Yakuza

The name yakuza gives status and originates from the traditional Japanese card game Oicho-Kabu, a game in which the goal is to draw three cards adding up to a score of 9. If the sum of the cards is 10 or more, the second digit is the score. So a sum of 13 is a score of 3, a sum of 14 is a score of 4, etc. A sum of 10 or 20 is a score of 0. If the three cards drawn are 8-9-3 (pronounced ya-ku-za in archaic Japanese), the sum is 20 and therefore the score is zero, making one of the worst possible hands that can be drawn. In Japanese, the word yakuza is commonly written in katakana (ヤクザ). == Origins ==

(Chogoro Yamamoto) Despite uncertainty about the single origin of yakuza organizations, most modern yakuza derive from two social classifications which emerged in the mid-Edo period (1603–1868): tekiya, those who primarily peddled illicit, stolen or shoddy goods; and bakuto, those who were involved in or participated in gambling. Tekiya (peddlers) ranked as one of the lowest social groups during the Edo period. As they began to form organizations of their own, they took over some administrative duties relating to commerce, such as stall allocation and protection of their commercial activities. During Shinto festivals, these peddlers opened stalls and some members were hired to act as security. Each peddler paid rent in exchange for a stall assignment and protection during the fair. The tekiya were a highly structured and hierarchical group with the oyabun (boss) at the top and kobun (gang members) at the bottom. This hierarchy resembles a structure similar to the family – in traditional Japanese culture, the oyabun was often regarded as a surrogate father, and the kobun as surrogate children. Bakuto (gamblers) had a much lower social standing even than traders, as gambling was illegal. Many small gambling houses cropped up in abandoned temples or shrines at the edges of towns and villages all over Japan. Most of these gambling houses ran loan-sharking businesses for clients, and they usually maintained their own security personnel. Society at large regarded the gambling houses themselves, as well as the bakuto, with disdain. Much of the undesirable image of the yakuza originates from bakuto; this includes the name yakuza itself. Because of the economic situation during the mid-Edo period and the predominance of the merchant class, developing yakuza groups were composed of misfits and delinquents who had joined or formed the groups to extort customers in local markets by selling fake or shoddy goods. Shimizu Jirocho (1820–1893) is Japan's most famous yakuza and folk hero. He was born Chogoro Yamamoto, but changed his name when he was adopted, a common Japanese practice. His life and exploits were featured in sixteen films between 1911 and 1940. The roots of the yakuza survive today in initiation ceremonies, which incorporate tekiya or bakuto rituals. Although the modern Yakuza has diversified, some gangs still identify with one group or the other; for example, a gang whose primary source of income is illegal gambling may refer to themselves as bakuto. Kyushu , a well-known source of many yakuza members The island of Kyushu (and particularly its northern prefecture Fukuoka) has a reputation for being a large source of yakuza members, including many renowned bosses in the Yamaguchi-gumi. Isokichi Yoshida (1867–1936) from the Kitakyushu area was considered by some scholars and political watchers as one of the first renowned modern yakuza. Recently Shinobu Tsukasa and Kunio Inoue, the bosses of the two most powerful clans in the Yamaguchi-gumi, originate from Kyushu. Fukuoka, the northernmost part of the island, has the largest number of designated syndicates among all of the prefectures. == Organization and activities ==

Structure During the formation of the yakuza, they adopted the traditional Japanese hierarchical structure of oyabun-kobun where kobun (子分; lit. foster child) owe their allegiance to the . In a much later period, the code of was developed where loyalty and respect are a way of life. The oyabun-kobun relationship is formalized by ceremonial sharing of sake from a single cup. This ritual is not exclusive to the yakuza – it is also commonly performed in traditional Japanese Shinto weddings, and may have been a part of sworn brotherhood relationships. The structure of yakuza organizations is characterized by a multi-layered hierarchical structure. The of an organization become and run their own subsidiary organizations, and the kobun of the subsidiary organizations also become oyabun and run their own subsidiary organizations. A large yakuza organization such as the Yamaguchi-gumi is made up of five or six layered organizations. In other words, the heads of subsidiary organizations are often executives of the parent organizations. The oyabun of the organization is generally called a or , the person corresponding to pseudo younger brother of the kumichō is called a , and the person corresponding to pseudo child of the kumichō (kobun) is called a or . means younger brother, and its status varies greatly depending on whose brother it is. From the perspective of the organization as a whole, shatei generally refers to the younger brother of an oyabun, and