Japan: A group of Yakuza gangsters sporting business suits and emanating menace, possibly members of the Tokyo-Yokohama based Inagawa-Kai, c. 1960

Yakuza, also known as Gokudo, are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them boryokudan ('violent groups'), while the yakuza call themselvesninkyo danta ('chivalrous organizations').

Although yakuza membership has declined following an anti-gang law aimed specifically at yakuza and passed by the Japanese government in 1992, there are thought to be more than 58,000 active yakuza members in Japan today.

Copyright:

Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Credit:

Pictures From History