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- [00:01]
A
Carvana is so easy.
- [00:02]
B
Just a click and we've got ourselves a car. See so many cars.
- [00:07]
A
That's a clicktastic inventory.
- [00:09]
B
And check out the financing options, payments to fit our budget.
- [00:12]
A
I mean, that's Clickonomics101. Delivery to our door. Just a hop, skip and a click away. And bot no better feeling than when everything just clicks. Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply.
- [00:30]
B
It's Tuesday, the 11th of July 1978. At the swanky Bellamy nightclub in Kyoto, Japan. A limbo act is reaching its climax and 50 patrons rise to applaud. Among them Kazuo Taoka, Japan's godfather. A man the Sicilians would have called the Capo di tutti capi, third boss of the Yamaguchi Gumi, demigod to over 12,000 yakuza across the Japanese archipelago. Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, is like so many cities, a Yamaguchi Gumi stronghold. So when Taoka, impeccably suited as always, rises to applaud the act alongside the 50 others, he'd be forgiven for assuming he's untouchable, as powerful here as he'd be in the Yamaguchi's headquarters and hometown of Kobe. But he's wrong. As the crowd cheers, a young man in a white shirt rises from his seat and walks calmly towards the Godfather's table beside the stage. The man gets to within 15ft of 65 year old Telka, pulls out a 38 caliber pistol and opens fire. His first bullet pops a hole in Teuka's neck. The second hits another punter. The gunman flees as Taoka's underlings rush him outside into his bulletproof black Cadillac and speed with a police escort to a nearby hospital. Taoka's would be killer. 25 year old Kiyoshi Narumi belongs to the Matsuda Gumi from western Japan. In 1975, Narumi and fellow Matsuda Yakuza had swallowed the ashes of a boss slain by a Yamaguchi bullet and sworn revenge on his killers. So when Narumi found himself in the same club as the Yamaguchi leader, he was never going to let it pass. If only Narumi were a better shot. Doctors patch up Taoka's neck. Who can add yet another notch to the bedpost of near misses? He survived in his four decade long criminal career. Cops spend the next four days raiding Yamaguchi offices and clubhouses, arresting 80 suspected gangsters because they know what's coming next to will dispatch Yamaguchi death squads, launching what one reporter describes as quote, a gang war right out of Chicago in the 1930s. Gangsters fighting gangsters in broad daylight, attacking each other on the streets and raiding each other's offices. Yamaguchi goons shoot dead or beat up so many Matsuda members that Matsuda leaders will submit a letter of disillusion to the police, formally ending the group. It will take the death squads a little longer to track down the roomie, but they do. And on September 17 that year, the young shooter's body is found in the mountains overlooking Kobe. Teoka has emerged from yet another bloody period on top. And in typical fashion, he rubber stamps Narumi's failure by issuing apology to the Bellamy ownership for any trouble caused by it's yet another victory for a man who emerged from the ashes of Japan's World War II defeat to become one of the world's most powerful gangsters. But Narumi's assassination attempt puts Taoka out of action for months, and it'll aggravate a heart condition that has for years sparked a fight for succession among his many underbosses. The Yamaguchi Gumi is already a stretch force with relying on Touka's charismatic leadership to bind its more than 500 gangs under one empire. The Bellamy episode will rip the organization open along these fault lines, and it will define not only the life of Kazuo Touka, but the history of the Yamaguchi Gumi and Japanese organized crime for decades to come. Welcome to the Underworld Podcast. Hello and welcome to the weekly organized crime show that brings you tales of the underworld from Miami to Myanmar, Jamaica to Japan, and does it in the flawless style of two straight men have seen better days like every podcast. I'm Sean Williams in Wellington, New Zealand and I'm joined today by Danny Gold in Newell City. We are actual real life journalists. We've been out there on the front lines of all this stuff and each week we switch out hosting duties. In case you've just joined us, is it snowing over there? It's hard to tell. It's only like 99% of the world's media reporting on the weather in a single American city. It's just such a hard world to get through sometimes, to be fair.
- [05:21]
A
And not only snowed here a lot, it snowed like all over like half the US like an insane amount of stuff. But yeah, it did. It did. It's gonna. It's supposed to be fucked, dude. It's supposed to be so cold the next week. I'm not looking forward to it. I should have gone to Mexico, like I did last year, but mistakes were made.
- [05:36]
B
You're not sledding, you're not making snowmen. Do you do stuff like that?
- [05:39]
A
I mean, if I can find my nephews do, but like, you know, if.
- [05:43]
B
You can find them. Yeah. Anyway, thanks for listening, guys. There is gonna be a bonus show off the back of this one for Patreon subscribers. Search for us there and you'll find like hundreds of interviews, mini roundups for a few bucks each month.
- [05:58]
A
Yeah, that's patreon.com the NorWalPodcast. Or you can sign up right here on Spotify or on itunes.
- [06:04]
B
Yeah. And you can send us tips, abuse and of course, some odds on fixed Chinese tennis table matches. The underworld. Podcastmail.com and we're up on the socials now. We're like, got tons of stuff there, so check us out. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. We are young, relevant. My golly gosh, aren't we both handsome men?
- [06:22]
A
I feel like each of the things you said are one third true, so that equals one full, full truth out of the three.
- [06:28]
B
There is. There is something there. Anyway, onto today's subject. Kazuo Touka, Japan's godfather. Although some people called him the godfather of godfathers, which, that's a bit of a tautology. In any case, this guy is one of the most important, if not the most important figure in post war Japanese crime. Perhaps just like post war Japan period. He grew up an orphan, rose from the streets to lead Japan's most powerful gang. He. He befriended nationalists and politicians and musicians and movie stars, subject of several movies himself. And he spearheaded the spread of Japanese organized crime across Asia and even the United States.
- [07:06]
A
Yeah, I don't think people appreciate how powerful the Yakuza were in like the 70s and 80s. I mean, they were active in the US even like a rash of this rash of 80s movies where they're the scary bad guys, you know, like, they were. They were really something back then.
