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Yakuza: From Samurai to Slot Machines · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
0:04
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
0:12
Speaker 1: Josh Clark with me as always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant, right,
0:18
Speaker 1: and we have a guest producer, Matt here today in
0:22
Speaker 1: the yes, in the leather wing back to the director's chair. Matt,
0:27
Speaker 1: who has gotten family before. Oh yeah, that's right. Do
0:30
Speaker 1: you know lines and scissors just back together? Yeah? Nice.
0:35
Speaker 1: Don't look at him, he's right here. I didn't know that.
0:38
Speaker 1: That's great news, Matty. It feels weird to talk to
0:40
Speaker 1: you without looking at you, but I've been instructed to
0:43
Speaker 1: do so. That's the whole point to just feel weird,
0:46
Speaker 1: all right, that's the point of life. Well, that's great. Yeah,
0:49
Speaker 1: you guys need to get a website together, Matt. He
0:52
Speaker 1: shakes and said, yes, yes, it's like we've got a
0:55
Speaker 1: MySpace page. It's funny that that's still being financially supported
1:01
Speaker 1: enough that it's up that you can still access MySpace. Yeah,
1:05
Speaker 1: but have you seen some of the other stuff that's
1:07
Speaker 1: still up, Like my Space has a long way to
1:09
Speaker 1: go to fall off the radar. I'm interested to see
1:14
Speaker 1: when that happens, and maybe there'll be some sort of event. Yeah,
1:18
Speaker 1: can you tell him? Stalling? Yes? Okay, Well that means
1:21
Speaker 1: everybody else can tell too, then, so we should probably
1:24
Speaker 1: start chuck. Um. Have you ever seen the Simpsons episode, uh,
1:30
Speaker 1: the Twisted Life of Marge Twisted World of Marge Simpsons,
1:34
Speaker 1: The one where she starts selling pretzels? I think, so
1:38
Speaker 1: it's hard to keep them all? You know? Straight? It is?
1:40
Speaker 1: It is? Well? Um, in it, Marge decides to make
1:43
Speaker 1: some extra scratch by selling pretzels. Right. She know she's
1:47
Speaker 1: a part of an investment club, and um, the investment
1:50
Speaker 1: club gets a little crazy and I think she's forced
1:52
Speaker 1: out of their Peta Fleeta Peta franchise, Peter Peter food truck. Basically,
2:00
Speaker 1: she gets forced out, so she goes off on her
2:01
Speaker 1: own starts selling pretzels. Well, she gets in bed with
2:05
Speaker 1: the mob inadvertently, and when the mob comes to calling
2:09
Speaker 1: just in time and they're they're storming the front door.
2:13
Speaker 1: Is it the mob guy that's always fat tony? Um?
2:16
Speaker 1: The fleet of Peter ladies show up and they want
2:19
Speaker 1: their cut of her turf. I believe, um. And it
2:23
Speaker 1: turns out that they've gotten in bed with the yakuza. Yes,
2:27
Speaker 1: the Japanese mafia and um as the mob as the
2:32
Speaker 1: yakuza and the mafia are about to battle. The door
2:35
Speaker 1: shuts and all you can hear some stuff, and then
2:37
Speaker 1: the door opens and everybody's like laying debt and it's
2:40
Speaker 1: pretty awesome. That's a troop. But after reading this article
2:44
Speaker 1: how the Yakuza works, I would say that, um they
2:47
Speaker 1: probably had they spoken before they fought, would have found
2:51
Speaker 1: that they had a tremendous amountain common and possibly wouldn't
2:54
Speaker 1: have even fought at all. Yeah, maybe they would have
2:57
Speaker 1: had some wine and sukey or some sushi and pasta
3:02
Speaker 1: and broke bread together or whatever. The Japanese version of
3:06
Speaker 1: bread is bread. Okay. So that's the intro to how
3:12
Speaker 1: yakuza works. Very nice, that's a good one, it is.
3:16
Speaker 1: And reading this article, you're right, I was kind of like,
3:19
Speaker 1: you know what, it's just like the American mafia. It
3:21
Speaker 1: is so there's like a there's a model out there
3:24
Speaker 1: for organizing crime, and somebody figured it out at some
3:28
Speaker 1: point in time. Maybe it was the Japanese, maybe it
3:30
Speaker 1: was the Sicilians, maybe it was all independent, but the
3:33
Speaker 1: point is it's out there, it's established. Don't try to
3:37
Speaker 1: mess with it. It's it's perfect, yes, as far as
3:41
Speaker 1: organized crime goes. I guess you're right. Uh, the origins
3:46
Speaker 1: of the Yakuza depending on which history you're following. Um,
3:50
Speaker 1: if you listen to some of the clans and their clans,
3:53
Speaker 1: I guess it just gave that away. Well, clans families say, Um,
3:58
Speaker 1: they might say like, we have noble origins, and we
4:02
Speaker 1: descended from the Ronin and we're more like your American
4:05
Speaker 1: Robin Hood, although he was an American, your English Robin Hood.