thus to a high-ranking person in the organization, Although positions in yakuza organizations vary from clan to clan, the three most important yakuza positions are kumichō, , and . , , and , are also important positions. In the Yamaguchi-gumi pecking order as of 2024, the order is kumichō, wakagashira, shateigashira, and honbuchō. Yakuza groups are headed by an oyabun (kumichō or kaichō) who gives orders to his subordinates, the kobun. In this respect, the organization is a variation of the traditional Japanese senpai-kōhai (senior-junior) model. Members of yakuza cut their real family ties and transfer their loyalty to the oyabun. They refer to each other as family members—, , and . Among brothers, it is common to refer to a person equal to oneself as kyōdai, a younger brother as kyōdai or shatei, and an older brother as . Rituals tattoos, 1870s Yubitsume, also referred to as otoshimae, or the cutting off of one's finger, is a form of penance or apology. Upon a first offence, the transgressor must cut off the tip of his left little finger and give the severed portion to his boss. Sometimes an underboss may do this in penance to the oyabun if he wants to spare a member of his own gang from further retaliation. This practice has started to wane amongst the younger members, due to it being an easy identifier for police. Its origin stems from the traditional way of holding a Japanese sword. The bottom three fingers of each hand are used to grip the sword tightly, with the thumb and index fingers slightly loose. The removal of digits starting with the little finger and moving up the hand to the index finger progressively weakens a person's sword grip. The idea is that a person with a weak sword grip then has to rely more on the group for protection—reducing individual action. In recent years, prosthetic fingertips have been developed to disguise this distinctive appearance. When yakuza play Oicho-Kabu cards with each other, they often remove their shirts or open them up and drape them around their waists. This enables them to display their full-body tattoos to each other. This is one of the few times that yakuza display their tattoos to others, as they normally keep them concealed in public with long-sleeved and high-necked shirts. When new members join, they are often required to remove their trousers as well and reveal any lower body tattoos. ==Syndicates==

Number of members and quasi-members The total number of yakuza members and quasi-members peaked at 184,100 in 1963, and then continued to decline due to police crackdowns. is a "particularly harmful" yakuza group registered by the Prefectural Public Safety Commissions under the enacted in 1991. Groups are designated as if their members take advantage of the gang's influence to do business, are structured to have one leader, and have a large portion of their members hold criminal records. As of 2025, Under the Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members, the Prefectural Public Safety Commissions have registered 25 syndicates as the designated yakuza groups. Three of these organizations have more than 1,000 regular members, eight have more than 100, and 14 have less than 100. Fukuoka Prefecture has the largest number of designated yakuza groups among all of the prefectures, at 5; the Kudo-kai, the Taishu-kai, the Fukuhaku-kai, the Dojin-kai, and the Namikawa-kai. Three largest syndicates and six major syndicates As of 2025, the National Police Agency has designated Yamaguchi-gumi, Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, Kizuna-kai, Ikeda-gumi (ja), Sumiyoshi-kai, and Inagawa-kai as among the designated yakuza. These six organizations have a total of 7,000 members and 5,500 quasi-members, for a total of 12,500 members, or 71.0 percent of the total 17,600 yakuza members and quasi-members in Japan. == Current activities ==

Japan In the 2010s and 2020s, the yakuza's main source of funding is a fraud called , which mainly targets the elderly to cheat them out of large amounts of money. Their methods include calling the homes of elderly people to beg for money by pretending to be the elderly person's son, or visiting the homes of elderly people posing as employees of financial institutions to swindle them out of their money. In 2014, tokushu sagi accounted for 10.4 percent of all yakuza arrests, surpassing theft for the first time at 10.2 percent, and 34.6 percent of tokushu sagi perpetrators were yakuza and their associates. The total damage from tokushu sagi identified in 2019 exceeded 30 billion yen, and while yakuza accounted for just over 10 percent of the lowest level members of criminal groups, such as cash receivers who play the role of financial institution employees, yakuza accounted for nearly 40 percent of the main perpetrators leading fraud schemes. The yakuza and its affiliated gangs control drug trafficking in Japan, especially methamphetamine. While many yakuza syndicates, notably the Yamaguchi-gumi, officially forbid their members from engaging in drug trafficking, some other yakuza syndicates, like the Dojin-kai, are heavily involved in it. The most common charge for yakuza and their associates arrested in 2014 was violation of the , which prohibits the