There is a “gangster war” going on now between the huge Yamaguchi-gumi and something called the “Iijima-kai” (飯島会). Over the weekend there were a spat of murders of the Iijima-kai (More on the war in Japanese). I’m not usually interested in Japan’s crime, except when spending a pleasant evening with a couple of Yakuza movies. What surprises me the most about this past weekend’s violence is the fact that one of the gangs, the Iijima-kai, appear to be a bunch of street vendors（露店）!? Off the top of my head I can think of three varieties of street vendors that I see around the city: Foreigners selling cheap jewelry or fake stuff (clothes, train cards etc.), old men selling traditional Japanese snacks, and younger punks selling barely legal “love pills” and other “party products.” I can’t imagine the former joining something called the “Iijima-kai” and I can’t imagine the last group, which look like a bunch of deeply suntanned beach bums with little or no grey matter between their ears, could actually organize anything with “kai” (group) in its name. So are these gang members a bunch of potato and noodle venders? Why do I never see them in the Yakuza flicks?
February 24th, 2004 at 19:02
Don’t you remember that a street vendor was also a Yakuza member in the movie ” 新仁義なき戦い”? It’s true that street vendors in Shibuya Center-gai do not look like Yakuza at all but once you get to suburbs then it is kind of obvious that those street vendors have a deep connection with Yakuza, dayo.
February 24th, 2004 at 19:20
Sayaka! Thanks for reminding me! You are right!
February 25th, 2004 at 3:28
Of course, there are other scary ‘kai’ groups as well. In Kofu, the Yamagishi-kai has a really strong presence. They are a semi-separatist commune that support themselves by selling very high quality dairy and other farm products. They were always somewhat disturbing though, since the news would occasionally talk about how the police were investigating them for violating child-labor laws, evidently they forced thier kids to work in the farm all day, and never really attended school. Also to join the group, you had to give all your financial assets, and of course you never got them back, even if you left.
February 25th, 2004 at 9:58
Derek, that is absolutely bizarre! I wonder why these kinds of organizations have a tendency to form here (around such…mundane sources of income)…
February 25th, 2004 at 22:26
Yamagishi-kai is kind of famous in Japan. Here is their homepage: http://www.koufukukai.com/
I believe there are more bizarre groups in the US, too, though.
February 26th, 2004 at 3:29
Yes, the U.S. certainly has it’s share of bizarre separatist communes. What makes the U.S.’s infamous is that these groups generally also stockpile a lot of weapons, and because of this they tend to end violently and tragically. Ruby Ridge (a group in Idaho about 20 years ago), The Waco Branch Davidians (led by the infamous David Koresh about 10 years ago), etc. Even the horrible Jonestown incident 25 years ago. While the Jim Jones mass-suicide incident was in Guyana, his group People’s Temple was definately a U.S. organization.
Perhaps only the Aum Shinrikyo or the Panawave Laboratory might compare to some of the more frightening U.S. groups. (Of course, according to some people, my own religion may fall into this group…)