Four yakuza members arrested for having office too close to library

This time, the yakuza have gone too far… in the direction of a library.

Sure, movies and video games may make the life of a yakuza member glamorous, what with all the harm they do to themselves and others. But the reality is that when they’re not throwing their jackets off in cool ways, they’re having to put up with all kinds of legal red tape, whether it’s getting a smartphone or finding a suitable location for offices to run their criminal enterprises from.

This is because, much like with pachinko parlors or gas stations, yakuza offices are subject to zoning laws. In fact, on 15 May, four members of the Sumiyoshi-kai were arrested in Tokyo’s Kiyose City district on suspicion of operating an office in an apartment that was 90 meters (295 feet) from a library, when yakuza offices are only permitted outside of a 200-meter (656-foot) radius of libraries.

▼ A news report on the arrests with extra points awarded to the one guy doing his perp walk in an Anti Social Social Club shirt

This might seem at odds with many people’s images of organized crime groups working out of secret hideouts and on their own terms to evade police, but things are done differently in Japan.

For starters, it’s not illegal to operate or be a member of a registered organized crime group in Japan, as strange as that may sound. There are currently 25 “Shitei Boryokudan” or “Designated Violence Groups” in Japan, but this is nothing like a designated terrorist group label in Japan or other countries that essentially defines the group and everyone in it as criminal. Designated Violence Groups are permitted to operate more or less out in the open, provided they don’t commit any crimes, such as… well… violence.

All these contradictory terms came to be in 1991, with the Boryokudan Countermeasures Law or “Botaiho” for short. Prior to this, violent infighting among groups was spilling out into the general public, and their growing involvement in regular businesses like real estate during the bubble era was an increasing matter of concern. Botaiho was set up as a way to keep a tighter leash on their activities, in part by turning them into quasi-legitimate organizations.

Banning yakuza groups outright was a violation of their constitutional right to freedom of assembly, so instead they were legitimatized in a way that would allow police to ostensibly know where they were at all times. The term “Designated Violence Group” was also a not-so-subtle way of sticking it to them in the process, by denying them their preferred label of “Ninkyo Dantai” or “Chivalry Group.”

In addition to improved surveillance, making yakuza groups legitimate through Botaiho meant that the leaders could be held responsible for the actions of their subordinates. In other words, if a registered member of a certain designated group was caught stealing sea cucumbers from the ocean, police can now search the entire group’s offices, something that wasn’t possible prior to 1991.

And as we’ve seen several times before, things got even more severe for yakuza members with the introduction of the Organized Crime Exclusion Ordinances in 2011, which prevent businesses from dealing with members of Designated Violence Groups. This means that even getting a Netflix account would be illegal for either Netflix or the yakuza member if said member lies about not being in such a group and, thanks to Botaiho, would set up their whole group for investigation.

This also means that the four who were recently arrested for violating the zoning law in their area won’t be able to buy or rent a new office without putting themselves on the line for fraud. It’s just another way that organized crime groups’ power is getting chipped away a little at a time by Japan’s most notoriously powerful weapon: mind-numbing bureaucracy.

Source: FNN Online Prime, Chiba Prefectural Center for the Elimination of Boryokudan, Asia Pacific Journal
Featured image: Pakutaso
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