import, export, sale, transfer, possession, and use of methamphetamine, accounting for 26.5 percent of arrests. Some yakuza groups are known to deal extensively in human trafficking. In the Philippines, yakuza trick girls from impoverished villages into coming to Japan by promising them respectable jobs with good wages. Instead, they are forced into becoming sex workers and strippers. district of Shinjuku has historically been known as a popular yakuza hangout in Tokyo. Yakuza frequently engaged in a unique form of Japanese extortion known as sōkaiya. In essence, this is a specialized form of protection racket. Instead of harassing small businesses, the Yakuza harass a stockholders' meeting of a larger corporation. Yakuza operatives obtain the right to attend by making a small purchase of stock, and then at the meeting physically intimidate other stockholders. The number of has decreased over the years, and in 2024 there were only about 130 , of whom 20 worked in groups and 110 worked alone. Yakuza also had ties to the Japanese real estate market and banking sector through jiageya. Jiageya specializes in inducing holders of small real estate to sell their property so that estate companies can carry out much larger development plans. The Japanese bubble economy of the 1980s is often blamed on real estate speculation by banking subsidiaries. After the collapse of the property bubble, a manager of a major bank in Nagoya was assassinated, prompting much speculation about the banking industry's indirect connection to the Japanese underworld. , where they often ride the shrine through the streets proudly showing off their elaborate tattoos. In 1989, Susumu Ishii, the Oyabun of the Inagawa-kai (a well-known yakuza group) bought US$255 million worth of Tokyo Kyuko Electric Railway's stock. Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission has knowledge of more than 50 listed companies with ties to organized crime, and in March 2008, the Osaka Securities Exchange decided to review all listed companies and expel those with yakuza ties. Yakuza involvement in Japanese politics functions similarly to that of a lobbying group, with them backing those who share in their opinions or beliefs. The Yakuza had a long, intertwined history with politics since the end of World War II, having leveraged on black markets for economic gains and funded conservative political parties such as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for protection and favoritism. Their involvement ranged from controlling the vital construction industry that was essential for post-war rebuilding to intelligence work against communist and leftist influence in Japan with the involvement of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The most prominent intelligence asset was Yoshio Kodama, who played a key intermediary between the Japanese government, the CIA and the Yakuza underworld. Yakuza's aid in earthquakes In the wake of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza group, who are based in the area, mobilized to provide disaster relief services (including the use of a helicopter). Media reports contrasted this rapid response with the much slower pace at which the Japanese government's official relief efforts took place. Following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011, the yakuza sent hundreds of trucks filled with food, water, blankets, and sanitary accessories to aid the people in the affected areas of the natural disaster. CNN México said that although the yakuza operates through extortion and other violent methods, they "[moved] swiftly and quietly to provide aid to those most in need." United States The presence of individuals affiliated with the yakuza in the United States has increased tremendously since the 1960s, and although much of their activity is concentrated in Hawaii, they have made their presence known in other parts of the country, especially in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Seattle, Las Vegas, Arizona, Virginia, Chicago, and New York City. The yakuza are said to use Hawaii as a midway station between Japan and mainland America, smuggling methamphetamine into the country and smuggling firearms back to Japan. They easily fit into the local population, since many tourists from Japan and other Asian countries visit the islands on a regular basis, and there is a large population of residents who are of full or partial Japanese descent. They also work with local gangs, funneling Japanese tourists to gambling parlors and brothels. In 2011, 15 people allegedly connected to the yakuza were arrested in São Paulo, were they also established an alliance with the brazilian drug cartel Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC). Also in 2011, Interpol agents arrested two Brazilian citizens of Japanese descent working for the yakuza, Cristian Ito and Marcelo Cristian Gomes Fukuda, accused of the murder of the merchant Yoshitaka Kawakami and attempted murder of his wife Naomi Kawakami in Tokyo in August of 2001. Asia (outside Japan) The yakuza have engaged in illegal activities in Southeast Asia since the 1960s; they are working there to develop sex tourism and drug trafficking. This is the area where they are still the most active today. In addition to their presence in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, yakuza groups also operate in South Korea, China, Taiwan, and in the Pacific Islands (mainly Hawaii). Yakuza groups also have a presence in North Korea; in 2009, yakuza Yoshiaki Sawada was released from a North Korean prison after spending five years there attempting to bribe a North Korean official and smuggle drugs. ==Constituent members==