4:09
Speaker 1: We're like Kevin Costner, and um, our lineage is like
4:14
Speaker 1: very proud and honorable. Um. Probably a little bit of
4:18
Speaker 1: an inflated story. Um, because the other side of the
4:21
Speaker 1: coin is that they descended from the kabuki mono the
4:25
Speaker 1: crazy ones. Yeah, and these are basically we're like masterless
4:29
Speaker 1: Ronan after the samurai. They were just crazy kids. Well
4:33
Speaker 1: they were masterless samurai and they would go around doing
4:37
Speaker 1: bad things with their swords because they didn't have a
4:41
Speaker 1: what's it called again goal in life? Now the master
4:45
Speaker 1: the Oh yeah, I was about to say that, but
4:48
Speaker 1: I can't believe I did that. From memory, I had
4:51
Speaker 1: it you was gonna be so proud, but I doubt
4:53
Speaker 1: it myself. Oh you had damio. I had it my brain,
4:56
Speaker 1: but I doubted myself, which will make emily prod. So
5:01
Speaker 1: you've got some some political upheaval. I think a time
5:04
Speaker 1: of pieces what it was, and the samurai became basically
5:08
Speaker 1: useless and lazy. Um yeah, I guess that made them
5:11
Speaker 1: cranky because they started to do crime, or they just
5:15
Speaker 1: kind of went into business, which is something the samurai
5:17
Speaker 1: didn't need to do because they were the political elite
5:19
Speaker 1: for a very very long time. Um, they did their
5:22
Speaker 1: jobs too well. There was a lasting piece and then
5:25
Speaker 1: political people and then all of a sudden there's kind
5:27
Speaker 1: of out on the street. So yeah, they're either going
5:29
Speaker 1: crazy cutting the heads off of peasants for no good reason.
5:32
Speaker 1: They're wandering around not cutting the heads off of peasants,
5:35
Speaker 1: but they're samurai and you don't want to look at
5:36
Speaker 1: them wrong. Or there samurai who are selling apples on
5:43
Speaker 1: the street now, which is new to them, or running
5:45
Speaker 1: gambling casinos, gambling houses, brothels. Yeah, making money from like
5:51
Speaker 1: ill repute or legitimate ways. But the point is you
5:55
Speaker 1: have these people who are coming into the mark it,
6:00
Speaker 1: who are coming in from the outside, outsiders, exactly like c.
6:05
Speaker 1: Thomas Howell or Ralph Macho. Let's stay gold yakuza. Um,
6:11
Speaker 1: and that's the Yakusa still wears that today, kind of
6:14
Speaker 1: as a badge of honor. They're outsiders in Japanese society. Yeah,
6:18
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about the Korean yakuza later. Does that
6:23
Speaker 1: always say Korean? Now Korean? Yeah, you're from Georgia. You
6:26
Speaker 1: sound like Hank is Area doing Billy bod Thornton and Homegrown. Um.
6:31
Speaker 1: So the name yakuza, I thought this is pretty interesting.
6:34
Speaker 1: It actually reinforces that outsider status because it came from
6:39
Speaker 1: a game called ocou. Sounds good to me. And uh,
6:44
Speaker 1: it's similar to what we call back iraq. Uh. And
6:47
Speaker 1: that the second digit of the hand is where you
6:51
Speaker 1: get your point value. It's very numerological, Yes it is,
6:54
Speaker 1: so you add up your cards. Yeah, and the second
6:56
Speaker 1: digit is what counts like in back ireq. Right, so
6:59
Speaker 1: if you have three is or something like that, you'd
7:02
Speaker 1: have eighteen in your hand would be worth eight because
7:04
Speaker 1: it's a second number. The last digit, yeah, sixteen would
7:08
Speaker 1: probably be more appropriate because that's actually two digits. A
7:11
Speaker 1: six is just one digit. You know what I'm saying. No, Well,
7:16
Speaker 1: if it's a two digit number, it would be based
7:17
Speaker 1: on the second digit, right, is it a two digit number,
7:21
Speaker 1: I would think it'd be like zero six. No, I
7:23
Speaker 1: think it's the last digit of your hand. So like,
7:27
Speaker 1: for example, if you have a in this case, you
7:30
Speaker 1: have um an eight and nine and a three that
7:33
Speaker 1: equals twenty, that your hand is worth zero. So it's
7:37
Speaker 1: the second digit or the last digit, right, But as
7:40
Speaker 1: sixteen would be worth six, Yes, but I guess there's
7:44
Speaker 1: no sixteen. There's if you headed three fours, Okay, I
7:49
Speaker 1: see what you mean. So you take if you have
7:51
Speaker 1: a hand of three cars, you add them up and
7:52
Speaker 1: then whatever the last digit is. If it's a single digit,
7:55
Speaker 1: it's that. If it's if it's a two digit number,
7:58
Speaker 1: it's the second digit. Boy, there are gamblers out there
8:01
Speaker 1: just like I hate you. No, they're probably just like guys.
8:04
Speaker 1: Stay at the casino, yeah, stick to the shows. So anyway,
8:10
Speaker 1: eight nine in three equals twenty. That is zero points.
8:12
Speaker 1: That is a very bad hand. It's a worthless hand.
8:14
Speaker 1: And the Japanese words for eight nine and three yeah
8:17
Speaker 1: kua yakuza, meaning worthless or pointless and in the vernacular
8:23
Speaker 1: very round about probably incorrect way of explaining that. So
8:26
Speaker 1: you've got a group of people who know their way
8:28
Speaker 1: around a sword who suddenly are selling um pachinko cards
8:35
Speaker 1: or women yeah um or opium all bet um, and
8:41
Speaker 1: they are they're very proud of this outsider worthless status.
8:46
Speaker 1: You know, they're making themselves anti here us, against the
8:48
Speaker 1: world exactly. Um. If you are a cop, though, you're
8:53
Speaker 1: probably going to refer to the Yakuza as the boy yokudan,
8:59
Speaker 1: which is basically is a degenerate gangster has no sense
9:02
Speaker 1: of values or tradition. That's right, and that's a very
9:05
Speaker 1: big insult. You wouldn't want to call a yukos a
9:07
Speaker 1: member that, no, unless you you know we're arresting them,
9:11
Speaker 1: and even then you may want to avoid it. Yeah.
