If you're a well-connected Japanese gangster, you now have your own newspaper to keep you abreast of underworld life. Another perk of the job.
Japan's yakuza are a different lot. They have office buildings, business cards, fanzines, tight control over the entertainment industry — and considerable political influence.
In October last year, Minister of Justice Keishu Tanaka was forced to resign — ostensibly for health reasons — over his links to yakuza bosses. Around then, too, Finance Minister Koriki Jojima spent months dodging claims that a yakuza front company had helped finance his election campaign. The controversy only ended when Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda called a general election and Jojima lost his seat in the Diet.
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