Prospective yakuza come from all walks of life. The most romantic tales tell how yakuza accept sons who have been abandoned or exiled by their parents. Many yakuza start out in junior high school or high school as common street thugs or members of bōsōzoku gangs. Perhaps because of its lower socio-economic status, numerous yakuza members come from burakumin and ethnic Korean backgrounds. Low-ranking youth may be referred to as chinpira or chimpira. According to statistics published annually by the Japanese government, the nationalities of yakuza members newly incarcerated in prisons in 2024 were as follows, 576 Japanese nationals, 8 South Korean nationals, and 1 American national. According to a 2006 speech by Mitsuhiro Suganuma, a former officer of the Public Security Intelligence Agency, around 60 percent of yakuza members come from burakumin, the descendants of a feudal outcast class and approximately 30 percent of yakuza are Japanese-born Koreans, and only 10 percent are from non-burakumin Japanese and Chinese ethnic groups. Burakumin The burakumin is a group that Japanese society socially discriminates against, and its recorded history goes back to the Heian period in the 11th century. The burakumin are the descendants of outcast communities which originated in the pre-modern era, especially the feudal era, mainly those people with occupations which are considered tainted because they are associated with death or ritual impurity, such as butchers, executioners, undertakers, or leather workers. They traditionally lived in their own secluded hamlets and villages away from other groups. According to David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro, burakumin account for about 70% of the members of Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza syndicate in Japan. Ethnic Koreans While ethnic Koreans make up only 0.5% of the Japanese population, they are a prominent part of yakuza because they suffer discrimination in Japanese society along with the burakumin. In the early 1990s, 18 of 90 top bosses of Inagawa-kai were ethnic Koreans. The Japanese National Police Agency suggested Koreans composed 10% of the yakuza proper. The Korean significance had been an untouchable taboo in Japan and one of the reasons that the Japanese version of Kaplan and Dubro's Yakuza (1986) had not been published until 1991 with the deletion of Korean-related descriptions of the Yamaguchi-gumi. Japanese-born people of Korean ancestry who retain South Korean nationality are considered resident aliens and are embraced by the yakuza precisely because they fit the group's "outsider" image. Notable yakuza of Korean ancestry include Hisayuki Machii, the founder of the Tosei-kai, Tokutaro Takayama, the head of the 4th-generation Aizukotetsu-kai, Jiro Kiyota, the head of the 5th-generation Inagawa-kai, Shinichi Matsuyama, the head of the 5th-generation Kyokuto-kai, and Hirofumi Hashimoto, the founder of the now-defunct Kyokushinrengo-kai. ==Law enforcement and indirect enforcement==

Operation Summit Between 1964 and 1965, the Japanese police carried out mass arrests of yakuza leaders and executives in what they called the in response to public demands for the yakuza to be banished from society. As a result, crime declined and the number of arrested yakuza fell from about 59,000 in 1964 to 38,000 in 1967. The number of yakuza organizations and members also declined, from 5,216 organizations and 184,091 members in 1963 to 3,500 organizations and 139,089 members in 1969. As a result, 1963, the year before the First Operation Summit was launched, was the peak of yakuza power. Anti-yakuza laws The , passed in 1991 and enacted in 1992, was a landmark piece of legislation that cracked down on the yakuza. The law prohibited 27 acts by yakuza, including demanding hush money or donations, collecting debts and conducting land grabbing activities in an unjustified manner. The law also made it illegal to demand and collect so-called from downtown restaurants and bars, which were the yakuza's main source of funding. Police could issue two cease-and-desist orders to offenders who demanded mikajime-ryō, and could arrest offenders who still refused to comply. Until then, the yakuza had charged bouncer fees to restaurants and bars in their territory, especially those open at night, and made various threats, such as ramming dump trucks into businesses that refused, and business owners, fearing reprisals, had paid mikajime-ryō, but the new law resulted in more businesses refusing mikajime-ryō and the yakuza's financial resources were lost. In 1991, the yakuza had 63,800 members, but by 1992, when the new law took effect, the number had dropped sharply to about 56,600, then to about 48,000 in 1994 and 43,100 in 2001. Additional regulations can be found