9:14
Speaker 1: I saw that name thrown thrown around a lot and
9:16
Speaker 1: depressed though, So people aren't shy about it. I mean,
9:20
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's like being called a mafia member hood
9:24
Speaker 1: or yeah, a thug or in in the U S
9:29
Speaker 1: a degenerate gangster who has no sense of tradition or values,
9:34
Speaker 1: that's right. However, this article who wrote this was his
9:36
Speaker 1: Ada figures Um. He points out that the most direct
9:42
Speaker 1: ancestors come from the eighteenth century. He called them quasi
9:46
Speaker 1: legal businessmen, and they are known as bakuto and techia
9:52
Speaker 1: is a gambler, Yeah, gamblers, peddlers, Um, not like the
9:58
Speaker 1: highest repute, I would imagine. Yeah, the is the peddler. Yeah,
10:02
Speaker 1: and I don't think they were either, But they were
10:04
Speaker 1: enterprising businessmen who knew how to make a buck however, Yes,
10:07
Speaker 1: and eventually they decided, you know, if we organize ourselves
10:11
Speaker 1: into these clans, it might be better for business. Yeah,
10:15
Speaker 1: and they did, And a lot of the clans still
10:17
Speaker 1: have the names of these bakudos and techias today. Can
10:21
Speaker 1: you name one the Yamaguchi Gumi clan. There's the biggest one, right, yeah,
10:28
Speaker 1: eight thousand members yeah. Um, and we should also say that, um,
10:34
Speaker 1: the the that clan, if it has eighty thousand members,
10:38
Speaker 1: it's probably assembled in well, usually Yakusa has assembled in
10:42
Speaker 1: one of two ways. It's a straight up clan and
10:45
Speaker 1: everybody's related, everybody knows one another, or it's a kind
10:48
Speaker 1: of a confederation of clans. So if you have eighty
10:51
Speaker 1: thousand members, it's probably the latter of the two. Yeah,
10:54
Speaker 1: I would imagine. So the Yamaguchi Gumi clan would be
10:57
Speaker 1: the nominal umbrella clan several other smaller clans that are
11:02
Speaker 1: structured very much like a mafia family with a dawn
11:04
Speaker 1: at the head, but in this case it's called a
11:06
Speaker 1: kumicho yep. And it follows that UM a rough pyramid
11:10
Speaker 1: structure working its way down to uh. I guess the
11:14
Speaker 1: lowest or the highest man on the totem pole, which
11:17
Speaker 1: would be uh, just the you know, the heavy, the
11:20
Speaker 1: thug sure carrying out the tough. The tough assignments the
11:25
Speaker 1: guy with the baseball bat. Yeah. I was about to say,
11:28
Speaker 1: they might use something else but bare. So they might
11:31
Speaker 1: use two baseball bats and make them like whirl And
11:36
Speaker 1: the only reason you know that is because of Tom's ellick.
11:39
Speaker 1: Uh no, no, no. There's a story about the KFC
11:43
Speaker 1: colonel that they threw in the in the river and
11:46
Speaker 1: I think osaka um Okay. So we've got the hierarchy.
11:50
Speaker 1: And the key to this hierarchy is something called the
11:53
Speaker 1: oyaban Coban relationship, and that is um much like I'm
12:00
Speaker 1: about to say, much like the mafia, but much like
12:01
Speaker 1: any structure where you have seniority, ideally you have a
12:07
Speaker 1: relationship between the higher ups and the people directly beneath them. Um,
12:13
Speaker 1: and that is the case here with the oyubon coban
12:15
Speaker 1: is the higher up. It's like a father son relationship
12:19
Speaker 1: or a den master cub scout relationship mentorte. Right. What's
12:28
Speaker 1: what's significant about this is that everywhere within them, the
12:32
Speaker 1: yakuza structure, this clan structure, everyone plays both roles except
12:37
Speaker 1: to the very top and the very bottom. So you
12:40
Speaker 1: are the ayubon, the father to the guy below you
12:44
Speaker 1: or the guys below you, and you're the koban to
12:47
Speaker 1: the guy immediately ahead of you. Yeah, like, let me
12:50
Speaker 1: let me show you how to how to clean your
12:52
Speaker 1: gun properly, right, or your sword? Do they still you swords?
12:56
Speaker 1: I imagine there's a couple that still use swords, throw
12:58
Speaker 1: back kind of thing. They don't these guns that much?
