Yakuza Banned From Festival Stalls

Tokyo police have been making efforts to weaken Yakuza influence over stalls at festivals. Here is a clip from Tokyo MX about new anti-Yakuza rules being used at the Kitazawa Hachiman festival:

Prior to the festival, all stall operators had to undergo background checks. If police verified that they had no links to organized crime, they were issued licenses. The licenses have photographs on them, so the identity of the person in question can be easily verified.

Starting on October 1st, new anti-yakuza regulations will go into effect in Tokyo. The regulations are meant to prevent people and businesses from cooperating with and funding the activities of gangsters.

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9 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - September 13, 2011 at 11:02 am

Categories: General Japan Tags:

http://technotaku.com/ Xacur

I didn’t understand the video, but the graphic is clear enough.
Vagante

Top down, not bottom up. That’s how organized crime should be tackled … if the government has the will, of course.

joe

the truth is that the police don’t care about the yaks, the people do. There has been mounting public pressure over the years to do something about the yaks. Here most people tend to label any low class criminal “yakuza” when most of them are just street criminals with a few friends. Taking out “yakuza” in high profile or very visible places creates the illusion that the police are doing something. The media people that have been in the news are not actually yaks, they just know them.

flowby

In my earlier days here, I was interested to open a street stall at my local Hachimanjinja (incidentally where I was married) festival. I taught at the local neighbouring Temple kindergarten and was reasonably well known in the area. I still live in the area now.

I had an idea of offering a different fare to the usual tako-yaki, ika, sweet corn etc. My first enquiries to known people was met with a kind of “You don’t want to do that, just have fun instead” reply. When pushed they said it was hard to get a license, there’s enough stalls already, space is a problem – a whole empty street?, etc etc.

In my naivety, I didn’t “get it” and brought up the topic again. Finally another temple priest – a nice guy, you know the drinking, smoking, womanizing type, but a good guy – told me that the stalls are controlled by yakuza types. I thought he was joking, coz I thought the local community organized it, but he assured me it would be impossible for me to do my “international fare” there.

So I gave up. When I went to the festival i thought the types operating the stalls loosely fitted his “stereo-type”. I never bought anything ever again from them after having visited the twice yearly festivals for 3 years.

I believe it probably has changed much for the better these days, but I can’t be bothered to go.
Ap

Could this finally be happening ?

The disgusting Yakuza losing influence ?
One can only hope.

I wonder how this will affect the tekiya (showmen on festivals), since many of them unfortunately have ties to them.
Jeffrey

Since tekiya are connected to the yakuza to begin with, doesn’t that mean no more takoyaki at matsuri?

Ap

Not everybody working at the matsuri is connected to the Yakuza.

daydreaminggrass

I completely forgot that the video was about the yakuza….

All I was thinking was… “wow… that anchorwoman is hot!!!”

Does anybody know who she is?

Thanks!
Anonymous

So how often do the Yakuza bosses quit after just a few months of being boss in a media frenzy of tears and apologies?

As that guy on Mythbusters says “Well there’s your problem!”.

If the government officials can’t outlast the crime lords, they’ll never be able to “solve” any problems.

Yakuza Banned From Festival Stalls

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