- [07:21]
B
Oh yeah. Like they were. They were really big. I mean, they're not tiny now. No, but like, given all of this, like out there about this guy, I mean, there's incredibly little that you can find about Taeoka online. I think maybe it's a language barrier thing. He's got an autobiography, but it's only in Japanese, so I've managed to get a bit of that. And it's also lucky that I've been reading a ton of books about the Yakuza since I was in Japan last October on assignment for the Guardian, which is a story that I still haven't finished, so sorry about that, Miss. Miss Editor. And it's really only in books that Telka's full story comes out. Right. So today's show is largely taken from several great books, including by a friend of the show, Jake Adelstein. You got Oxford University academic Martina Baradel, who I spent several days with in and around the Goya on my trip. Like it's a great story, man. Like I can't wait for it to come out. And of course there is David e. Kaplan, whose 2003 book Yakuza Japan's Criminal Underworld is like the Bible stuff. Absolute must read if you want to know more. Reading list, as always, out for Patreon members.
- [08:26]
A
Yeah, I think there's some interviews with Jake on the Patreon from years ago too. And shout out to Jake, who I got a drink with when I was in Japan. Very nice guy.
- [08:33]
B
Yeah, really nice guy. Unfortunately I missed him when I was in Japan. He was doing like a book tour for the Last Yakuza, which is his latest one, which I'm taking some stuff for, for this show. Really good as always. But yeah, shout out to Jake for his amazing work. Anyway, Kazuo Touka's life, it starts out in hardship, and I mean like real, real hardship. He's born in a little mountain village in Tokushima Prefecture, which is on the eastern end of Japan's Shikoku island that sits across the inland sea from major port cities like Hiroshima, Osaka, and most importantly for today's story, Kobe. Yes, that's the Kobe of beef fame, but also crucially, one of the first places to open up to foreign trade in the 1850s, when the isolationist Tokugawa Shogun, shall we say, persuaded to get into commerce by a fleet of American gunboats. And this, quote, gunboat diplomacy would eventually force the end of the Shogunate and the restoration of the Japanese Emperor. And it's the reason that even today, despite the repeated destruction of Kobe through war and a devastating 1995 earthquake, the city's got this distinctly international flavor, way more even than Tokyo or Osaka. I mean, I was there for a couple of days on my trip and you can still see dozens of like British, Portuguese, French style buildings in the downtown, loads of international restaurants. Although actually, to be fair, I just went to a disakaya and had fried chicken, which I guess is its own kind of crime. Anyhow, if you want to know about the deep history of the Yakuza going like way back beyond the 1800s, we did a two parter on them all the way back in 2020. We're talking wandering samurai, ronin, vigilante groups called Machiaco, which the yakuza claim are their forebears. But the truth isn't so simple, of course. Either way, by the time Kazuo Touka is born in 1913, the Yakuza already acts as a kind of state within a state. Many of them come from the burakumin, which is a low caste of people somewhat similar to the Dalits or Untouchables in India. Folks who nobody will hire, who return to the underworld for money and belonging.
- [10:40]
A
There's also a thing with. With Japanese of Korean descent, right? Like that there. There's lot, lots of opportunities that aren't afforded them. Does that come in a later era or is that originally.
- [10:49]
B
Yeah, that's. That's going to come in like pretty soon. In this story they call the Zainichi, if anyone's watched the show, Pachinko, which is incredible, that's kind of about these people as well. To isn't Zainichi, he isn't burakumin. But he is barely better off for being neither of those things. He's the youngest of five kids whose father dies before he's even born, and his mother dies when he's just six, allegedly from exhaustion. Orphaned, Touka then moves to Kobe to live with an aunt and uncle. The uncle works on Kobe's docks, which are one of Japan's hotbeds of organized crime. Contraband, smuggling, union disputes being the main two illicit markets. The uncle isn't much of a father figure, however. He drinks heavily and neglects Touka, who describes his childhood in Kobe as abject. Age 14, Telka gets work as a lathe operator. But he's a hot headed kid, and when a boss complains about his cleaning, the young Tolka attacks the guy with a broom. Tolka is fired over the incident, and he becomes a bit of a wanderer. Takes odd jobs here and there, but never manages to settle on anything. But at age 16, he hooks up with Hideo Yamaguchi, an old friend who will introduce his Toka to his older brother Naboru. Now Naboro Yamaguchi is heir apparent to Yamaguchi Gumi, run by his father, Harukuchi. There's a lot of Japanese names.
- [12:16]
A
Dude, you're doing. You're doing great. I'm sure the people are following. I'm sure they're following along with there.
- [12:21]
B
And he's of course in Kobe, right? The group, I think gumi just means group had only been founded in 1915, so a couple years after Taoka's birthday. At this point, the gang is still pretty small and focused only on Kobe itself. Hawka likes the sound of organized crime, and he becomes close friends with Noboru, who can see the potential in an orphan with a penchant for violence. He gives Taoka a spot in a Yamaguchi flophouse in the city, and he hands him a role at the door of a local porno theater.
- [12:52]
A
This is kind of similar to your origin story, right? Working at a porn theater, living at a flop house. Like that's how you got into journalism.
- [12:58]
B
I just build that legend. Yeah, yeah. Actually, yeah. Those early stories are amazing. Anyway, Noboru takes over as Kimicho or Godfather of the Yamaguchi Gumi in 1925 when his father retires. Meanwhile, his young charge, Taoka, gets a well deserved rep as a brutal fighter. And he seems to spend a fair amount of his downtime getting into brawls on the streets of Kobe. He's particularly feared for eye gouging. Isn't that lovely? He gets the nickname of Kuma or bear in 19. The bears gouge eyes. They just rip your eyes clean out.
- [13:35]
A
Yeah, I don't think they're.
