The truth about the Yakuza and Asian gangs part 1

The truth about the Yakuza and Asian gangs part 1

Posted by benjamin

July 19, 2010

For the next three weeks I will be disconnected from the internet and all digital means of communications so instead of summarizing the week’s news, I will be presenting deep background knowledge on the Yakuza and Asian gangs.

The first thing one needs to know about the Yakuza and the triads is that they are not crime gangs as defined in the West. The Yakuza are deeply connected to Shinto, the Emperor and Japan’s mysterious and ancient minority peoples.

The Yakuza are partially descended from refugee followers of Mozi who fled heavy persecution by the first emperor of China in 200 BC. They settled in Kyushu and along the South-West coast of Japan.

Around 600 AD the ancestors of the Japanese imperial family lost a war on the Korean peninsula and were forced to flee to Southern Japan. There they started rice farming and started to prosper until they were attacked by the aboriginal Jomon peoples. To fight them off they hired the followers of Mozi as well as aboriginal warriors. Excavations of Samurai tombs from the Kamakura era (1185-1333) show they had a different bone structure from other Japanese. In other words the rice growers figured out it was better to hire the minority peoples than to fight them.

To this day members of the Japanese special forces and Yakuza from certain districts of Japan have a different appearance from Yayoi Japanese who are descended from rice growing Koreans. The pure blooded minority people have a distinctive appearance much like the Ainu people of Nothern Japan. They were originally divided into 9 tribes. To this day the leaders of the tribes gather in the mountains for meetings on special dates.

Some of the yakuza I know personally have naturally orange or brown hair and eyes that are the same color as the mineral tiger eye. They also have lots of body hair.

Shinto is the religion of these people. This is not the state sanctioned emperor worshipping Shinto created in the Meiji era but is instead known as ancient Shinto. It is the animistic religion of these tribes. That is why you will usually find a minority people’s village around any major Shinto shrine.

A family that has run a shrine in the ancient capital of Nara says many of their teachings originally came from a “blonde, blue-eyed Jew.” It is true that the Japanese Katakana script is virtually identical to ancient Hebrew writing.

There are also many parallels between the first part of the old Testament or Tora and Japanese foundation myths.

According to the Shinto elders, there was a rift thousands of years ago over the use of certain incantations and magic.

The spirits the Shinto priests say they can invoke have many parallels to the spirits the Italian illuminati say they can invoke with their secret rituals.

For example, the Italian Illuminati believe you can attain certain dark powers by killing a black cat and drinking its blood.

The priestess the ancient Nara shrine has a similar tale from her childhood. She says there was an old man who lived nearby and used to be friendly to her. At one point though he began to act strange and violent. The village elders decided to confine him to a special hut. One day they heard strange noises and the screaming of cats coming from the hut. They went to investigate and found him eating the heart of a black cat and surrounded by dead black cats. He kept saying “now I can see it all.”

He was taken to a mental hospital and when the priestess went to visit him she felt he was no longer human because of the glow coming out of his eyes.

What this story illustrates is that the yakuza are not simply some kind of crime gang. They are heirs to ancient secret traditions.

To this day they run their groups according to rules that are very similar to the code of the Samurai. There are strict rules against nepotism. The son of a gang boss is not allowed to inherit leadership of his father’s gang.

Each Yakuza group also operates an autonomous Island or piece of turf they will defend with their lives against other Yakuza. All of the Yakuza are linked at the top by a secret leadership council that also oversees the Japanese police, armed forces and financial system.

The four main gangs in Japan are the Yamaguchi gumi, the Inagawa Kai, the Sumiyoshi gumi and the Goto gumi. The Goto gumi used to be affiliated with the Yamaguchi gumi but split off last year in a dispute over money and ideology.

Most major businesses in Japan have a “ketsu mochi” or gang that backs them up in case of disputes with other companies or other gangs. If there is a dispute between corporations that cannot be resolved amicably, each consults their respective ketsu-mochi. These then meet somewhere informally and either reach a compromise or declare war.

These days a compromise is almost always reached. This is one reason why lawyers are in such low demand in Japan.
Next week we will discuss police/yakuza/imperial family relations.