Word: yakuza
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...increasing boldness of Mafia-like crime syndicates. Japan boasts the lowest crime rate of any industrial nation (Tokyo's homicide rate is about one-tenth that of New York's, for instance, and robbery is almost nonexistent). But police estimate that the country now has 124,000 yakuza (good-for-nothings, as mobsters are commonly called), divided into some 2,900 gangs. A crackdown on these boryokudan (violence organizations) has become the top priority of Japan's 200,000-man national police force...