- [13:36]
B
Anyway, in 1930. Yeah, yeah. In 1930, a theater owner addresses Telka in a way he takes to be disrespectful. I'm like, I really struggled on that sentence. Because I think he like addresses him informally, or he calls him like a young man, which is obviously grounds for death in Japan at the time. Which actually does remind me of Germany a bit. Anyway, Taoka goes on a rampage. Did you know, by the way, you can get arrested for using the informal you with a police officer in Germany? Interesting fact. Isn't it really cool? He bursts into the theater during a show. Takada is. And he just starts swinging, right? He takes aims at actors, musicians. He's smashing up instruments and props, just completely losing the plot. This doesn't go down well with Noboro Yamaguchi. The yakuza operate on a strict hierarchical basis where a koban or a subordinate or child will follow the orders of an oyabun or father. If you're the kobun, you do what your onobun says, period. So when Taoka flies off the hook in 1930 and besmirches the image of the Yamaguchi Gumi as this, like, not this Honorable Thieves Guild kind of group, Nabooru gives him a massive dressing down. Touka grovels, gets down on his knees and begs the leader for forgiveness. Nabooro tells the young mobster to get back on his feet. He'll give him another chance, he says. More work. But he'll damn well listen to the boss from now on. A final chance. An ultimatum. The perfect way to get loyalty from an unstable young man. Touka takes his medicine, thanks his oyabun and heads back to work. Touka's no less a violent maniac, of course. It's just that now Noborro can ensure he'll do the skull cracking for the Yamaguchi and not just to satisfy his own bloodlust. In 1932, amid a general strike by Japan's Sumo wrestlers, Touka even allegedly beat up a renowned champion called Tamanashiki, which, I mean, I get. These guys are hardly brawlers, right? The Sumos. But I still wouldn't fancy my chances against a 300 pound guy in a loincloth. I thought you were going to make a joke about a Berlin club there.
- [15:50]
A
Low hanging fruit.
- [15:52]
B
Yeah, yeah. In 1934, Touka puts his stamp on the Yamaguchi during a labour dispute at the Kobe docks. So basically there is a big standoff this year between a shipping company and a workers union. And the Yamaguchi gumi steps in to mediate, that is to take a big lump of cash to get the workers back on the docks. The union leader tells the gangsters to go screw themselves. Noboru Yamaguchi tries to keep the peace, but Taoka then heads into the fracar and stabs the union leader. The guy doesn't die, but cops pick up Taoka and he's sentenced to a year behind bars. He's this useful foil for Noboro Yamaguchi during this time. He's kind of the threat of ultra violence that Naboro can hint to when he's extorting local businesses.
- [16:38]
A
First off, it's. It's kind of funny. Like a sumo wrestler strike, you know, Like I get that they're athletes, but it's. It's still.
- [16:44]
B
This is a big deal.
- [16:45]
A
It's a funny.
- [16:46]
B
There's a Wikipedia page about it.
- [16:47]
A
It's a funny image in my head. Like hunger strike situation. Maybe they. Or no, don't. They don't go for that.
- [16:54]
B
But nice.
- [16:55]
A
It's also. It's kind of amazing how organized crime globally gets really involved in labor unions around the same time, like the same era. Like it's one thing obviously people get in. Like drugs is easy, right? It's prohibited, you know, it's contraband. It's easy to make Money, it's underworld stuff. But the fact that they all figure out how to get involved in labor unions in that sort of like 1900, 1910, 1920s period is. It's fascinating.
- [17:19]
B
I guess this is just the time when trade unionism is a new thing, right? Like this. Like this kind of leftism, like Russia and all parts of Europe going quite, quite left, famously. But I guess that's where the gangs are insinuating themselves, right? And Taoika, like, he's. He's a key part of this. And when he emerges from prison, he is welcomed back into the gang. He's good for them. And in 1936, still aged just 23 at this point, Touka takes part in the highly ritualized Sakazaki ceremony, which involves a toast of sake and a vow of blood brothership. It's roughly equivalent to being a made man in the Mafia. Now, there is only one way for Telka to get out of the Yakuza, and it involves somebody chiseling his name onto a tombstone.
- [18:05]
A
Wow.
- [18:06]
B
For now, however. Yeah. Do you like that bit?
- [18:08]
A
Yeah, that was. I should. Yeah, that's a solid one right there.
- [18:10]
B
Yeah, very well done, that one. So Taoka, though, he's keen that the only people going in the ground at this point are going to be rival gang members. In 1937, he beats an enemy almost to death with an iron kettle. Then the guy's brother takes umbrage with this, understandably, because this is Japan. The brother storms the Yamaguchi Gumi office in Kobe with a katana, which is a Japanese sword. But Taoka is waiting for him with a sword of his own. When the guy attacks, Taoka slips to one side and thrusts his blade into his opponent's gut, killing him. It is Taoka's first murder, and despite police working pretty much hand in glove with the yakuza during the 1930s, murder isn't something they can let slip. Touka is arrested, tried, and he's sentenced to eight years prison. And it's while he's behind bars that Taoka gets deeply into the writings of a man named Toyama Mitsuru, an ultra nationalist, anti communist, and founder of a secret organization called the Genyosha, or Black Ocean Society. Let's take a step back for a moment, because these revelations will have a transformational impact on Kazuo Touka and the entire Japanese underworld. Now, it's probably fair to say that by 1937, Japan rates itself pretty highly. The country is pretty much entirely captured by a far right imperial zeal. Its empire has spread to Taiwan, Korea, Russia's Sakhalin island, swaths of Micronesia, and a huge chunk of eastern China's Manchuria through its puppet state of Manchukuo. This had all partly begun with the Black Ocean Society, founded by Mitsuru in 1881 with the express belief that Japan is superior and should conquer all of Asia. And this is hardly a marginal view. As a line in a popular song of the time goes, quote, there is a law of nations. It is true. But when the moment comes, remember, the strong eat up the weak.
- [20:09]
A
All right, guys, a quick break from smugglers, kingpins and highly organized crime to tell you about a different type of underground operation, the culinary contraband of Righteous Felon Crafter. You guys may have remembered a couple weeks ago in the show I was talking about how much, how much I love like biltong, which is dried meat and beef jerky and all that. These guys reached out. I don't know how we weren't dealing with them earlier. The stuff is amazing. The stuff they've sent me. And they are criminal kindred spirits with Underworld Pod. This is jerky and meat sticks for people who prefer their snacks paired with a bit of rebellion. High protein, low sugar, gluten free and legendary flavor so you can make a clean getaway while channeling your inner outlaw. We are talking 17 different flavors with a cast of outlaw characters. We got the, the anchovia biltong, which is pretty dope. There's a one named after Nelson Mandela I had before. We got the beef jerky Soul Survivor Korean barbecue inspired OG Hickory. And they got all these really great meat sticks too. We got the OG Hickory here. There's a Honey Heist barbecue one right here. There's a beef and cheese one that I've been eating. That's fantastic. Their flavor lineup reads like a wanted poster of your favorite felons and criminal masterminds. Habanero, Escobar, Teriyaki, Balboa, the turkey jerky. Like I said, fal Capone. They got something for any crime junkie that's jonesing for a hit of the good stuff. And like I said, I've been, I've been eating this since they sent me a large amount after I just talked about on the show. If you want to get in on the heist, throw on your ski mask and head over to Righteous Felon to grab a sampler pack with code UNDERWORLD25 for 25% off. That's code UNDERWORLD25 for 25 percent off. Follow them on Instagram at Righteous Felon look, you know, I'm not a supporter of Japanese fascism, right? I do not like what they did anti, anti Japan during this period. They did a lot of horrific things all over Asia during this period. Horrific things that there's no excuse for. But I'm just saying, in 2024, you know, if you're coming from New York City and you're going to Tokyo and you're using the subway in Tokyo, and you're using the bathrooms, even the bathrooms in the subway stations in Tokyo, maybe you buy a little Japanese denim at a nice store there. You go out to eat at any. Any Japanese restaurant, right? Maybe, you know, you're like, they kind of.