13:01
Speaker 1: Oh no, No, I actually have a stat because I
13:04
Speaker 1: just got a little curious about gun violence. Six guns
13:07
Speaker 1: for every one thousand people in Japan, compared to eight
13:10
Speaker 1: hundred nine for one thousand in the USA and UH
13:17
Speaker 1: In two thousand and eight, there were only eleven gun
13:19
Speaker 1: deaths in Japan completely and in the US that's twelve
13:24
Speaker 1: thousand that same year. I'm surprised, it said Lowe. That's
13:29
Speaker 1: pretty high. Um, I know, yeah, I'm saying I'm still
13:32
Speaker 1: surprised that low The thing about Japan is like they
13:35
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of crime, especially violent crime, but
13:38
Speaker 1: when they do it is gruesome, like little elementary school
13:43
Speaker 1: kids cutting the heads off other other ones and like
13:45
Speaker 1: planning it on the gate outside of the school. People. Yeah,
13:49
Speaker 1: people like I'm just killing spreez and like bathing in
13:52
Speaker 1: the blood of their victim and all that. Just like
13:55
Speaker 1: the craziest stuff. It's like this very like straight lice
13:59
Speaker 1: culture that like has very strict rules. Every once while
14:04
Speaker 1: somebody just pops and like really bad things happen, but
14:07
Speaker 1: it's very infrequent. Yeah. Um. And I did find out though,
14:11
Speaker 1: about two thirds of the gun deaths, which I guess
14:14
Speaker 1: would only be about four people, Oh no, two thirds
14:17
Speaker 1: would be what like uh uh yeah about that they
14:26
Speaker 1: come from the from the Yukuza, which really yeah, like
14:29
Speaker 1: most of the gun violence is attributed to them. But um,
14:32
Speaker 1: there was a pretty good point in this article later
14:35
Speaker 1: on that, um, they don't really have to use violence
14:40
Speaker 1: or even the threat of violence because a lot of
14:42
Speaker 1: the um extortion schemes that they carry out are based
14:47
Speaker 1: on Japanese politeness. Yeah, I think the implied threat of
14:51
Speaker 1: violence is there though, Oh it definitely is. But they'll
14:54
Speaker 1: be like, we want you to or we strongly feel
14:57
Speaker 1: that you should contribute to this chairit that's not a
15:00
Speaker 1: real charity. Um, so maybe you should write a check.
15:03
Speaker 1: And people are like, well, of course, I want to
15:05
Speaker 1: help these throwing this golf tournament this weekend. It'd be
15:08
Speaker 1: really great if you were there at about nine am
15:10
Speaker 1: off the green piece a million dollars. Alright, So back
15:15
Speaker 1: to the oyaban Koban. When they submit their relationship, it
15:19
Speaker 1: has done in a ceremony where a third person I
15:23
Speaker 1: guess named Spider pours up some drinks um, pours sake um,
15:28
Speaker 1: and I believe they drink from their own glass. Then
15:31
Speaker 1: they switch and drink from each other's glass. And then
15:33
Speaker 1: the oyabun is allowed to get hammered, and I guess
15:37
Speaker 1: the koban isn't. No, he just sits there and SIPs yeah,
15:40
Speaker 1: and I guess cleans up after whatever happens with That's
15:44
Speaker 1: exactly how they do the um. That's how you get
15:48
Speaker 1: a sponsor in a but they use coffee instead of sake.
15:51
Speaker 1: Really yeah, very nice. Uh. Oh I mentioned the Koreans.
15:57
Speaker 1: They are they only make up point five percent of
16:00
Speaker 1: the population, but I could I was trying to find
16:04
Speaker 1: a good number. I found ten percent of the yakuza.
16:08
Speaker 1: That's a pretty big disparity, huge disparity. And apparently it's
16:11
Speaker 1: because in Japan, UM Koreans are are looked down upon
16:16
Speaker 1: in many circles and disrespected and and you know it's
16:19
Speaker 1: it's racial uh bigotry, Yeah, pretty much. And so they're
16:24
Speaker 1: outsiders and so they identify I think, with the Yukuza
16:27
Speaker 1: well definitely, and then that that that further strengthens the
16:30
Speaker 1: yakuza's um sense of being outsiders as well. Uh. It's
16:35
Speaker 1: also um, very good for business to have Koreans in
16:38
Speaker 1: your gang because a lot of smuggling between Korea and
16:42
Speaker 1: Japan goes on. Yeah, so it's practical as well as prideful. Um.
16:48
Speaker 1: And if you're a woman, UM, don't count on playing
16:52
Speaker 1: ball very much in the yukuza because you are marginalized
16:57
Speaker 1: and you're not going to be doing a lot of
17:00
Speaker 1: work unless it's um it's a prostitute or the servant. Sadly, yes,
17:06
Speaker 1: with one exception. Should we go to that exception? Yeah,
17:09
Speaker 1: might as well. Uh, Fukio Taka, um Fukio Taka, Fumiko
17:15
Speaker 1: sorry Taka was the wife of Kazuo Taka. Man, I've
17:20
Speaker 1: been screwing their names up left and right now. You
17:22
Speaker 1: were good up until this point. Fu Fumiko Taka, I
17:26
Speaker 1: had it totally wrong. Um she was the wife of
17:29
Speaker 1: Kazuo Tatoka. And um he basically he ran the Yamaguchi Gumi,
17:34
Speaker 1: which it's like such an adorable name, but they'll kill you.
17:37
Speaker 1: I know. It sounds like a little Teddy Bears of right,
17:40
Speaker 1: or like a whole line of teddy bears that are
17:42
Speaker 1: like slightly different from one another, but you have to
17:44
Speaker 1: collect all eight hundred and there's trading cards to um
17:48
Speaker 1: So he ran that clan from World War Two to
17:52
Speaker 1: the eighties and then he died. Uh and actually, in
17:58
Speaker 1: translated from the Japanese that was like perfectly spoken turned
18:02
Speaker 1: into tarsan um not bad run. So he died of
18:05
Speaker 1: a heart attack in the early eighties, and Fumiko took
18:09
Speaker 1: over and became the first woman oyobon ever and she
18:14
Speaker 1: she held power for a few months is not very long, no,
18:17
Speaker 1: but like she was it the only one. No one
18:20
Speaker 1: had ever done it since like the eighteenth century, eighteenth
18:25
Speaker 1: or nineteenth century to the eighties, no woman had ever
18:28
Speaker 1: taken over despite kill Billy, there was no woman in
18:32
Speaker 1: power at any point except for Fumiko, and even for
18:35
Speaker 1: a few months. It's pretty significant, as I understand. Yeah,
18:39
Speaker 1: I wonder I have to look into that why she was,
18:42
Speaker 1: if she was removed or if she was just like
18:44
Speaker 1: this eight for me, right, I have no idea why
18:48
Speaker 1: she didn't maintained power, but she didn't, but she held
18:52
Speaker 1: the claim together, as I understand, for several months. That's right. Um.
