![]() The gang members were later arrested on charges of attempted extortion.Īccording to the National Police Agency of Japan, in a nation of over 122 million people, there were 12 shootings in the first half of 2017, with two people killed and three injured. They grabbed back the box with the watch, took the model gun away from the yakuza, ran out of the office and called the police. When the watch arrived, one of the gang members pulled out a model gun and told the delivery workers, “Leave the watch and get out of here!” Last June, two members of the Matsuba-kai crime group, had a wrist watch worth 850,000 yen ($7,626) sent to their office in the Arakawa district of Tokyo, cash on delivery. He added, “Unless you’re an old gangster and wanting to stay in jail until you die because you got nowhere else to go, you don’t use a gun. Guns kill people, so if you use one, intent to kill is right there. ![]() The most severe penalty is for the act of discharging a gun in a train, on a bus, or most public spaces, which can result in a life sentence.Īfter the mayor of Nagasaki City was shot to death by a Yamaguchi-gumi member in 2007, the laws have been continually revised to make them even stricter.Ī police officer in Osaka’s Organized Crime Control Division, speaking on background noted, “In the de facto world of law enforcement, when a yakuza fires a gun, we’re almost always going to charge them with attempted murder-which is a very heavy crime and serious time in ‘the pig-house’ (jail). If you own a gun and matching ammunition, that’s another charge and a heavier penalty. Illegal possession more than one gun, the penalty goes up to 15 years in prison. Japan’s Firearms and Swords Control Laws make it a crime to illegally possess a gun, with a punishment of jail time of up to 10 years. The gang typically also has to support the family of the hit-man while he is in prison, which is also a financial burden for the organization. No one wants to claim responsibility for such acts – the gang office might actually get shut-down.” “In a hit, whoever fires the gun, or is made to take responsibility for firing the gun, has to pretty much be willing to go to jail for the rest of their life. Ryo Fujiwara, long-time writer on yakuza affairs and author of the book, The Three Yamaguchi-Gumi, says that the punishment for using a gun in a gang war or in a crime is now so heavy that most yakuza avoid their use at all – unless it is for an assassination. The toy gun threat was part of that conflict. There has been relatively little bloodshed. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, the new group, has been skirmishing with the Yamaguchi-gumi ever since. The Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest organized crime group, with over a hundred years in business split apart on August 27th 2015. In video games, comics, and “the good old days,”yakuza fired guns without hesitation. Reports at the time of the crime vary as to what the fake gun sounded like, but police confirmed that the model gun did not actually discharge any real or fake bullets, of any kind. US racing frantically to close missile defense holes ![]() In Japanese, the sounds of a gun are represented as “BAN” “DON” “GAN” rather than “BANG BANG”. He pressed a fake gun against him and repeatedly pulled the trigger, making gunshot sounds several times. Last December, in Nagoya City, Yoichi Yoshida, 49, chairman of the Kobe-Yamaguchi-gumi Issei-kai crime group, confronted a 46-year-old rival boss in the Yamaguchi-gumi. However, the results are sometimes comical rather than deadly.Īccording to Nagoya Television and other sources, on November 29 at the Nagoya District Course, a crime boss from the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi was sentenced to three years in prison (four years suspended) for threatening a rival gang member with a toy gun. They also make their money via extortion, racketeering, loan sharking, and a host of other illegal activities.įor collecting protection money, guns would seem to be ideal, but these days, fake guns serve the purpose of striking fear into victims and rivals, without the heavy penalties. ![]() They are legal entities that insist they are humanitarian organizations they have corporate logos, business cards, offices and monthly fan magazines cover their exploits. Japan’s yakuza, are divided into over 20 groups with roughly 40,000 members. Japan has some of the world’s strictest gun control laws and fear of hefty punishment has resulted in even some organized crime groups, or yakuza, turning to using fake firearms.
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