- [22:35]
B
Kind of do.
- [22:36]
A
Do things a lot better than the rest of us. You know, maybe there's some. Maybe there's some merit there to say the Japanese are just better than us at a lot of things. I'm just saying, you know, guys, he's.
- [22:46]
B
Doing the Japanese fascism bit again. We got to stop him. Like, I feel like that's not going to be the first time this gets done.
- [22:52]
A
Just tell me to be honestly, to be honestly, when you were in the metro in Japan, when you were there, maybe you went to use a bathroom and it spoke to you and it asked you what temperature you wanted your. The water to be. I'm just saying. Thought didn't cross your mind?
- [23:07]
B
No. I mean, I do enjoy my butt cheeks being warm while I'm sitting on the. Sit on the bog. But yeah, I don't know, let's just listen on a little further and see if you can get away with the Paris. Anyway, back to the Black Ocean Society, the Gen Yosha. It draws in at this time, disaffected samurai. Yes, they exist this late, but more importantly, Yakuza figures with whom it carries out the assassination of the Queen of Korea in 1895, which is one of its first major acts of terrorism. Years later, a Genosha nationalist tries to kill Japanese Foreign Minister Okuma Shigenobu. The attempt fails, but Shigenobu loses one of his legs. And by 1910, when Japan invades and occupies Korea, the Yakuza and the Ginyosha are closely bound together. And they are both useful foils for the expansionist Japanese Empire. By 1931, when it invades China, Japan has gangsters selling opium to the Chinese to keep them addicted to the drug, which is a continuation of what Western powers have done. And when I say Western powers, I mean the uk. It also allows them to raid China's mineral wealth to power the Japanese war machine. The most famous of these guys is Yoshio Kodama who we've spoken about on here before. He's a so called Koromaku or string puller, which is a phrase lifted from Kabuki Theater. Here is David Kaplan describing him in his book quote. Kodama operated as a sort of imperial Japanese version of Catch 22's Milo Mindabender, buying tungsten here, guns there, reselling them and peddling vast amounts of radium, cobalt, nickel and copper. He obtained the materials in China and Manchuria, forcing the Chinese at gunpoint to sell at pitifully low prices. It was an incredibly lucrative effort, one that might easily be termed looting. These are the guys inspiring Kazuo Touka by the late 1930s. And they're what makes the Yakuza so different to other organized criminal groups around the world. In short, while outfits like the American Mafia, the Cosa Nostra, the Russian Vori, they rise in opposition to the state. The Yakuza flourished by adopting Japan's rampant imperialism and working alongside nationalists to make millions in pilfered metals or opium or methamphetamine, which is a drug first synthesized in Japan in 1919. For a bit more context, it's not as if Japanese gangs are confined to Asia either. They are also at this time making decent inroads into the United, albeit not necessarily under the umbrella of groups like the Yamaguchi Gumi. By 1930, there are around 140,000 ethnic Japanese living in the US with a large share of them in LA's Little Tokyo district. The hub for criminal activities, including drugs, prostitution and gambling is the Tokyo Club, which sits on top of a three story downtown building in la. In fact, Tokyo Club is a West coast franchise and it's got eight branches in California's Central Valley alone. And it makes seven figure profits while also acting as a kind of bank, such as the level of cash being pumped into it by Japanese Americans, which I guess is similar, right, to the Tongs like the Chinese groups that were operated at this time that we've done a lot of stuff on.
- [26:33]
A
Yeah, yeah, very similar, yeah.
- [26:36]
B
Write to San Francisco journalists this time. We didn't call them Yakuza then, but now I think that's probably what they were. By the mid-1930s, US officials considered Japan a huge source of illegal narcotics. Harry J. Anslinger, who is the chief of the Bureau of Narcotics, he says that in the years leading up to the Second World War, we should not be far short of the mark. If we said that 90% of all the illicit white drugs of the world are of Japanese origin, manufactured in the Japanese concession of Tianjin, that is modern day Tianjin near Beijing, or in other cities of Manchuria under Japanese supervision. Supervision is a great way of describing it. So by the time Taoka is arrested, Japan is already a major player in the global narcotics trade, particularly Chinese manufactured opium and quote, cotton morphine, so called because of its appearance, which begins flooding cities in the west coast and Hawaii, which itself has a large Japanese population.
- [27:37]
A
Wait, so quick question. These were, we're saying Chinese manufacturer, but it wasn't like there were Chinese organized crime groups making it in Japan working with the Yakuza. Right. The Japanese were over, like it was their territory they took in China and they were like making people make it. What's the. How does that work?
- [27:54]
B
It would have been a bit of both, as far as I can tell. Like it could have been Proto Triads, which is a show we're going to do pretty soon. It could have been triad groups going through Hong Kong and other parts of like, you know, other parts of China. But oftentimes, yeah, it was also like we heard with Yosho Kodama, it's just Japanese guys going in there holding people at gunpoint and saying, sell me your opium. So it's kind of a. I think it was a combination of all of it.
- [28:19]
A
So it wasn't like a situation like during the Balkan wars where it's like various ethnic militias basically working like as organized crime, fomenting ethnic hatred on the side, but also working in tandem with the people they're supposed to hate to do like, you know, run boycotts and I mean, not boycotts. What's the word I'm looking for? Sanctions. Like sanctions bosses make money selling drugs and guns and things like that?
