Word: yakuza
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...himself a gun. Before the day was over, he allegedly used it to murder Iccho Itoh, the mayor of the southwestern Japanese city of Nagasaki, outside his campaign office. While the April 17 shooting first appeared to be an assassination, it soon emerged that Shiroo, a 59-year-old yakuza (gangster) with ties to Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest criminal syndicate, seemed motivated less by politics than by a petty personal grievance. He blamed a minor car accident on city construction work and wanted $17,000 in damages from the Nagasaki government. The result was absurd: an aging hoodlum gunning...
...Those close to Japan's top syndicates say the bosses have distanced themselves from Shiroo, putting out word that he was acting alone. But there's reason to doubt this tidy narrative. The Japanese media reported that Shiroo had tried and failed to help a yakuza-linked company win government construction contracts. City officials excluded the company in a push to reduce yakuza influence in the construction sector. Shiroo may have murdered Itoh to intimidate other officials...
...real motive remains murky, but Shiroo's brazen act provides some insight into the shadowy world of the yakuza and the difficulties Japan's once mighty mafia faces as it struggles to adapt to the country's changing economic circumstances. Over the past several years, the mobsters' traditional revenue sources have been drying up, largely due to vastly reduced government spending on graft-prone public-works projects. With easy money harder to get, gangsters may be more likely to resort to strong-arm tactics as they fight for scraps. "The Nagasaki shooting is a harbinger of what's to come...
...Police apprehended Itoh's attacker moments after the shooting. They've identified him as Tetsuya Shiroo, 59, and said he was a senior member of a gang affiliated with Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's biggest yakuza criminal syndicate. Police say Shiroo admitted to the shooting upon his arrest. His motive remains unclear: local media are reporting that Shiroo had a personal grudge against the mayor and his local government, but at least one anti-nuclear activist wondered whether there might be a political motive...
...Yakuza gangs have ties to right-wing groups, but right now there's no evidence that the shooting was politically motivated. Itoh was a liberal and a vocal opponent of nuclear weapons - a political necessity for any leader of Nagasaki. At the 60th anniversary of the city's bombing, Itoh angrily criticized the U.S. for continuing to maintain a massive atomic arsenal, and urged Japan to get out from under the American nuclear umbrella. (Tokyo has no nuclear weapons of its own, and depends on the U.S. for most of its security.) After North Korea tested a nuclear device last...