History of Yakuza

Yakuza long history began roughly in 1612, when Shogun Tokugawa shoguns ruled and get rid of the previous Kasai. This change resulted in approximately 500,000 people samurai previously called hatomo-yakko (waiter shogun) becomes lost master, or referred to as a ronin.
Kasai Shogun is one of Japan's largest Highways and very influential to Date
As the saying goes: people who only have a hammer tends to see everything can be sorted out with dimartil, so also with the ronin this. Many of them become criminals and thugs. They are referred to as kabuki-mono or sloppy eccentric samurai who went everywhere carrying a sword. They talk to each other in slang and secret codes. There is a high fidelity among this group of ronin so difficult to eradicate.
To protect the city from the kabuki-mono, many small towns in Japan forming machi-yokko (unit task (task force) village). The Task Force consists of traders, employees, and ordinary people who want to donate energy to deal with the kabuki-mono. Although they are poorly trained and few in number, but it turns out the machi-yokko member is able to keep their area of ​​attack of the kabuki-mono. Among the Japanese people of the 17th century, the machi-yokko is regarded as a hero.
The problem gets complicated, because after the successful overthrow of the ronin, the members of the machi-yokko is even abandon their original profession and choose to be thugs. This is further aggravated by the interference Shogun in maintaining the machi-yokko this. There are two classes of the machi-yokko professions, namely the Bakuto (gamblers) and Tekiya (traders). His name is just the merchants but in fact, this Tekiya the deceptive and squeeze fellow traders. However, these people have a strong kinship system. There is a strong relationship between Oyabun (Bos (father)) and Kobun (subordinate (child)), and Senpai-Kohai (Senior-Junior) who later became thick in the Yakuza organization.

 1.Gambler
Bakuto (gambler), has a unique history. Originally they were hired by the Shogun to gamble against the employees of construction and irrigation. This action is done so that the salaries of employees of construction and irrigation runs out at the gambling table and the power they can be rented at a low price.
Type of gambling is usually done using Hanafuda card game systems like Black Jack. Three cards are dealt and if the card numbers added together, the latest figures show the winner, among the many unlucky cards totaling 20 cards are most often cursed people, because ending in zero. One configuration of this card is a card with a value of (8-9-3), which in Japanese became Ya-Ku-Za which later became the name of the origin of the Yakuza.
From this Bakuto also appeared tradition marking themselves with tattoos all over its body (called irezumi) and yubitsume (cut finger) as a form of remorse or as punishment. Initially these penalties are symbolic, because the ball of the little finger cut makes more difficult the owner hand holding a sword with steady. This has become a symbol of obedience to the leader.

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2.Modern Yakuza
Time passed, the Bakuto and Tekiya into one identity as the Yakuza. The origin is charged with protecting the public - be feared society. Japanese leaders use this to control the public and stir nationalism. Yakuza participate recruited by the Japanese government in the occupation of Manchuria and China by Japan in the 1930s. The Yakuza sent to the region to seize the land, and obtain a monopoly in return.
Yakuza fortunes changed after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The military took over the reins from the hands of Yakuza. Yakuza members eventually have to choose whether to join the government bureaucracy, the army or go to jail. Yakuza prestige can be said to be immersed.
After the Japanese surrender, the members of the Yakuza back to the community. Appears one person who managed to unite the entire organization Yakuza. That person is Yoshio Kodame, a former military with the rank of Admiral Young (who reached the age of 34 years). Yoshio Kodame managed to unite the two factions of the Yakuza, the Yamaguchi-gumi, led Kazuo Taoka, and Tosei-kai, led Hisayuki Machii. Yakuza also grew, particularly in the period 1958-1963 when the Yakuza organization has an estimated 184,000 members or more than the members of the Japanese army at that time. Yoshio Kodame crowned as the godfather of his Yakuza.

 3.Ecstasy, pachinko and arms trafficking
At present, an estimated yakuza membership has dropped sharply, but it does not mean harmless. The backbone of their illegal business is pachinko, trade ampethamine (including ice and ecstasy), prostitution, pornography, extortion, smuggling arms up.
In the 1980s, Yakuza develop their wings up to the United States, and joined a legal business to launder their money. In operation, the Yakuza buying assets in America and one that never came to the surface is the involvement of Prescott Bush, brother of President George HW Bush and uncle of President George W. Bush, the company's sales transactions Asset Management International Financing & Settlements in the early 1990s.
Based on a rough estimate of the source of the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine edition January 17, 2002, the Yakuza is estimated to have invested up to 50 billion dollars in stock investments and companies in the United States.
Domestically, the Yakuza also suspected played a role in the economic slump in Japan for the past 10 years. As a result of collapse of the real estate business and the breakdown of bank loans in Japan after 1990, many debtors who hire members of the Yakuza that their collateral is not seized by the bank. In addition, many companies are obtaining a bank loan is basically a kigyo shatei, doll companies have Yakuza. Yakuza-owned company is expected to earn credits between 300-400 billion dollars, and some of it is passed to the parent organization of the Yakuza. Faced with this kind of thing, Japanese banks obviously can not move.
On the other hand, members of the Yakuza also often buy property assets at low prices from companies that need cash for resale at any higher price range from apartments, offices to hospitals. When a building has been purchased by the Yakuza, no one dared so their neighbors and consequently property prices fell, and soon rose immediately after the Yakuza sell.
In addition to operating at a lower level, Yakuza also menggurita among Japanese politicians. Some of the graft was uncovered included in the general project tender program worth billions of yen. Japanese bank recapitalization program protracted not finished compounded by Yakuza involvement very interested in the property business and banking credit. Currently Japanese banks still bear the burden of bad loans amounted to approximately 1.2 trillion dollars and make the economy does not grow over the last 10 years.