- [28:41]
B
No, I think this was like a very hierarchical thing. I don't think it was like much collaboration going on. And given what was going on in all of these colonies, I think there would have been a fair deal of resentment.
- [28:53]
A
But yeah, that's what I figured.
- [28:54]
B
Yeah. I mean, yeah, in 1940 it's. It's going to get, I guess like a bit more heightened or worse, depending on your, on your point of view. In 1940, Japan announces the concept of a, quote, Greater East Asia Coast Prosperity Sphere, which it claims will shake off the yoke of European and American influence in its backyard, but which is really a way to pillage its neighbors of rubber, oil and metals while subjugating their people. That year it officially partners with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. And the following year Japan goes on an invasion. Tear up the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, French Indochina, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Burma, Papua New Guinea, Guam, and of course it bombs the hell out of Pearl harbor, which brings the US to the Pacific Theater. Domestically, the US rounds up and interns around 120,000 people of Japanese descent, which is regarded with infamy by most people. But it also has the side effect of chilling Japanese organized crime. The Tokyo club shutters in 1941, never to reopen. Gangsters who worked out of the clubs are interned and their drug smuggling businesses cease operations. Back in Japan, conscription decimates the Yakuza's numbers. Although the chaos of the war and the firebombing of Japan's largest cities is a perfect breeding ground for black markets to thrive, many of them are commanded by so called third party nationals. This is your. This is the Korean Japanese thinking migrants from occupied states like Korea, China, Taiwan, who are looked down upon by Japan's surviving ultranationalist gangsters. In 1942, Noboru Yamaguchi is killed, allegedly in a fight with rival goons. The Yamaguchi Gumi almost disappears in the wake of his death, dropping to a membership of just a few dozen yakuza. But in 1943, Kazuo Taoka is released early from prison, having served six of his eight year sentence. I think by like royal decree or something. It's pretty crazy. He's welcomed straight back into the group and he sets about trying to rebuild them by reshaping him in the image of his Genyosha heroes. Kobe's criminal landscape is dominated by third party nationals by this point, and Toyoka gathers his boys into posses and that stalk the city and beat up foreigners in the name of clearing the street of crime. But really, of course, they're just cleaning out the competition so they can dominate. And cops, whose numbers are also severely depleted, are happy to watch it all play out in 1945. I don't know if you know this, but Japan loses the war and its islands are occupied by American military authorities called the General Headquarters or ghq. Japan's police force is decentralized and defanged, further empowering organized crime. In October 1946, aged 33, Kazuo Touka is officially made the third godfather of the Yamaguchi Gumi, which is pretty striking because he's not even a member of the Yamaguchi family. The Shatter group has only 33 members at this point. But Taoka, inspired by the books he's been reading in prison and the desire to overtake the foreign run gangs is about to take it on a different, more novel path. The yakuza won't be able to survive if all shinogi, the word meaning roughly income, comes from illegal activities. He says. Everyone in this organization needs to have a legitimate job. Touka revives Noboru Yamaguchi's construction firm, which is imaginatively named Yamaguchi Gumi Construction. And he even founds an entertainment business. Here is Jake Adelstein writing in the last Yakuza. Japanese gangs were fighting over black market turf with the Koreans. The former began reviving the old yakuza structure and rather than wage direct war, they began a successful policy of assimilation and incorporated many Korean Japanese into their ranks. In some cases, the police backed the Yamaguchi Gumi in an effort to restore order and limit the power and breadth of the Korean gangs. As a sign of their respect for the Yamaguchi Gumi, the Misakami police station in Kobe allowed Taoka to be the honorary police chief for a day. A photo of him, just as a police officer being saluted by the uniformed cops was printed in early editions of his autobiography. I mean, pretty, pretty crazy.
- [33:19]
A
Yeah. It's also, I mean, impressive stuff, like gazing into the future, the whole having jobs thing, starting corporations, getting involved with the financial markets. Like, that's a, that's a visionary right there.
- [33:30]
B
Yeah, he's like fully, he's so far ahead of the curve. Yeah, unbelievable. Like, he handles the Yamaguchi Gumi way more like a corporation than a gang, even implores his underlings to keep an eye on the stock market. His strategy, writes Adelstein, is to, quote, fight, conquer, merge and grow. If a weaker gang wouldn't fight the Yamaguchi Gumi, they'd start the fight themselves. One of his big moves is to swallow Kobe's Honda Kai, which is an influential yakuza group. And before long, the Yamaguchi Gumi is in control of most of Kobe's black markets and it is trying to spread into nearby Osaka, which is Japan's second city and home to almost 2 million people. In the war's aftermath, US officials cite Yakuza as the, quote, greatest threat to American democratic aims in Japan. And in 1946, they lock up Yoshio Kodama, the right wing warlord gangster who'd spent over a decade stealing everything he could from occupied China for war crimes. But as America's focus turns to communism, its administrators in Japan and quickly conclude that the Yakuza, whose hatred of lefties is outweighed only by their Hatred of ill fitting suits are a useful foil against the growing Japanese leftist movement.
- [34:47]
A
They really do dress like extremely well. I mean those suits are incredible. I would buy a yakuza suit if.
- [34:51]
B
I could find one.
- [34:52]
A
I don't know if I have the.
- [34:53]
B
Figure for it, but they look, I mean they're amazing.
- [34:55]
A
They look great in suits.
- [34:56]
B
I mean we'd look great in suits. We need to move to Japan at all times. It's just the best place on the.
- [35:02]
A
Think about it non stop.
