubo you remember from entry number eight the died of natural causes the person who would have assumed the position as boss was Kenichi yamamoto who was the second in command however went out had died Yamamoto was in prison so the lieutenant's decided to wait until he got out of prison and then he would lead the gang but then Yamamoto died from liver failure in prison on February the 4th 1982 with the two heads of the gang dead the left handed so tada a would take the leadership they elected mushishi attacker naka however like many elections not everyone was happy with the results in this case it was a man named hiroshima moto hiroshima moto broke away from the Yamaguchi Gumi informed his own group it she walk hi they kick started the war by shooting to death taka naka and two prominent members of the Yamaguchi Gumi while they were in an elevator this led to more shootings which are incredibly rare in Japan because of strict gun laws as well as bombings over the next four years things got so bad that Japanese newspapers kept a scorecard of the deads and the injured door was eventually won by Yamaguchi Gumi who had many more soldiers by the time the war was over thirty-six people were dead and scores more were injured once the war came to an end the members of Yamaguchi Gumi elected Yoshinori Watanabe aka mr. gorilla to be their leader in 1989 Watanabe was considered a strong and intelligent growing membership and profits but he resigned or was forced to resign in 2005 as public heat increased on the Yakuza the current boss of Yamaguchi Gumi is Kenichi Shinoda so I really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already for brand new videos just like this every day of the week also over there on the right a couple of other videos that you might enjoy if you enjoyed this one and as always thank you for watching [Music]

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Keywords: top 10, toptenz, top10, top ten, top 10 list, YAKUZA, yakuza vs triad, yakuza group, yakuza gang, facts about yakuza, notorious gangsters, Japanese mafia, Yubitsume, Tadamasa, Japanese Elite, Irezumi, yakuza punishment, Kenichi Shinoda, Kazuo Taoka, Masahisa Takenaka, the richest gangs, Yamaguchi-gumi, gang facts

Id: IDb1A95gQmY

Length: 16min 6sec (966 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 13 2017