When I first arrived in Japan from the United States, I was surprised by the Japanese perception of the yakuza.
My image, like many others, was shaped by films like Takeshi Kitano’s “Outrage”—a world filled with open violence and intimidation.
However, I quickly learned that the real Japanese underworld was fundamentally different from the American Mafia or street gangs I knew.
A comment from a Japanese colleague has stuck with me ever since:
“The kind of yakuza you see in ‘Outrage’ no longer exist in this country.”
So, what does Japan’s modern underworld look like?
From an American’s perspective, I decided to investigate.
