This man said he grew up poor in eastern Japan and had dropped out of high school when he decided to join a gang. “I’ll make a name for myself in ‘gokudo’ (the yakuza world),” he said he ...

Tatsuya Shindo was once a member of the yakuza, a Japanese organized crime gang. His arm-length tattoos are a sure sign of his past life. Shindo also served time in prison. But now, he’s a 53-year-old ...

Gangs affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi ... Tomohiko Suzuki, a journalist who specializes in yakuza organizations, said Yamaguchi-gumi’s order “may be intended to furnish its senior members ...

It expanded significantly from the late 1950s to the early '70s, becoming the most powerful yakuza gang in Japan. The year 2005 proved to be a pivotal one for the group, as two new leaders took ...

There are thought to be nearly 100,000 Yakuza members in Japan. When they enlist in individual gangs they are taken to a secret location where they are trained in hand-to-hand combat and meditation.

A senior member of the infamous Japanese yakuza gang was arrested for allegedly stealing Pokemon cards near Tokyo in April. The case has been seen as an example of Japanese crime groups struggling ...

The "institutionalisation" of crime in the form of about 80,000 registered gang members may play a role in that. The yakuza are suffering along with everyone else. According to figures cited by ...

Released from prison, Jiro joins the notorious Yoshimizu Yakuza family as a member. Not long after however, he sets out to form his own Yakuza clan in Osaka. This sparks a bloody territory war ...