Boryokudan or Yakuza?

In this journal, I want to explain about Boryokudan in Japan.
Boryokudan are anti-social groups indigenous to Japan. They are commonly referred to as "Yakuza". Some might have a question that what is the difference between them. Certainly, we usually call a member of Boryokudan as a Yakuza. So, Yakuza is a person who belongs to Boryokudan. But, there is one difference in a certain sense.

The term “Yakuza” is a traditional and used from old ages, while the term “Boryokudan” was made by Japanese government. Boryokudan are defined by the law (Law Concerning Prevention of Unjust Acts by Boryokudan) as “any organization likely to facilitate its members to collectively or habitually commit illegal acts of violence.” In my opinion, although they did illegal acts of violent, the term “Yakuza” sometimes have positive meaning and was used as the title of a movie (I never have seen the movie of attached picture.) 　But, the police were taking the measure against them and it was not good for the police that “Yakuza” were well thought by citizens. So, the police wanted to add a bad image to “Yakuza” and created the term “Boryokudan”.

There are about several hundred Boryokudan of many sizes in Japan. The total number of Boryokudan members is about 86,300 in 2005. The three major Boryokudan groups are: Yamaguchi-gumi, Inagawa-kai and Sumiyoshi-kai. Members in these three groups numbered approximately 63,000, representing more than 73% of all Boryokudan members.
They have still big power in back business in Japan. In recent years there have been a variety of crimes carried out by Boryokudan members in collusion with foreign visitors to Japan and the forms of these crimes have been diversifying, too.

The fight against Boryokudan is continuing and seems to be endless. When I go back to Japan, my never-ending battle is kicking off again.

Like CSI....

As you know, Crime Scene Investigation (commonly referred to as CSI) is a popular, Emmy Award-winning CBS television series that trails the investigations of a team of forensic scientists as they veil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths and crimes committed. One classmate requested me to write like CSI, but it is almost impossible. It is certain that CSI is very interesting and well-organized show, but real investigation is more complicated, mysterious, and unexciting.

When I was a deputy chief of Criminal Investigation Section in a police station, three years ago, I regularly had to be the person responsible for public peace and order of the area at night. It was the chief of persons on watch and called as the night head of the police station. Of course, I had to take the whole responsibility for everything what happened in the area at night. It was the heavy duty for me, because I was not experienced and too young to be that position.

One night, I was the man after 6 o’clock p.m. I wished that nothing would happen at that night and we could welcome a calm dawn. But, troubles generally happen on such a day. One of my subordinate came and reported me that a man had watched something like a dead body of a girl at the seashore early in that morning. The man watched something like a dead body on the way to angling and he had been worried about that. After all, he reported us after his going back to his home at night. So, the members on watch were thrown into an uproar. That’s because there was one girl who disappeared two years before from the near area and the police were searching the girl with their full strength.

After reporting to the “chief” of the police station, we went to the seashore where is very far from the station and searched “something”. The sea was deep black, and the waves broke on shore and that sounds were like men’s screaming. Because of a lot of tetra pods, the foothold and the view were so bad that policemen couldn’t continue to search it. I decided the close of searching at that night. At that night, I couldn’t sleep at all.

Next morning, we began to search the dead body by 50 policemen. After 2 hours had passed, we found the dead body under a tetra pod. To our surprise, the dead body didn’t have its head and it was rotten. It looked like a man, not a girl. We tried to drag the dead body out of the clink of tetra pods. Some policemen dragged and some pushed from the bottom. I hold my arm to its armpit and dragged. The neck without head came close to my face and the stink was too harsh. After all, it took 2 hours to drag it.

We inspected the dead body at the police station. The dead body was a man. But, there was no document proving his identity. We were completely at a loss. Then, a veteran detective whose specialty is crime scene identification tried to skin its forefinger’s skin. Its fingers were also rotten. But, he did skillfully and he pulled on the tip of its skin to his forefinger like a fingerstall. After that, he succeeded to take its fingerprint. As you know, each person has his/her own unique pattern of fingerprints that remains unchanged throughout life. The National Police Agency in Japan developed an automated fingerprint identification system based on highly precise and computerized pattern recognition technologies. Japanese police has much database of fingerprints (we usually take suspects’ fingerprints and add to the database.). He inquired the fingerprint to the database and we could identify the man.

The truth was that the man was a member of Japanese mafia (the Japanese mafia is called as “Boryokudan”.). He was a suspect for an attempted murder, and the police were on his track. He was seemed to commit suicide jumping down from a bridge to the sea. He had drifted 30 miles and he plunged into the clink of tetra pods.

Even now, the head was not found and I can’t forget the shocking scene of the dead body without its head and the stink. It is impossible to forget it forever.