- [35:05]
B
I do. Kadama is released in 1948, by which time he's already written this like mind camp fest book about his life and completely normal views called I Was Defeated. Mostly he just whines about everything. Here's an excerpt where he's complaining about all the mistakes the Americans had made. Quote, the first of these mistakes was the unnecessary purge of millions of persons. The second was the unnecessary support given to the communist forces. What is he talking about? And the third was the war crimes trials conducted unilaterally at the hands of the victor. I believe that these trials are carried out in response to public opinion in the United States. It appeared that the only consideration behind these trials was that the conquerors just had to send a quota of so many persons to the gallows as part of their occupation policy. No consideration whatever was paid to such extenuating circumstances as the domestic situation Japan prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. And nor. Okay, he's going to go off on one here. To ancient and traditional Japanese customs, nor to the practices followed in the Japanese military services. These factors completely ignored. And the trials were conducted by the victor in a one sided way. Poor just you got to think, you really got to do hand it to the poor Japanese war crimes trial people, don't you? Anyway, yes, it's like just as whiny as Mein Kampf as well. Which is really quite a pathetic book if you ever read it. Anyway, that's the guy who is probably the spiritual leader for Yakuza and Japanese politicians at the time. And he's just like moaning that Japanese traditions aren't being considered when convicting military officials for mass murder. I guess a bit of a tangent really, but all this stuff is so fascinating. I honestly think we might brand this show the Japanese underworld and just do stuff about Japan. I mean we can just spend months out there each year, imagine this. And Danny can spend long hours sitting on heated robot toilet seats, which I think is your second favorite. I'll be right buddy.
- [37:02]
A
You can get those here. My brother just had A bunch at his place. Oh, yeah. It might become my. My. My number one favorite hobby. First favorite hobby.
- [37:12]
B
Oh my God. I need one now. I actually want one. I'm gonna go on online immediately after. You should.
- [37:17]
A
You should be buy robot. You got to check the plumbing in your place can set up. Because I can't have it in my apartment because my building was built in the 14th century. But any. Any other place. Usually if it's built, I don't know the way the plumbing set up. You can. You can make it happen, dude. That's who we should get for a sponsor.
- [37:33]
B
I was just thinking. Yeah, I was just thinking. We finished this recording. I want to do one of those video host threads for that.
- [37:39]
A
We finished this recording. No, you definitely need to. We finished this recording. You send out a pitch deck right away to the first Japanese robot toy company you find.
- [37:47]
B
Oh my God. Amazing. All right. Yes. By 1958, we're doing a show, aren't we? Thanks in part to the collaboration. Not just dreaming about taking a dump in a Japanese toilet. I will start that sentence again. By 1958, thanks in part to the collaboration between right wing politicians, the police and yakuza. There are around 70,000 Yakuza members across the nation. That is like a massive number of gangsters. In 1960, US authorities used gangsters to put down a huge leftist demonstration during a visit of Dwight D. Eisenhower. That same year, Taoka's Yamaguchi Gumi makes a decisive push into Osaka, forcing rival gangsters to commit yubitsume, which is the cutting off of their pinky fingers in submission. The Yamaguchi Corner markets in extortion, racketeering and nightlife. And any group that gets in their way, they hand pick leaders and they go about dismantling them with violence until they run away or bend the knee. If cops try bringing them all to justice, they can't touch the Godfather himself. According to one Osaka detective, Quote, we knew Taoka was behind it, but he didn't fire the shots. His fingerprints weren't on anything. All we had were bruises and dead ends. Some old school yakuza are horrified at this new clinical breed of gang. Says one gray beard in the late 50s, quote, what is happening today has never happened before. The traditional yakuza used to fight among themselves and sometimes still. But it was only a matter of living. In underworld society, if a yakuza caused injury to ordinary people, we used to punish him immediately. It was not permitted by our rules to hurt the weak. However, today force is used against the weak. People indiscriminately and there is no longer a sense of order in the yakuza world. Kids these days. And also, Dickhead, didn't you just like take over half of Asia like nine years before this quote? I don't know. This is just mad. These are high times for Japanese gangsters, even in the us which have pretty much squashed the scene during the war. As I mentioned, yakuza crime then picks up again at first in Hawaii where like I mentioned, there's this like huge Japanese contingent. But towards the end of the 60s, back onto the US mainland where fleets of besuited goons set up illegal gambling operations. This will continue expanding throughout the 1970s, but for now, back to Japan. Like I said before, Telka wins a reputation as the man who brings the Yamaguchi out of the shadows and turns them into something more resembling a legitimate corporation. There's the construction and the docks and Yamaguchi members are sharply dressed in black suits and they're always sporting their organization's little rhombus shaped badge. In the late 1950s, Taoka had staked a claim to Japan's entertainment industry by founding Kobe Genosha, or Kobe Performing Arts Promotion, discovering musical and acting talent and minting some of the era's most famous movies. And it's not a coincidence that a big trend emerges around this time for yakuza movies, almost all of them embarrassingly hagiographic, with Telka providing services paid of course. As a yakuza consultant, it's said at one point that no entertainment can get done west of Kyoto without Tao Ka say so. He also gets deeply into sports gambling, particularly horse and motorboat racing promoted by the Japanese government. There's a whole show to be done on motorboat racing and the organized crime in Japan. It's. It's crazy. Like Yoshio Kodama Teoka gets deeply wound into Japanese politics and he forms a particularly close alliance with Seigen Tanaka, the so called Tiger of Tokyo, who'd gone from a leader of the Japan Communist Party to right wing kingmaker and weirdly Middle Eastern oil broker. In 1963, Tanaka and Taoka Co found the League for the Stamping out of drug traffic. Like his early attempts to battle third party nationals, this campaign looks a lot like a typical Taeoka PR campaign because while he's wringing his hands about ridding Japan of its narcotic scourge, Telku is probably more interested in breaking the dominance of something called the Inagawa Kai. That's a group based out of the port city of Yokohama, which is near Tokyo. Media speculate that the anti drugs drive is actually a smokescreen for a Yamaguchi expansion into the biggest prize of them all, Tokyo. Now, The Yamaguchi has 13,000 members by this point and thousands more than the five families in the US and its DOC firms alone are making almost a quarter of a billion dollars in today's money. It has offices all over Japan, investment portfolios, and it even publishes a magazine. It also has a credo which goes like this. Esteem highly friendship and unity in order to strengthen the group, value fidelity and feel love when in contact with outsiders. Understand that elders come first and always show courtesy when dealing with the world. Remember who you are and do not invite criticism. Learn from the experiences of those who came before you and strive to improve your character. I mean, these are values I've been living with decades, as Danny can confirm.
- [43:12]
A
These are all actually like, they're really solid. I'm trying to internalize them right now. I'm going to be repeating them back to myself as you continue with the.