18:56
Speaker 1: One thing you do not want to do if you
18:58
Speaker 1: are in this oh ya bon koban relationship is the
19:01
Speaker 1: koban is disappointed oh yabun because you could um take
19:06
Speaker 1: part in the you be zoom you be zoomi, I
19:09
Speaker 1: would say, you be zoomi. And that is when um,
19:12
Speaker 1: you basically screw up. They give you a knife and
19:16
Speaker 1: a bandage and say you know what to do, just
19:20
Speaker 1: go do it, and you do it. You cut above
19:23
Speaker 1: or at the first joint of your pinky finger, and
19:28
Speaker 1: um you take it after you've bandaged it up and
19:32
Speaker 1: stopped screaming um. And you take the finger and you
19:35
Speaker 1: present it to the Ayubon say I'm really sorry, let's
19:38
Speaker 1: just forget this ever happened. Can you please take me
19:41
Speaker 1: to the hospital. And he's like, yeah, right, it looks good.
19:45
Speaker 1: And I'll bet if you really wanted to mess with
19:48
Speaker 1: your oban is it oban? Um? Yeah, oban. It is
19:54
Speaker 1: like old lady, I believe like grandma, Um, don't hand
19:57
Speaker 1: her your pinky. Uh, we'll be to just like pop
20:00
Speaker 1: it in your mouth and eat the guy. Wouldn't that
20:04
Speaker 1: just kind of like consolidate like any fear that the
20:07
Speaker 1: person had for me, it would um. And apparently it
20:12
Speaker 1: is a symbolic weakening of your ability to hold a sword.
20:16
Speaker 1: I say, it's not a very smart thing to do
20:18
Speaker 1: to like physically, you know, give someone a physical disadvantage.
20:23
Speaker 1: That's on your team, right, but I'm not making the rules. Well,
20:25
Speaker 1: it makes sense it weakens your ability to hold the sword.
20:29
Speaker 1: But in that sense, it also it makes you more
20:32
Speaker 1: dependent on the other CLAM members to help protect and
20:34
Speaker 1: defend you. Like, I see your point, but I think
20:37
Speaker 1: it's cool, Like symbolically it's very cool, I think. Yeah.
20:42
Speaker 1: And apparently, if you keep messing up, then they will
20:44
Speaker 1: um go down more sections of your finger. Then if
20:47
Speaker 1: you lose all your pinky you're still screwing up, they'll
20:50
Speaker 1: move to your other finger. At that point, I guess
20:52
Speaker 1: you should probably rethink you're, you know, way of doing
20:55
Speaker 1: things like, Um, do you remember the geeky guy from Greece?
21:01
Speaker 1: Uh no, No, he was like just a peripheral character.
21:05
Speaker 1: He wore glasses and he like, oh yeah, yeah. Can
21:08
Speaker 1: you imagine that guy after like two months in the Yakuza,
21:11
Speaker 1: you'd have like nothing left. He just runs into walls
21:15
Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah. I wonder what he's doing now,
21:19
Speaker 1: I have no after playing the nerd in like eight movies. Yeah,
21:25
Speaker 1: all right, Josh, what does what do the Yakuza do?
21:29
Speaker 1: And I'll go ahead and set you up by saying
21:31
Speaker 1: they kind of do the same thing as the American
21:33
Speaker 1: mafia and the Italian mafia and the Bulgarian mafia and
21:37
Speaker 1: the Russian mafia, which I want to say, Um, do
21:41
Speaker 1: you remember how like the post Soviet Russia just fell
21:46
Speaker 1: into utter like lawlessness and the mobs stepped in. Apparently
21:50
Speaker 1: the Yakuza went from like relative outsiders to like political
21:55
Speaker 1: powerhouses at the end of World War Two for much
21:58
Speaker 1: the same reason. It was just there were there were
22:01
Speaker 1: organized crimes and the kids in place that we're ready
22:04
Speaker 1: to fill the power vacuum that happened after the Japanese
22:07
Speaker 1: government was um cleaning up the mess. Well yeah, um,
22:13
Speaker 1: and and that's the same thing that happened when the
22:14
Speaker 1: Soviet Union crumbled. But that's how the yakus I got
22:17
Speaker 1: where they are today. Opportunists. Yeah, interesting in the right place,
22:21
Speaker 1: in the right time, as another way you put it. Uh, yeah,
22:23
Speaker 1: that's true. Um, so apart from gambling, prostitution. Um, you
22:28
Speaker 1: got your smuggling, you got your firearms, you got your porno. Uh,
22:33
Speaker 1: you've got the age old m you've got the age
22:37
Speaker 1: old protection fees, which means pay me and I won't
22:41
Speaker 1: beat you up. Yeah, it's put way better than that,
22:44
Speaker 1: but that's what it amounts to. Yeah. Um. They also
22:48
Speaker 1: uh recently have killed people, um, eleven of them. Well, no, killed.
