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Baio
12th August 2002, 00:14
I've been watching a lot of Yakuza movies lately and it seems in every one the Yakuza are wearing very bright suits or hawaiian shirts and ties and flashy old american type cars, but in the pics i've seen Yakuza, when not showing off their horimono, look just like regular guys o is there any truth to these movies, would you be able to tell the difference between a normal guy and a Yakuza if you didn't see any tattoos or cut off fingers?

stewart73
26th August 2002, 04:11
These days the real Yakuza dont dress like that...only in the movies maybe. Some of the wanna-be`s (bosouzoku or chimpira) are loud and wear the Hawaiian stuff and dye their hair still, but the real deal drive almost exclusively Mercedes, either black or silver and almost always tint their windows. They are usually well-dressed and dont stick out at all, other than the fact that they park wherever they want and this usually means just stopping in the middle of the street, getting out and walking away! :) Alot of them are actually nice to foreign people, or maybe I should say `interested` in foreign people. :)

Baio
26th August 2002, 04:14
i've heard afew stories of people going to japan paying money and going out on the town with yakuza too so i guess they like foreigners since some tourists would be interest in some of the "services" the yakuza control

stewart73
26th August 2002, 04:19
Maybe, but the type (amounts) of money that they are interested in is alot more than foreign tourists bring in! :) They dont have time for that I dont think. Alot of them own pachinko parlours (kind of like slots), hostess bars, or collect `dues` from different store owners as a kind of protection fee. Thats why you cant go into a hot spring in Japan if you have tatoos...its the only rule they can make to keep the Yakuza out. They are allowed in public baths though, and thats where its easy to tell the difference...some of their tatoos are amazing! :):cool:

26th August 2002, 04:35
Originally posted by stewart73
These days the real Yakuza dont dress like that...only in the movies maybe. Some of the wanna-be`s (bosouzoku or chimpira) are loud and wear the Hawaiian stuff and dye their hair still, but the real deal drive almost exclusively Mercedes, either black or silver and almost always tint their windows. They are usually well-dressed and dont stick out at all, other than the fact that they park wherever they want and this usually means just stopping in the middle of the street, getting out and walking away! :) Alot of them are actually nice to foreign people, or maybe I should say `interested` in foreign people. :)


This is true.

Real Yakuza don't want attention to be drawn to them, just as real Mafia in the US don't want to stick out. Take "The Dapper Don" (Don Gotti) for example, he stuck out like a turd in a punch bowl with his clothes, cars, women etc. and look what happened.................he got busted. Evidently he pissed off some hirer-ups in the Mob with his life style and might have had problems with them if the Feds hadn't got to him first.

Most likely you wouldn't know a real Yakuza if he was walking down the street.

Don Cunningham
26th August 2002, 16:09
During my own recent trip to Japan, I was going to dinner with my former judo instructor and his family. While at the designated intersection in Ikebukuro to meet him, several large black limos pulled up and discharged about two dozen yakuza at a traditional restaurant near where I was waiting. It appeared that two different oyabun were having a meeting or something. The majority of the two groups were left outside to stand guard.

What was amazing was they were all dressed alike, dark suits, thin ties, and white shirts with sunglasses. It looked like they had shopped at the same store. When my friend pulled up, he pointed them out as yakuza, as if I wouldn't have guessed.

26th August 2002, 16:14
Don,

Sounds like they were the rank and file low level Yaks since they all looked alike and were standing outside. The Oyabun or Boss looks pretty much like most other people. Sasukawa Ryuichi is a good example.