- [43:18]
B
Episode in the mirror, sitting on your Japanese toilet in your suit. Yeah. What an image. In 1964, Yosho Kodama forms a federation of yakuza in the Tokyo region. And soon afterwards, he manages to broker a peace deal between the Yamaguchi Gumi and Inagawa Kai, who simmering conflict he believes is turning public opinion against the gangs. Taoka, however, isn't so keen to be friends with his biggest foe. So under the guise of his anti drugs campaign, he dispatches Yamaguchi Gumi Yakuza into Yokohama to gather signatures against narcotics, which riles up the Inagawa. There's not much they can do though, and it is just another cheeky win for Touka and his huge criminal syndicate. By now, the Yamaguchi comprises over 300 families, all of them united under Touka's outside ego and charisma. A sign of just how powerful the Yamaguchi has become under Taoka comes in that same year, 1964. Japanese political leaders have had enough of the war in Yakuza and their effects on public safety, so they launched the country's first big police crackdown against organized crime groups including the Sumiyoshi Kai, Inagawa Kai and the Korean Run Tosai Kai. That could definitely be another show. They're really interesting. They all dissolve their gangs, at least on the surface level, to allow the cops to publicly save face, which is an incredibly important aspect of Japanese culture. The Tosai Kai, the Korean group actually reforms as the quote, East Asian love and friendship Business enterprise, which just reminds me of the Simpsons Happy Smile, super challenge, Family wish show. I mean, why don't they just stop making the Simpsons when it was so good?
- [45:05]
A
Yeah, the Japan episode is actually one of the best there. Fishbowl, I think up there. Up there with Australia and the one where Bart joins the mob. Just. Just world class stuff.
- [45:14]
B
Is that the knifey spoony one? That's.
- [45:15]
A
That's the. That's the Australian one.
- [45:17]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, God, that used to be so good. Do they still make the Simpsons now? Are they still putting out new shows?
- [45:23]
A
I think so, dude. I think it's out there.
- [45:25]
B
Oh, my God. Over a quarter of those detained during the 1964 police raids are Yamaguchi Gumi members. Despite this, Taoka refuses to cede an inch to the authorities. I won't dissolve the group, he says, even if I'm the only man remaining. By the 1970s, the Yamaguchi are kings of a Japanese underworld whose fortunes are mirroring that of Japan at large, whose economy has grown by more than 10% each year. Minted yakuza are spreading across Asia, particularly in the poor countries Japan had once colonized. And they make millions in meth and the sex trade in the Philippines, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia.
- [46:06]
A
In Burma, really? Even during, like the military dictatorship, I think 62.
- [46:10]
B
2.
- [46:11]
A
I'm surprised that.
- [46:12]
B
Yeah, they win, right? Yeah, yeah, that's. They're there. They're everywhere. They're crazy. Spreading around Asia at this time. Yeah, it's. It's pretty amazing. Where they have once been vicious colonizers, Japan's gangsters now form alliances with golden triangle narco warriors and China's triads. And they make huge inroads into Hong Kong, Macau and other centers of Asian vice. A series of drug raids in Japan pushed the yakuza meth manufacturing operations into Korea. Meanwhile, writes David Kaplan, quote, stung by concerted crackdowns at home, the gangs eventually moved the often smelly labs into Korea. Through the 1970s and early 1980s, at least 70% of the Yakuza's meth supply came from South Korea. At secret locales scattered throughout Korea, local crime gangs, typically with Yakuza financing, manufactured vast stores of the drug. The huge supply of Korean meth sparked what one newspaper called a blizzard of white powder from abroad.
- [47:16]
A
What do you think the quality difference is between Japanese yakuza manufactured meth and like, US meth manufactured in like, in like Idaho and like, you know, in like a trailer somewhere in the wood? Like, do you think American manufacturing can compete?
- [47:33]
B
I Mean, there's really only one way to find out.
- [47:36]
A
Patreon. It's gonna be a Patreon episode.
- [47:39]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For those real high paying members. It's gonna be awesome. Coming later this year. Yeah. Ah man. Yeah, I think. I don't know. I have no idea. Someone should email us about that. I remember when I was living in Oklahoma, there was the thing about like blue. Is it blue meth? That was actually. That's from out of Breaking Bad.
- [47:57]
A
Yeah, but that's like when people used to live G13. Whatever. Anyway, sorry.
- [48:02]
B
Well, yeah, yeah, I was. Friends of mine were like roughnecks who worked on the oil fields in Oklahoma and they. They were telling me that reliably that it was. It was very good indeed. And unfortunately I don't have a lot of friends who are Japanese yakuza from the 1970s. So I don't really know. But we get to the bottom of your help in Japan. Yakuza godfathers like Taoka, by this point so rich their construction firms are like building entire blocks of skyscrapers, offices, golf courses again, could be another show like. The Yakuza runs so many golf courses around the world at this time. And of course, casinos. In 1973, Kazuo Touka, now 60 years old, he makes a striking strategic move by forging an alliance with the Inagawa Kai, bringing to an end years of fighting over territory and resources. Despite a small drop in membership numbers by the mid-1970s, the Yamaguchi has 11,000 yakuza at its disposal. And Taioka, now rooted deeply in the firmament of Japanese popular culture, looks invincible. That's not to say his hunger for conquest has dulled, of course. In 1975, the Yamaguchi killer, major boss of the Matsude Gumi, prompting Kiyoshi Narumi to pledge revenge that were crescendo in the 1978 Kyoto shooting. From today's cold open. In 1976, the New York Times writes a long expose about the Yakuza's omnipresence across Japan. And it starts with a great quote. Our press repeats many lies about us, says Mitsuru Taoka, dapper, soft spoken son of the syndicate's legendary leader, Kazuo Touka. And we hope you will tell the truth. The truth though is that Japan's full time criminal population by conservative national police estimates now totals a staggering 110,000 members of seven major, 20 to 30 lesser Gumi and hundreds of tiny independent bands. Touka, I should add by this point has two children, the second a daughter, Yuki but this story goes on. If Japan should go communist, there will be no yakuza, says Michio Sasaki, a Yamaguchi director. Yes, they have directors. A coarse featured man, small but powerfully built, who wears boldly colored suits of his own design, Sasaki is free on bail, having been implicated in plots against the bank, an automobile maker, and a construction firm. As long as there are yakuza, he reasons, it is a free country. This is pretty amazing stuff. And actually I haven't even gotten into all the corporate raiding, like the stuff where they sit on boards of. Of, like, big organizations and they disturb AGMs