Yakuza news stories on Newser

Missing Olympus Billions Tied to Yakuza Crime Gangs

Rob Quinn — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:46:00 CST

To make a serious financial scandal much, much worse, simply quadruple the sums involved and add gangsters. Investigators probing the shady accounting at Japanese camera maker Olympus believe that in addition to the $1.4 billion the firm paid in merger fees to mask losses, some $4.9 billion is...

Say It Ain't So: Sumo's Fixed!

Nick McMaster — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:39:04 CST

Three Sumo wrestlers have admitted fixing matches in Japan, and the scandal is only expected to grow, reports the Guardian . "It is certainly the national sport," said Prime Minister Naoto Kan. "If matches have been fixed, it is a serious betrayal of the people." Police found incriminating texts on the...

In Japan, Sun Sets on Yakuza Mob Scene

Nick McMaster — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:24:13 CST

The role of the yakuza in Japanese society has always been hard for Westerners to understand. Since the 1950s the mafia-like organization has been tolerated by government and the public, trusted to run gambling and prostitution rackets with a modicum of respect for social order. But as a tough economy...

Japanese Mob Boss Gave $100K to UCLA

Kevin Spak — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:01:45 CDT

Suspected Japanese mob boss Tadmasa Goto donated $100,000 to UCLA just months after getting a liver transplant there, the Los Angeles Times reports. Goto was treated in 2001, a year when 186 people died waiting for livers in the LA area alone. The school has confirmed Goto’s donation, but...

4 Japanese Gangsters Get UCLA Liver Transplants

Rob Quinn — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:21:57 CDT

Four Yakuza gangsters, including one of Japan's most powerful crime bosses, had liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center between 2000 and 2004, the Los Angeles Times reports. Organs were particularly scarce in those years, with over 100 people on the waiting list dying each year. There is no indication that...

Mobster Guns Down Nagasaki Mayor

Sam Gale Rosen — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:36:28 CDT

The mayor of Nagasaki was murdered yesterday by a gangster affiliated with Japan's largest organized-crime syndicate. The assassin, who shot Iccho Ito twice in the back, reportedly was steamed that the city refused to pay for damages to his car after he drove it into a hole at a construction...