22:54
Speaker 1: They don't get into politics that much, but they In
22:56
Speaker 1: two thousand seven, the mayor of Nagasaki was shot and
22:59
Speaker 1: kill old senior member of the Yamaguchi Gumi clan and
23:04
Speaker 1: U two thousand seven, Wow, like murdered in cold blood
23:08
Speaker 1: on the street and um, but it wasn't exactly a
23:13
Speaker 1: yakuza thing. Like he was a senior guy in the Yakuza,
23:17
Speaker 1: so he ain't messing around. But apparently what happened is
23:19
Speaker 1: he was driving his car through a public works site
23:23
Speaker 1: and drove through a hole and like damaged his car
23:26
Speaker 1: and could never get any restitution from the government, and
23:29
Speaker 1: he got mad and went and killed the mayor. And
23:33
Speaker 1: they think that's what it had stemmed from. How Pesci asked,
23:37
Speaker 1: I know, yeah, that's very Peci asked, although he petch
23:40
Speaker 1: she would have been smarter because this guy was you know,
23:42
Speaker 1: I don't know. He wrestled to the ground and it's
23:44
Speaker 1: a big hothead and that's true, but he never got
23:47
Speaker 1: napped like that. But this guy got nabbed, and they
23:50
Speaker 1: tried to make it a yakuza thing, and they were
23:54
Speaker 1: kind of like, no, not really, he was in the Yakuza.
23:56
Speaker 1: He was just picked off about his car. We're in
23:59
Speaker 1: no affiliated with this act. So I'm sure that they
24:02
Speaker 1: wish they would have fixed his car at that point.
24:04
Speaker 1: I wonder what kind of car it was. It's just
24:06
Speaker 1: like an accord. Yeah, maybe it was probably not a
24:11
Speaker 1: Chevy or afford. That's my guess. Um. Sometimes these guys
24:17
Speaker 1: segue into real work, legal work, invest in the stock
24:21
Speaker 1: market in semi legitimate ways. Yeah you can. I mean
24:25
Speaker 1: you can do it legitimately, like you can just take
24:28
Speaker 1: your your illegal winnings and invest in the stock market.
24:33
Speaker 1: Or you can be like, um, I think this company
24:35
Speaker 1: could make more money under my personal direction, buy some stock,
24:40
Speaker 1: get some dirt on some of the board of directors,
24:43
Speaker 1: and and then send some of your under links to
24:48
Speaker 1: a board meeting and be like, oh, we would hate
24:51
Speaker 1: so much for these pictures of you with your mistress
24:54
Speaker 1: to get out. Um. So I think now our boss,
24:59
Speaker 1: the Kuban, why is what's it? Why? Why won't to
25:06
Speaker 1: get that? Why in there? Our our kyaban is now
25:10
Speaker 1: the the head of the board of directors of this company. So? Um.
25:14
Speaker 1: In pop culture, yakuza is huge in the that is
25:18
Speaker 1: a huge. Yeah, I think there was an age. It's weird,
25:21
Speaker 1: it's huge, it's crazy. You need my missing wise, I
25:24
Speaker 1: guess so that's what happened. Um, huge on the small
25:28
Speaker 1: and big screen. Like if you think mafia movies are
25:30
Speaker 1: big here and nothing like the yakuza, right, and they're
25:33
Speaker 1: very much idealized over there, like even more so than
25:37
Speaker 1: we we do the Italian mafia here in our movies. Yea. Um.
25:42
Speaker 1: I looked up lists of the best ones, and it's
25:45
Speaker 1: sort of you know, obviously, if you're doing opinion list
25:48
Speaker 1: like that, it's gonna arrange. But when I saw consistently
25:51
Speaker 1: listed is like, the best is a five part series
25:54
Speaker 1: called Battles Without Honor and Humanity, And I want to
25:58
Speaker 1: check this out. It's supposed to be amazing. I'm writing
26:00
Speaker 1: it that they compared it to the Godfather trilogy. Um,
26:05
Speaker 1: I imagine they mean one and two only unless the
26:09
Speaker 1: third one of this one started the director's daughter who
26:11
Speaker 1: was a lousy actor and Andy Garcia but happened to
26:14
Speaker 1: be a great director. Yeah, yeah, she's pretty good. Um
26:18
Speaker 1: Andy Garcia, I liked the Yeah, I know, it's just
26:21
Speaker 1: it's weird to see him in the Yeah, I agreed. Uh,
26:25
Speaker 1: what what's another one? Um, well, that's that's the one
26:28
Speaker 1: I had at number one. So I didn't like list
26:30
Speaker 1: them all out because everyone had their own opinion. I'm
26:32
Speaker 1: gonna search some one out. As far as the West Goest,
26:35
Speaker 1: Black Rain, that was a good yakuza movie, Okay, I
26:37
Speaker 1: was trying to think of one of my first thought,
26:40
Speaker 1: like an idiot was big trouble in Middle China, and
26:42
Speaker 1: then wait a minute, what's wrong with this picture? But um,
26:46
Speaker 1: and I couldn't think of any accusa black Rain of course. Yeah,
26:49
Speaker 1: that's the only one I can think of, unless if
26:52
Speaker 1: you suspect as I do, that Mr Nakatomi was involved
26:56
Speaker 1: in the Ya Kazan Die Hard. But that's kind of
26:58
Speaker 1: like a sub sub sub plot, a side bet if
27:01
Speaker 1: you will. Yeah, I just remember, I don't remember much
27:03
Speaker 1: about black Man. I just remember lots of motorcycles, that
27:06
Speaker 1: was pretty much it. And raining, it was raining black Um.