like that. I'm going to do a whole other show. I mean, I keep saying this. I think I just read Kaplan's book all over again. I was just making highlights everywhere for shows that we should do in the future. Anyway, this is really amazing stuff. And then comes the 1978 shooting. Teoka is spirited to hospital, and he survives the ordeal. Narumi, his assailant, is found dead soon after. And the Yamaguchi Gumi goes back to its old ways, decimating the Matsuda Yumi. In a campaign of vengeful terror. Touka House worsens, and his subordinates begin to jostle for position and a Yamaguchi Gumi without him. By now, the group is made up of over 500 families. And Touka's recession into the shadows has the whole thing creaking like an old man at an onsen. Furthermore, the bloodshed that spills out of the Kyoto shooting is a final straw for the patience of the Japanese public. For the yakuza, they've grown tired of the gangsters fighting for over a decade now, and recent corruption scandals involving. Yoshio Kodama. Yes, he's still around. And sitting Politicians, most notably the Lockheed Martin bribery scandal of 1976, which we got into a bunch on the 2020 show, has shown just how much the strings of Japanese power are being pulled by a small clique of criminals, writes David Kaplan. Quote. For years, the yakuza credo dictated that fights among the gangs would be settled outside the realm of legitimate society. It was part of the image of the noble gangster never to be involved in gang business. The common people, the Katagi no sh, literally citizens under the sun. But recent gang battles had erupted with little regard for anyone, least of all the general public. And the Japanese were growing tired of the open violence and disregard for custom. So begins another huge police crackdown. Across 80 days, over 1100 cops round up 2000 gangsters, including 518 senior members of the Yamaguchi Gumi. In what is the largest mobilization of police in post war Japanese history, officials convict Taoka's right hand man, Kenichi Yamamoto on firearms and intimidation charges, sentencing him to three and a half years of hard labour. Prosecutors also slapped Taoka with charges of tax violation and the blackmail of construction and steamship companies in early 1979. Facing this legal and PR barrage, Taoka brokers a truce with several smaller gangs. To ensure the public understands this, he does a uniquely Japanese thing he calls a press conference. 60 plus news people cram into Teoka's Kobe home, sitting cross legged onto timing mats for over an hour as one of Taoka's underbosses reads from a prepared statement in florid Japanese. The man himself doesn't show, writes Kaplan. Quote, reporters were able to check his words against copies of the speech distributed earlier as part of a press kit. In the nationally televised address, the Yamaguchi Gumi has declared an end to the bloodshed and solemnly apologized to the public and police for the, quote, trouble caused to them. Ta' Oka stays out of the limelight for most of the following year. When he does appear in public to attempt to squash rumours that he's dying, ironically, he looks pale and thin and a shadow of his former self. Gossip rockets about as to who will take over the Yamaguchi when he's gone. But it's not like the gang is in a holding pattern. In 1980, the Yamaguchi sends almost 200 members to the opening of his office in Sapporo, which is the largest city on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido. But they're met at the airport there by over 800 rival gang members who've clubbed together to keep the Yamaguchi off their turf. And the whole showdown is marshaled by 2,000 nervous cops. Eventually, the Yamaguchi have no choice but to back down. A massive embarrassment for an organization that has made its name destroying anybody and anything in its path.
- [54:51]
A
It's an absolutely wild scene. Like I wonder this happens in an airport, like if there's video out there or something. I mean, come on. Incredible stuff.
- [54:59]
B
There's this old, there's this old pathway news footage of like yakuzas running around Tokyo back in the day. But I couldn't find anything really decent on the Yamaguchi Gumi, which is a real shame. There are some really, really good pictures and I think there's a really amazing book that I'm reading at the moment called Embracing Defeat by John Dower. It's like about Japan in the aftermath of war. It all plays into this like black market and yakuza stuff. And I think he's got some incredible pictures. I think there might even be one from Taoka, like from Taoka's late a year where there's like a row of riot cops and then a row of yakuza in black suits. It looks incredible. Anyway, worst News arrives on July 23, 1981. And that is when Kazuo Telka dies from a heart attack in the city of Amagazaki. Amagasaki, Amakazaki. I'm gonna say it three times in case one of those pronunciations is correct. Between Kobe and osaka. He is 68 years old. Family members hold a small funeral a week later, but the gang demands a huge send off for their godfather. And despite police warnings, three months later, 1300 yakuza from 200 gangs gather in Kobe to honor Taoka at a site where they plan to build a, quote, taoka Memorial Hall. They're surrounded by around 800 helmeted riot cobs. Ah, this is the. This of course, this is the photo that I've seen. I'll put it up on the reading list. Actually, it's amazing. They're surrounded by around 800 helmeted riot cops with metal shields. Plus hundreds more Czech arrivals at nearby train stations and airports. Here is David Kaplan again, quote, during his 35 year rule, Kazuo Toka had run his syndicate with that famous Japanese knack for using innovative techniques while preserving traditional values. Despite the Yamaguchi's control of more than 2,500 businesses, sophisticated gambling and loan sharking operations, and heavy investment in the sports and entertainment fields, the organization still functioned along feudal patterns that existed for 300 years. Day to day management of the syndicate, as with other yakuza groups, depended on the ancient relationships of oyabun Kobun. Fictive kinships extended from the highest parent to the lowest child. These feudal vestiges certainly didn't hurt the gangs as they adapted to a modern corporate world. By the time of his death, Touka's organization was grossing well over $460 million annually. According to police, American executives from General Motors to the Mafia would no doubt give a great deal to manage such fervently dedicated workers as those of the Yamaguchi Gumi. The Yamaguchi Gumi, says one police officer, is like a department store. Taoka, the officer adds, had perfected the art of converting money into violence. And I'm pretty sure violence into money. But that violence is not over with Japan's. Godfather, six feet under. The battle to replace him is now underway. And before long, that will spill into the bloodiest gang war the country has ever known, something called the Yamaichi War. And to find out more about that, you can listen to our bonus show out tomorrow.
- [58:21]
A
Dude, crazy. Patreon.com podcast sign up on Spotify or itunes. And yeah, we'll see you guys next week.
- [58:29]
B
Yeah, awesome. Sa.