in a 2008 anti-yakuza amendment which allows prosecutors to place the blame on any yakuza-related crime on crime bosses. Specifically, the leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi has since been incarcerated and forced to pay upwards of 85 million yen in damages of several crimes committed by his gangsters, leading to the yakuza's dismissal of around 2,000 members per year; albeit, some analysts claim that these dismissals are part of the yakuza's collective attempt to regain a better reputation amongst the populace. Regardless, the yakuza's culture, too, has shifted towards a more secretive and far less public approach to crime, as many of their traditions have been reduced or erased to avoid being identified as yakuza. Yakuza exclusion ordinances In addition to the anti-yakuza laws, the Yakuza exclusion ordinances enacted by each of Japan's 47 prefectures between 2009 and 2011 also contributed significantly to the decline of the yakuza. Ordinances were enacted in Osaka and Tokyo in 2010 and 2011 to try to combat yakuza influence by making it illegal for any business to do business with the yakuza. While the anti-yakuza laws prohibited the yakuza from making unreasonable demands on businesses and citizens, these ordinances prohibited businesses and citizens from offering benefits to the yakuza. This made it increasingly difficult for the yakuza to raise funds, as fewer businesses and citizens succumbed to the yakuza's threats and offered benefits to the yakuza, such as contracting work or paying money to the yakuza. Even companies that provide lifelines have become tough on the yakuza, with Osaka Gas terminating contracts if a contractor is discovered to be a yakuza. To prevent yakuza from nominally leaving the organization and signing contracts with companies, these ordinances allow companies to treat a person as a yakuza for five years even if he or she has nominally left the yakuza and become a civilian. Current situation The number of yakuza members and quasi-members fell by about 70 percent in the 30 years between 1990, before the anti-yakuza law, and 2020, after the anti-yakuza laws and the yakuza exclusion ordinances took effect. In criminal cases, Nomura Satoru became the first boss to be sentenced to death under the employer liability clause on 24 August 2021. Nomura was involved in one murder and assaults of three people. The presiding judge Adachi Ben of the Fukuoka District Court characterized the murders as extremely vicious attacks. On 12 March 2024, the Fukuoka High Court overturned Nomura's death sentence and downgraded it to life imprisonment. The High Court found him not guilty of murder. On top of the already staggering anti-yakuza legislation, Japan's younger generation may be less inclined to gang-related activity, as modern society has made it easier, especially for young men, to gain even semi-legitimate jobs such as ownership in bars and massage parlors and pornography that can be more profitable than gang affiliation, all while protecting themselves by abiding by the strict anti-yakuza laws. Citizens who take a stronger stance seem to also have taken action that does not lead to violent reactions from the yakuza. In Kyushu, although store owners initially were attacked by gang members, the region has reached stability after local business owners banned known yakuza and posted warnings against yakuza entering their premises. ==Legacy==

Yakuza in society The yakuza have had mixed relations with Japanese society. Despite their pariah status, some of their actions may be perceived to have positive effects on society. For example, they stop other criminal organizations from acting in their areas of operation. They have been known to provide relief in times of disaster. These actions have at times painted yakuza in a fairly positive light within Japan. The yakuza also attract membership from traditionally scorned minority groups, such as the Korean-Japanese. However, gang wars and the use of violence as a tool have caused their approval to fall with the general public. According to Jake Adelstein, one study found that 1 in 10 adults under the age of 40 believed that the yakuza should be allowed to exist. Film film Drunken Angel, a yakuza eiga-genre film The yakuza have been in media and culture in many different fashions. Creating its own genre of movies within Japan's film industry, the portrayal of the yakuza mainly manifests in one of two archetypes; they are portrayed as either honorable and respectable men or as criminals who use fear and violence as their means of operation. Movies like Battles Without Honor and Humanity and Dead or Alive portray some of the members as violent criminals, with the focus being on the violence, while other movies focus more on the "business" side of the yakuza. The 1992 film Minbo, a satirical view of yakuza activities, resulted in retaliation against the director, as real-life yakuza gangsters attacked the director Juzo Itami shortly after the release of the film. Yakuza films have also been popular in the Western market with films such as the 1975 film The Yakuza, the 1989 films Black Rain and The Punisher, the 1995 film Johnny Mnemonic, the 2005 film Into the Sun, 2013's The Wolverine, 