[Dragaera] Real World Yakuza Article

[Scott Schultz]

In light of the way that the Jhereg operate semi-openly in the Empire, the
following article about the pervasiveness of the Yakuza and the current
police crackdown is fairly interesting.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0727/Japan-s-yakuza-mafia-f
aces-a-crackdown

Particularly interesting excerpt:

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It is difficult for most outsiders to fathom the openness with which yakuza
gangs have operated. Membership is legal. Gangs have offices, are listed in
phone books, and newly formed factions have been known to call press
conferences to announce their logos and names. In return, the police expect
them to abstain from street crime, exchange information, and have members -
or at least fall guys - confess if civilians are injured or killed in
intergang troubles. The authorities' thinking has been that organized crime
was better than disorganized crime. Until now.

"For a number of years now, the police have had a particular problem with
the Kodokai," says Jake Adelstein, author of "Tokyo Vice: An American
Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan." "Their antagonistic attitude toward
the police - collecting information on them, not allowing detectives into
the gang offices for a chat, not confessing, goes against the unwritten
rules of how the yakuza get along in Japan."

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The Kodokai (according to the article) are the largest gang in Japan, sort
of the equivalent of The Demon or one of his peers (and the people under
him) deciding that they were big enough to not bother with rules like "you
never fight back if the Guard decides to beat you up". This might even be
exactly how a Jhereg revolution happens, when the Cycle turns over to the
Jhereg. Someone decides his organization is big enough to take on the
Establishment and he turns out to be correct. That is, when it doesn't
happen simply by corrupting the entire Imperial Court. Heh.