Advertisement

New laws force Japan's yakuza to evolve from gangs into corporations

In Tokyo's red light district of Shinjuku, two yakuza members pledge absolute loyalty by drinking each other's blood.

They are about to start a deadly feud to take over the group's drug trade.

But this is yakuza old style – full-body tattoos and severed fingers - and their rituals are being glorified on a movie set.

The real image these days is expensive suits and balance sheets, as new laws force the yakuza to evolve into a leaner and meaner outfit.

The old-style gangs are now modern day corporations amassing billions in profits.

Yoshihisa Yamamoto, the film's director, says the yakuza have changed a lot.

"I make films about the old style yakuza because it's easy to portray their traditional way of living," he said.

New laws passed in 2011 that made it illegal to do business with the yakuza have forced them to operate behind the scenes.

They use more front companies and third parties to do their dirty work, and they have vastly expanded into legitimate areas like real estate, finance, fine art and entertainment.

Experts advising yakuza on business investments

Jake Adelstein has been reporting on the yakuza for two decades and his investigations have brought down one of its biggest bosses.

"They have very bright people," he said.

"College graduates, business people who have become corporate associates who advise them on what to invest, people can propose a scheme to the financial division and they can say, 'yeah, great do this investment'."

Ikumi Yoshimatsu has felt the full force of the new style Yakuza.

She was the first Japanese woman to win the Miss International beauty contest in 2012.

After her reign she had lined up modelling and acting roles worth $2 million.

Then the yakuza came knocking and wanted their share.

"I was in a TV studio and suddenly he came into the TV studio and he followed me to my dressing room and grabbed my arm and tried to abduct me," Ms Yoshimatsu said.

The man was from a yakuza-connected talent agency, and demanded Ms Yoshimatsu work for them.

She refused, so they stepped up the harassment and intimation.

"He called my parents who had no idea of what was going on," she said.

"He just kept on saying if I don't listen to him I will wind up like another women who committed suicide."

Ms Yoshimatsu now lives with a guard dog and 24-hour protection.

Exposing how the yakuza act and control the entertainment industry in Japan has ended her career, so she is going to try her luck in America.

She says she is fighting the yakuza for others who are suffering in silence.

"I'm fighting for the millions of women who have shared their stories with me and supported me. I believe this is the only chance to change society."

Yakuza boss's son says respect traded for profits

The yakuza do not speak to the media, as their code of conduct strictly forbids it.

Manabu Miyazaki is about as close as you get.

He is the son of a yakuza boss and narrowly survived a shootout in 1986 when he was running the family’s yakuza-connected demolition business.

Mr Miyazaki is now a writer but he says he misses the old days when the yakuza were bound by rules, respect and loyalty.

He says today they are just interested in fatter profits.

"The current economy is suited to yakuza - whether it's buying and selling companies or equity - the economy has become like a casino, so it suits the new yakuza," he said.

Last year outsiders were given a rare glimpse of how the yakuza have become a part of corporate Japan when the mega-bank Mizuho was forced to admit it funded the yakuza.

The bank's executives confessed to providing the gangs with $2 million, but yakuza experts like Jake Adelstein says that is just the tip of the iceberg.

"If you put together all the transactions from various groups who are backed by them and invested in them, they would probably be the number 6 security industry in Japan," he said.

"That's a fair amount of influence."

Mr Adelstein says the yakuza have simply adapted and evolved to get around the 2011 laws.

"They're recruiting people who are clean-skinned, have all their fingers, have financial status," he said.

"If you study the economic yakuza you see the same names coming up over and over again and they move from one operation to another."

Back on the film set in Shinjuku the director, Yoshihisa Yamamoto, knows he will have to change his storylines in the future.

"The big bosses are getting the money but the lower rank members are doing the crime and they're moving further and deeper underground."

  • _Watch Matthew Carney's report tonight on 7.30 on ABC._*