2018 film The Outsider, and Snake Eyes in 2021. Television The yakuza feature prominently in the 2015 American dystopian series The Man in the High Castle. They are also the basis for the 2019 BBC TV Series Giri/Haji, which features a character whose life is put in danger after he comes under suspicion for a murder tied to the yakuza. The 2022 HBO Max series Tokyo Vice explores the dealings of the yakuza from the perspective of an American reporter Jake Adelstein. The anime series Akiba Maid War is a dark comedic parody in which maid cafés and yakuza culture are synonymous with one another. Video games The video game series Like a Dragon, formerly known as Yakuza outside of Japan, launched in 2005, portrays the actions of several different ranking members of the yakuza, as well as criminal associates such as dirty cops and loan sharks. The series addresses some of the same themes as the yakuza genre of film does, like violence, honor, politics of the syndicates, and the social status of the yakuza in Japan. The series has been successful, spawning sequels, spin-offs, a live-action movie and a web TV series. Grand Theft Auto III features a yakuza clan that assists the protagonist in the second and third act after they cut their ties with the Mafia. The yakuza derive most of their income from a casino, Kenji's, and are currently fighting to keep other gangs from peddling drugs in their territory while seeking to protect their activities from police interference. Towards the end of the third act, the player assassinates the leader of the clan, and the other members are later executed by Colombian gangsters. In Grand Theft Auto III prequel, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, the yakuza play a major role in the storyline. In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the yakuza are mentioned, presumably operating in Vice City. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin features a mission set in Japan that sees Agent 47 assassinating the son of a wealthy arms dealer during his dinner meeting with a yakuza boss at his private estate. A mission in the 2016 game, Hitman, set at a secluded mountaintop hospital, features a notorious yakuza lawyer and fixer as one of two targets to be assassinated. Manga, anime and television dramas • Stop!! Hibari-kun!: manga (1981–1983), anime (1983–1984). The story focuses on Kōsaku Sakamoto, a high school student who goes to live with yakuza boss Ibari Ōzora and his four children—Tsugumi, Tsubame, Hibari and Suzume—after the death of his mother. Kōsaku is shocked to learn that Hibari, who looks and behaves as a girl, is male. • Gokusen: manga (2000), drama (2002, 2005 and 2008) and anime (2004). The heiress of a clan becomes a teacher in a difficult high school and is assigned a class of delinquents, the 3-D. She will teach them mathematics, while gradually getting involved in several other levels, going so far as to get her students out of a bad situation by sometimes using her skills as heir to the clan. • My Boss My Hero: Film stock (2001), drama (2002). A young gang leader, who seems to be too stupid to do his job, misses a big deal because he cannot count correctly, and on the other hand, is practically illiterate. In order to access the succession of the clan, his father then forces him to return to high school, to obtain his diploma. He must not reveal his membership in the yakuza, under penalty of being immediately excluded. • Twittering Birds Never Fly: manga of the shōnen-ai genre (2011–?). Yashiro, a totally depraved masochist, boss of a yakuza clan and the Shinsei finance company, hires Chikara Dômeki, a secretive and not very talkative man, as his bodyguard. While Yashiro would like to take advantage of Dômeki's body, the latter is helpless. • Like the Beast: manga, yaoi (2008). Tomoharu Ueda, a police officer in a small local post, meets Aki Gotôda, son of the leader of a yakuza clan, in pursuit of an underwear thief. The next morning, Aki shows up at his house to thank him for his help and finds himself making a declaration of love for him. Taken aback, Ueda replies that it is better that they get to know each other, but that's without counting Aki's stubbornness, ready to do anything to achieve his ends. • Odd Taxi: anime, manga (2021). A taxi driver becomes entangled in the rivalry of competing kobun and uses his position to undermine the local yakuza organization. • Nisekoi (2014): Nisekoi follows high school students Raku Ichijo, the son of a leader in the yakuza faction Shuei-gumi, and Chitoge Kirisaki, the daughter of a boss in a rival gang known as Muchi-Konkai. Two manga by Ryoichi Ikegami are located in the middle of the Japanese underworld: • Sanctuary (1990): Hōjō and Asami, childhood friends, have only one goal: to give the Japanese back a taste of life, and to shake up the country. For this, they decide to climb the ladder of power, one in the light, as a politician, the other in the shadows, as yakuza. • Heat (1999): Tatsumi Karasawa is the owner of a club in Tokyo who plans to expand his business. He gives a hard time not only to the police but also to the yakuza, of which he manages, however, to rally a certain number at his side. == Yakuza-related terminology ==