27:13
Speaker 1: So I guess you already mentioned Kazu h. I know
27:17
Speaker 1: it's hard, isn't it. He's not even my favorite though,
27:19
Speaker 1: and neither is Fumiko Yoshio Kodama. And I guess we're
27:25
Speaker 1: just touching on the fact that they do get involved
27:27
Speaker 1: in politics a little bit. Well, this guy got involved
27:30
Speaker 1: in politics a lot. Um. He was a war criminal
27:35
Speaker 1: during World War Two. He was dealing with China and
27:38
Speaker 1: Um was imprisoned, and then after the war, um the
27:42
Speaker 1: occupying American forces freedom Because I guess if you were
27:47
Speaker 1: an enemy of the Japanese state, you were an ally
27:50
Speaker 1: to the US, and he actually kind of proved to
27:52
Speaker 1: be an ally. He made contacts with the CIA and
27:54
Speaker 1: deals with them, and basically consolidated power using the CIA
27:58
Speaker 1: and the occupying military. Not too bad. And he had
28:02
Speaker 1: made most of his connections in prison, right Yeah. But
28:05
Speaker 1: I think also he had a pretty extensive smuggling network
28:09
Speaker 1: um to basically get materials from China to Japan to
28:12
Speaker 1: Selim a grossly inflated prices um. And if you haven't
28:16
Speaker 1: a smuggling network, you have pretty much by proxy and
28:19
Speaker 1: espionage network. So this guy had like his own little
28:22
Speaker 1: intelligence military wow, going under his wing. Yeah. And like
28:29
Speaker 1: al Capone, he was finally brought up on like financial
28:32
Speaker 1: uh charges, but died I think right before he uh yeah,
28:36
Speaker 1: before he could stay draw right, But before he died,
28:38
Speaker 1: he had a lot of power and a lot of
28:39
Speaker 1: political influence, and he used to as a right wing
28:42
Speaker 1: nationalist um. And apparently the Yakuza goes through bouts or
28:45
Speaker 1: periods of certain clans are known to be very nationalistic um,
28:50
Speaker 1: which is kind of weird because that flies in the
28:51
Speaker 1: face of like Korean membership. But I wonder if some
28:53
Speaker 1: clans like don't have Korean members the nationalist ones. Yeah,
28:58
Speaker 1: which is weird. Um so Japan these days, Uh, they
29:04
Speaker 1: say their tolerance is pretty low. Um. In the nine
29:07
Speaker 1: they passed Um. What remember we talked about the Rico
29:10
Speaker 1: Law in the UM. I guess it was the Mafia
29:13
Speaker 1: podcast And basically it beefed up a lot of the
29:16
Speaker 1: penalties um for crimes conducted as yakuza. Um you know,
29:21
Speaker 1: more jail time that kind of thing. Well, one of
29:23
Speaker 1: the hallmarks of the Rico Act is the higher ups
29:26
Speaker 1: can be held accountable for the crimes canoe the guys
29:29
Speaker 1: further down the ladder. And apparently Japan has that similar
29:34
Speaker 1: clause or statute. So I guess the various oh ya
29:36
Speaker 1: bon would be responsible for whatever the underlings did, for
29:41
Speaker 1: whatever the kobun did. Yes, very nice, um. But apparently
29:47
Speaker 1: that act worked in a way and didn't work in
29:49
Speaker 1: a way because uh, some say it caused some of
29:52
Speaker 1: the clans to restructure and move into different areas where
29:55
Speaker 1: they overlapped with other clans for the first time, caused
29:58
Speaker 1: some turf wars, more bloodshed and um. So it made
30:03
Speaker 1: it harder for police to like, you know, get good
30:07
Speaker 1: information because all of a sudden, it was kind of
30:08
Speaker 1: thrown into turmoil, and apparently it's had very little effect
30:14
Speaker 1: on their income because I think like two thousand four,
30:17
Speaker 1: Yakuza as a whole made an estimated like thirteen billion
30:20
Speaker 1: dollars in revenue according to Japan Times. It's a lot. Again,
30:25
Speaker 1: that's a it's uh, let's see. I think it's a
30:27
Speaker 1: trillion and a half youn Wow, that's more than a
30:30
Speaker 1: fistful Uh, very nice, well, Clan Eastwood reference. That was
30:35
Speaker 1: a Jerry Zucker fistful of yun from Kentucky priv movie.
30:39
Speaker 1: Oh that's right, well, which was a cleaning east Wood reference. Okay, Um,
30:44
Speaker 1: Clin Easwood and his invisible obamatre. Man, Yeah, I guess
30:50
Speaker 1: there's really nothing you can say than politics is getting
30:54
Speaker 1: pretty surreal here in the US. His performance are it is? Uh,
30:59
Speaker 1: and I guess we need and wrap up with um
31:01
Speaker 1: the two twos that they wear very interesting stuff. Man,
31:05
Speaker 1: have you seen this? I have their usually full body
31:08
Speaker 1: like multi colors sitting here, Torso, but I saw nakedness,
31:12
Speaker 1: like every square inch covered? Really did you? Or you know?
31:15
Speaker 1: They showed people from the rear at least. Yeah, we're
31:18
Speaker 1: in the diapers we'll know these people. They were just
31:21
Speaker 1: totally naked, bare bottom. Do you see these guys? Yeah. Um,
31:25
Speaker 1: when I was in Japan with you me, Um, they
31:28
Speaker 1: have little baths and one of the rules of the
31:32
Speaker 1: baths it's like, if you have tattoos, you can't come
31:34
Speaker 1: in because they don't. I was a little worried, but
31:37
Speaker 1: I think they figured that since I was obviously American
31:40
Speaker 1: and I just have like one to maybe. Um. They
31:44
Speaker 1: they were like, I think you're okay to maybe I
31:47
Speaker 1: look like, you don't know how many tattoos, but the
31:50
Speaker 1: if you if you have tattoos, they can't ask you
31:53
Speaker 1: to leave. And the whole reasons they don't want trouble. Sure,
31:56
Speaker 1: it's not like the professional wrestling venues where you just
32:00
Speaker 1: know that it's yakuza owned and controlled. Yeah. I don't
32:03
Speaker 1: think we mentioned that. That's one of the sectors of
32:05
Speaker 1: legitimate business that Yuckus often get involved in his pro wrestling.
