Word: yakuza
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...cultural footnote: the Yakuza in Japan is very much like the Mafia Stateside: a clandestine and very powerful criminal organization with heavy political connections. The Yakuza has its own code of conduct but, typically, the code has a kind of fearful stringency that makes the Mafia look by comparison like a gang of clubhouse rowdies...
...YAKUZA...
...location in Japan to play a detective in Sydney Pollack's Japanese mobster movie The Yakuza, Old Pro Robert Mitchum, 56, himself was mobbed. Strolling through the Gion, Kyoto's geisha district, the star found himself surrounded by geisha pleading, "Please, Kirk Douglas-san, your autograph." Regretfully rubbing his chin, which is as deeply dimpled as Kirk's, Mitchum resolved that future excursions would have to be incognito. Next day on the set, he inspected a possible disguise: the beehive headgear originally worn by jobless, mendicant samurai trying to hide their shame...
...bravado is a novelty. Until fairly recently, in fact, gangsters were obliged by a chivalric code to give to the poor and avoid harming innocent people. Like members of the Mafia, they took a blood oath that was not broken with impunity. For failing to live up to the yakuza code, an offender had to show penitence by cutting off his little finger and presenting it to his oyabun (boss)-a rite that still prevails in the Japanese underworld...
...yakuza branched out from gambling into other rackets, the gangs grew in number and power. Today the largest, Yamaguchi-gumi,* is a veritable army of 10,000 men. Under the command of Japan's top mobster, Kazuo Taoka, 60, police say that Yamaguchi-gumi has become a criminal conglomerate that controls more than 50 corporations, ranging from restaurants and bars to trucking companies and talent agencies. The gang's take from gambling alone is estimated to be as high as $100 million a year...