Yakuza visibilityFebruary 3rd, 2009 by Roy Berman |
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One of the distinctive characteristics of Japan’s yakuza, as compared with similar mafia type organizations in other countries around the world, is their sometimes incomprehensible blatantness. Where the American Mafia used to officially deny its own existence, Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest Yakuza “family”, has a sign outside their headquarters and a PR officer.
The other weekend Joe and I were in Osaka and happened to pass through the lobby of the Rihga Royal Hotel in Naka no Shima coming out of the subway and noticed that there were signs out advertising meeting places for two parties with rather unusual names: 昭成会 and 朝日会. 昭成会 (Shou-sei-kai) is obviously a reference to 昭和 (Showa) and 平成 (Heisei), the former and current Emperor/historical period of Japan, and 朝日会 (Asahi) just has a nationalistic ring but could mean almost anything. A quick mobile phone Google confirmed that 昭成会 is a known Yakuza group and Yamaguchi-gumi affiliate based in Ishikawa Prefecture. Asahi-kai is far less obvious. A few minutes of poking around just now showed a medical group and an Asahi newspaper distributor, but no obvious gangs of that name.
So basically, one confirmed Yakuza conference at the Righa Royal Hoten on January 24.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:42 pm
As an aside, we were mainly in Nakanoshima so I could check out the new Keihan line extension (yes, I’m a geek) as well as pay a follow-up visit to my old high school, which is located next door to the Rihga Royal Hotel, per this post from last July.
February 5th, 2009 at 8:00 am
It’s strange that a Ishikawa-based yakuza gourp has a meeting in Osaka. Such meeting should cause strife with Osaka-based yakuza groups. If you google with 昭成会 plus 大阪, you can find another 昭成会 that is a medical foundation based in Ikeda, Osaka prefecture. Googling also shows that there are many 昭成会 in Japan, e.g. a citizen’s organization for social gathering in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, a medical foundation in Kumamoto, a medical foundation in Nagasaki, and a medical foundation in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo. Is there any other reason than the group’s name that you concluded it to be a yakuza organization?
Also, a yakuza organization named 朝日会 would be unimaginable for Japanese, although it might be possible to give the name to a fictional yakuza organization in a gag manga, considering the result of googling with 朝日新聞販売員逮捕.
February 5th, 2009 at 9:10 am
OK for some reason I missed the medical Shouseikai. I did do the google search from my phone so it didn’t exactly go very far… Maybe they were both actually medical groups. Oh well, sorry guys!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
There was an article earlier this month about how some hotels are adopting resolutions to exclude organized crime groups:
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20090109-00000013-san-soci
Here’s a quick & dirty summary:
A hotel in Sumida ward decided to refuse the Sumiyoshi kai permission to hold a year-end party in their banquet rooms. These “parties” are actually fund raisers and the guests for this one were to have been construction and real estate industry executives. They would have paid 10,000 yen to attend and probably would also have handed over “gifts” of 50-100,000 yen. The article makes it sound like the hotel got support from police and their refusal brought no reprisals. Things were more tricky for a well-known Shinjuku hotel which introduced a similar resolution in May. Two months earlier, they had contracted to hold a wedding party for the daughter of a local yakuza boss. The hotel claims it was unaware of the who the father was, which seems unlikely, but they entered negotiations to cancel the event. The boss was very displeased and pushed to hold them to their agreement at which point the police acted as mediators. It was agreed that the event would go ahead with a police presence on the day. The father would attend but his henchmen would not.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Looks like the newsfolk and the (mobsters/doctors) were at the same hotel
http://www.asahi.com/kansai/news/OSK200901240091.html
For the noise from the plebs, check here:
http://www.2chsearch.net/newsplus/1232809726/?first=1