Japanese mafia launches official website to improve image and gain members

In an effort to improve their image, Japan’s most notorious organised crime syndicate has launched a website showing members performing good works.

17:06 04 April 2014

Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest yakuza group and the country’s most notorious organised crime syndicate, has launched its own website showing members performing good works in an effort to improve its own image and sign up more members. 

 

The website welcomes visitors with a sign reading, “Banish drugs and purify the nation league.” 

 

The website also features a corporate song and a video where gang members are seen on a pilgrimage to a shrine. 

 

Yamaguchi-gumi, which is similar to the Italian mob and Chinese triads, is allegedly involved in range of activities including prostitution, extortion, and white-collar crime. However, they are not deemed illegal and in fact, have their own public headquarters. Historically, they have been tolerated by authorities with corrupt police officers overlooking their crimes. 

 

Jake Adelstein, author of an forthcoming book entitled The Last Yakuza: A Life In The Japanese Underworld, said: "The website has no context or any real mention of the crimes they have been involved with or industries they control. That's not the purpose of the website. The point of the website is to demonstrate that the Yamaguchi-gumi is actually a humanitarian organization."