Christian Caryl

... the Japanese mob is still very much alive, and parts of it are thriving. But years of recession, forced restructuring and global competition haven't just changed the way Japan Inc. does business; they've also forced Japan's criminals to adapt. Back when the country's economy was booming, a hood's work was fairly predictable: gambling, protection rackets, and maybe a little drug dealing could ensure a comfortable life. But nowadays, in an age of tougher laws, greater competition and a shrinking, aging domestic market, only those gangsters who can change with the times are flourishing; others are growing poor or dropping out entirely. ... "They've had to write off bad loans. They've had to globalize."

... savvier gangsters were already focusing on growth industries like the bankruptcy business. ... gangsters in Japan function like attorneys and arbitrators in the West, settling creditor claims and recovering assets. They've also become big investors. After the bubble, American investment companies like Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch came in and bought up distressed assets like golf courses. So did the Yamaguchi-gumi.

And the Yamaguchi have proven the most inventive at coming up with new scams. ... an affiliated gangster had taken over a tech company that, among other things, was running one of Japan's leading Web sites for college alumni. ... he was planning to sell off the company after hyping its shares. ... police arrested two Yamaguchi members over a con involving the abuse of government credit guarantees for small businesses.

Of course, financial manipulation takes a lot of sophistication, but Yakuza 2.0 has become adept at recruiting the necessary talent. ...

Then there's the matter of foreign competition. ... media reports about local gangs being squeezed out by rapacious Chinese and Russians. In reality, Japan's mobsters have usually managed to co-opt outsiders. ...

It's helped the Yamaguchi-gumi that it has more experience operating globally than many Japanese corporations. Indeed, the yakuza were early pioneers of the internationalization of organized crime. The process started when the Japanese tourist industry exploded in the 1960s and '70s, with the yakuza organizing sex tours and drug deals across Southeast Asia. Nowadays they're known to work closely with the Russian mafia, buying seafood spirited illegally out of Russian waters and selling it for huge markups in Japan. One new sphere of operations is Uzbekistan, from which the Yamaguchi-gumi has been known to charter direct flights—perhaps to transport Uzbek women for prostitution.