Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

As a historically low-crime nation, Japanese values and culture seem fundamentally at odds with the simultaneous existence of one of the world’s largest and most successful criminal syndicate systems: the yakuza. This paper, engaging in a series of socio-legal research questions, analyzes the following: How did the yakuza establish themselves initially, and how did they maintain legitimacy? How does the yakuza interact with contemporary Japanese law? Using the Bōtaihō anti-yakuza legislation as a case study, this paper examines how Japanese law enforcement and policymakers have tried to control, prosecute, and eradicate the yakuza in recent years. This analysis lays the foundation for an exploration various arguments for why the yakuza have continued to be tolerated in Japanese society, and begin to examine future trends pertaining to this criminal underworld’s possible decline in the near future. Using the lenses of common explanations for the yakuza’s sustained existence - its quasi-legitimate role in controlling and employing the criminal underworld, its complex internal family structure, its embeddedness in various spheres of Japanese politics and economy, as well as the overarching failure of recent control efforts in the Botaiho legislation of the late-twentieth century - this paper argues that changing demographics and value systems of an aging society serve as the main driver for the yakuza syndicate system’s deteriorating strength in recent years. By understanding the impact of aging on a traditional and historical organization such as the yakuza, this paper explores its broader implications for Japanese society and cultural values.