Yakuza

, also known as , or simply the Japanese Mafia, are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term yakuza is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization.

thumb|Staged photo by Suzuki Shin'ichi I depicting burakumin leather workers, 1873 Burakumin (, "people of the hamlet/village") are an outcaste group in Japan, residing at the bottom of the traditional Japanese social hierarchy. The burakumin's ancestors were outcastes of the pre-modern era, primarily from the Edo period, who were associated with occupations considered impure or tainted by death, such as executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, or tanners. They traditionally lived in their own hamlets and neighbourhoods. Although legally liberated in 1871 with the abolition

thumb|A modern pachinko machine, Galaxy Express 999-themed thumb|A pachinko parlor in is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an and, muchmore frequently, for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the in the as a form of , gambling.

thumb|Roppongi Hills' buildings (center and right) and Tokyo Midtown Tower (left)

MMA promoter based in Japan

(also spelled or sometimes ) is the Japanese word for tattoo, and is used in English to refer to a distinctive style of Japanese tattooing, though it is also used as a blanket term to describe a number of tattoo styles originating in Japan, including tattooing traditions from both the Ainu people and the Ryukyuan Kingdom.

is an entertainment district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Kabukichō is considered a red-light district with a high concentration of host and hostess clubs, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called the . Shinjuku Golden Gai, famous for its plethora of small bars, is part of Kabukichō.

ward of Osaka city, Osaka, Japan

thumb|Man's hand showing yubitsume, with the upper two portions of the little finger having been removed or otoshimae is a Japanese ritual to atone for offenses to another, a way to be punished or to show sincere apology and remorse to another, by means of amputating portions of one's own little finger. In modern times, it is primarily performed by the yakuza, a collection of Japanese criminal organizations.

film genre

thumb|The were a group that dressed in a peculiar style and spoke in a vernacular which matched their often outrageous behaviour. or were gangs of samurai in feudal Japan. First appearing in the Azuchi–Momoyama period (between the end of the Muromachi period in 1573 and the beginning of the Edo period in 1603) as the turbulent Sengoku period drew to a close, were either , wandering samurai, or men who had once worked for samurai families who, during times of peace, formed street gangs. Some, however, were also members of more prominent clans—most notably Oda Nobunaga and Maeda Toshiie.

unsolved 1984–1985 extortion case in Japan directed at the industrial confectioneries Ezaki Glico and Morinaga

thumb|240px|right|Sarakin office building in Hokkaido is a Japanese term for a legal moneylender who makes unsecured loans at high interest. It is a contraction of the Japanese words for and . An illegal loan shark who goes above legally permitted maximum interest rates is called yamikin, short for , and many of them lend at 10% for 10 days.

Bakuto (博徒) were itinerant gamblers active in Japan from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. They were one of two forerunners (the other being tekiya, or peddlers) to modern Japanese organized crime syndicates called yakuza.

thumb|right|240px|The Susukino Crossing at night with "King of blenders" of Nikka Whiskey on the Susukino Building

overview of sex trafficking in Japan

Sports betting, lotteries and pachinko in Japan

1946 gang violence in Japan

thumb|Tekiya on the grounds of Shimogamo Shrine in [[Kyoto]] thumb|Tekiya selling talismans and decorations Tekiya ( or ; "peddlers") are itinerant Japanese merchants who, along with the bakuto ("gamblers"), historically were predecessors to the modern yakuza. A loose American equivalent of the tekiya could be seen in carnies.

is the red-light district of Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is an island between the sandbank of the and the . It is named after a popular, but very short-lived, entertainment quarter of Edo, which existed in the late 18th century. The name "Nakasu" can be translated as "the island in the middle", as Nakasu is an island between two rivers.

activities by the Central Intelligence Agency in Occupation and post-Occupation Japan