32:09
Speaker 1: Pro wrestling, m got anything else on that, Nope, alright,
32:14
Speaker 1: that's Yakuza. Ever since I was a kid, I always
32:16
Speaker 1: wanted to be a yakuza guy. If you want to
32:24
Speaker 1: learn more about yakuza and see some of these tattoo
32:27
Speaker 1: photos that Chuck's talking about. And this may be the
32:31
Speaker 1: only article on the site that has a photo of
32:33
Speaker 1: Jet Lee? Is he in there? What does it say?
32:37
Speaker 1: What's the caption Jet Lee as rogue in the film War,
32:40
Speaker 1: which focuses on Asian organized crime. Interesting and there's one
32:43
Speaker 1: heck of a caption. If you want to see that
32:46
Speaker 1: caption for yourself, you can type the word yakuza y
32:49
Speaker 1: a k u z a in the handy search bar
32:52
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Uh. And since I said
32:54
Speaker 1: handy search bar, you know what time it is for reels.
32:58
Speaker 1: It's listening to mal um Josh. I'm gonna call this
33:04
Speaker 1: uh video blog. I'm trying to plug but I don't
33:08
Speaker 1: have the name of it. Oh well, that's rough. But
33:10
Speaker 1: it's from the past, and I like, you know, hey,
33:16
Speaker 1: stuff you should know team. I've tagged along with you
33:18
Speaker 1: through four years worth of s Y s K, but
33:20
Speaker 1: have not yet caught up to the most current editions.
33:22
Speaker 1: I'm writing you from the dawn of two thousand eleven.
33:26
Speaker 1: Whoa is this just an old email? Then new um.
33:31
Speaker 1: In the past, I've seen the rise and fall of
33:32
Speaker 1: Hiku Theater appropriately celebrated when Josh quit smoking. Yeah, which
33:38
Speaker 1: is it's been a while now to Plus, I don't
33:41
Speaker 1: even remember smokey Josh. Now I know it's nice. Yeah,
33:44
Speaker 1: it's like a whole different thing. Now I'm like judgmental
33:46
Speaker 1: at other smoker, Josh, as it should be. Uh. And
33:50
Speaker 1: I've wondered what the W stands for in Charles W.
33:52
Speaker 1: Chucker's Chuck Bryant. More recently, Chuck has periodically replaced listener
33:58
Speaker 1: mail with the relatively new Facebook questions. But he points
34:01
Speaker 1: out that again and he's behind the times a bit
34:03
Speaker 1: that's been around. Jerry is as enigmatic as ever, having
34:08
Speaker 1: never actually spoken on air, not true. And Josh has
34:11
Speaker 1: run a commendable, yet untimely i'm sorry, ultimately failed campaign
34:16
Speaker 1: at abolishing Handy from the Handy search bar. Yeah. I
34:19
Speaker 1: just kind of gave into that that was a phase.
34:21
Speaker 1: But perhaps the Josh, Chuck and Jerry I write too
34:23
Speaker 1: now are quite different. I won't know until I've caught
34:26
Speaker 1: it to the present or future, depending on whether you're
34:28
Speaker 1: reading this from your perspective or mind. Very different. We're aged, yes,
34:32
Speaker 1: we are. A beard has gotten noticeably grayer. I'm sagging
34:36
Speaker 1: I needed to write you now instead of waiting until
34:38
Speaker 1: I caught up. Though, because I've started a video blog,
34:41
Speaker 1: I need to give credit where credit is due. I
34:43
Speaker 1: feel like I've gotten to know the gang fairly well
34:45
Speaker 1: some with us over the course of two fifty podcasts. Uh.
34:49
Speaker 1: It is this kind of relationship that I'm hoping to
34:51
Speaker 1: build with my audience two podcasts. He's right behind he'up
34:56
Speaker 1: on Um. You've been an inspiration for me, and I
34:59
Speaker 1: hope to form the same kind of connection with an
35:00
Speaker 1: audience through my video blog or vlog or vlog. More importantly,
35:04
Speaker 1: I need to thank you guys for all you do
35:05
Speaker 1: providing something that is real, entertaining, informative, and that has
35:10
Speaker 1: brought me back for all these episodes. So thank you
35:12
Speaker 1: for the inspiration. You're a fan for the past, present, future.
35:16
Speaker 1: Nate bellpof and I tried to plug Nate's vlog, but
35:19
Speaker 1: he didn't mention it to Nate first rule of thumb
35:23
Speaker 1: is two pass along the name of your blog when
35:26
Speaker 1: writing people that can get the name of this isn't
35:28
Speaker 1: fight Club. I don't even try to look it up
35:30
Speaker 1: and I couldn't find it. So Nate, if you want
35:31
Speaker 1: to write in, we'll post on Facebook. Yes and we
35:34
Speaker 1: leave the tweet it agreed. Okay, And speaking of Facebook
35:37
Speaker 1: and Twitter, you can join us on Facebook and Facebook
35:40
Speaker 1: dot com slash stuff you should know. You can join
35:42
Speaker 1: us on Twitter. Our handle is the very clumsy s
35:46
Speaker 1: y s K Podcast all one word. You'll never find
35:50
Speaker 1: it if you're just searching for us, but it's s
35:53
Speaker 1: y s K podcast. You can also send us an
35:56
Speaker 1: email to Stuff Podcast at discovery com. For more on
36:07
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff
36:09
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