Japanese Yakuza Helping Enforce Peace and Order in the Relief Effort

[rodsky]

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from Looting in Japan: Why so little looting in Japan? The explanation is legal as much as cultural. - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine


"Organized crime. Police aren't the only ones on patrol since the earthquake hit. Members of the Yakuza, Japan's organized crime syndicate, have also been enforcing order. All three major crime groups—the Yamaguchi-gumi, the Sumiyoshi-kai, and the Inagawa-kai—have "compiled squads to patrol the streets of their turf and keep an eye out to make sure looting and robbery doesn't occur," writes Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, in an e-mail message. "The Sumiyoshi-kai claims to have shipped over 40 tons of [humanitarian aid] supplies nationwide and I believe that's a conservative estimate." One group has even opened its Tokyo offices to displaced Japanese and foreigners who were stranded after the first tremors disabled public transportation. "As one Sumiyoshi-kai boss put it to me over the phone," says Adelstein, " 'In times of crisis, there are not Yakuza and civilians or foreigners. There are only human beings and we should help each other.' " Even during times of peace, the Yakuza enforce order, says Adelstein. They make their money off extortion, prostitution, and drug trafficking. But they consider theft grounds for expulsion."

In a mature and civilized society, even the crime kingpins have a sense of decency, order and humanity.

-RODION

[SPRINGFIELD_XD_40]

Nice move by the YAKUZA'S .

[kit_cebu]

nice.............. i believe this is a real japanese trait that needs to be embedded to us...........

complex to understand though...........i meant the yakuza....

[kerengkeng42]

tamaaaa...pak!

In a mature and civilized society, even the crime kingpins have a sense of decency, order and humanity.

agree juwd ko ani, rodski baby...

[black_mamba]

the real gangster! WEW! mao pud diay nga tag.as kaayo ug respeto ang mga taw ani nla....!

[cptn_star]

a criminal group enforcing order? Gawd, wa'y kabutangan akong bilib...

[AntitaniC]

wala man tai ingon ana diri.... bali sa ato-a diri... groups sa mangawatai ang ma form ug mag patrol...

[black_mamba]

no wonder nganu progressive kaayo ang japan....

[sexyjanes]

very nice unlike sa atoa ang crips and bloodz cge lng gapatay... dala lang hugaw2x...

[INFRACTION]

kudos to the Yakuzas