Badges and mobile-phone straps engraved with the crests of crime syndicates are being offered on Yahoo Japan Corp.'s auction site.
Yahoo Japan said Thursday it has yet to decide whether to ban sales of yakuza badges on the site. In June, sales of attorneys' badges were banned on Yahoo Auctions Japan after the Japan Federation of Bar Associations asked the company to stop the sales.
According to the site, a badge the seller claims is a genuine crest of Kyokuto-kai, one of the top yakuza groups, was put on sale Wednesday with a target price of 200,000 yen.
The seller posted a comment saying the badge is only for collectors and "should not be misused," adding it is not currently used by the mob but is "precious." No one has made a successful bid so far, the operator said.
Another seller put a badge of Sumiyoshi-kai, another leading underworld group, on the auction site on Sept. 27. This seller also claimed his badge was genuine and set a 200,000 yen target price. A bid of 20,000 yen had been received by early Thursday.
Yet another seller offered a phone strap with a crest of Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest crime syndicate in Japan, on the site Sept. 28 with a target price of 4,000 yen.
As of Thursday morning, 16 people had bid for the strap, with the high at 8,250 yen.