BOOK REVIEW

The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State,Peter B. E. HillOxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. 2006, ISBN 0-19-929161-6,336 pages, £14.99 (paperback)

Mark Craig

Published online: 16 August 2006# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2006

Social science research within an alien and complex criminal milieu will always pose majorchallenges for researchers. There will always be limitations, obstacles and unansweredquestions. Perhaps this may account for the paucity of research on Japanese organisedcrime groups or yakuza within the English-language literature. Aside from various papersand book chapters, investigative journalists David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro_s Yakuza,published in 1986 and thoroughly revised in 2003, was the standard reference on Japaneseorganised crime. Regrettably, David H. Stark_s seminal thesis The Yakuza: Japanese CrimeIncorporated (Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan, 1981) was never published. However,sociologist Peter Hill_s scholarly endeavours have gone a long way to rectify this imbalanceand, in many respects, set a new benchmark.

The book explores two important areas for consideration: the uniqueness of crimegroups and the process of social control in Japan, and the interplay between the yakuza,law, and the state.

Hill_s theoretical framework draws on Diego Gambetta_s (1993) work on The SicilianMafia, which analysed this mafia_s economic and political role and the business of privateprotection. Gambetta_s hypotheses have been tested in the past with respect to Asianorganised crime, for example, with Yiu Kong Chu_s (2000) study of Hong Kong Triads;however, Gambetta_s economic theory of organised crime provides a fresh conceptualisa-tion with respect to the yakuza.

Hill argues the yakuza are not sui generis and should be considered a Japanese mafia,given the similarities in their behaviour to other mafias. In particular Hill cites Gambetta_s(1993) argument that F...the essential characteristic of the mafia is that it is Ba specificeconomic enterprise, an industry which produces, promotes, and sells private protection^_(p.1). Accordingly, the first half of the book is concerned with the associated supply/

Asian Criminology (2006) 1: 99–101DOI 10.1007/s11417-006-9007-7

M. Craig (*)School of Justice Studies, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australiae-mail: m.craig@qut.edu.au

demand protection argument, which Hill asserts gives mafia-style organisations their specialcharacteristics. FProtection therefore overarches the diverse set of business activities, bothlegal and illegal, in which yakuza members are active_ and accordingly enables them toobtain all sources of income. (pp. 94–95). However, Hill_s mafia contention was not sharedby interviewees, yakuza or otherwise, and this dimension certainly brings a new perspectiveto the social construction of what has come to be regarded by many of those actors as anintrinsically unique socio-political sub-culture.

Methodologically, he F...cast [his research] net as widely as possible_ (p. 3), includinginterviews with current and former yakuza members, but remains sceptical of much of theofficial data provided to him by government sources, in particular, the true figures of totalyakuza income. However, such quantification would surely be problematic and onerousunder the best of circumstances. As acknowledged at the outset by Hill, some scholars mayperceive his utilisation of popular literature disseminated by yakuza journalists as lackingacademic rigour and, thereby, detracting from the overall study; however, this body ofliterature has proved to be a valuable resource (p. 4).

In an F...attempt to make sense of the yakuza_ (p. 1) Hill makes the observation that:FOver the last half-century, both the yakuza and the social, legal, and economic environmentin which they exist have changed considerably_ (p. 2). Within this context, in the secondhalf of the book, Hill argues that an ambiguous and dynamic relationship exists between theyakuza, law, and the state. His thesis essentially posits that the yakuza do play an active rolein social control, but this is by no means unique to Japan, and that a simple yakuza–policesymbiosis is an untenable proposition. He correctly points out that there is a wide degree ofdiversity in yakuza relationships with the authorities as well as among themselves, and thatF...the expansion of the largest yakuza group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, has been the mostsignificant destabilising factor within Japanese organised crime over the last fifty years_(p. 249).

As is often the case with national police authorities tasked with the dual responsibilitiesof national security and criminal investigation (the FBI for example), the dichotomy ofroles and functions has the potential to impact on organised crime in ways that may or maynot be beneficial. Accordingly, Hill points out that the police force is not monolithic, andwithin the respective organisations it is important to consider the koan-kyoku, or securitybureau, and the keiji-kyoku, or criminal investigation bureau. The former is concerned withcounter-intelligence, terrorism, and political subversion, whilst the latter is concerned withconventional policing. Conflicting perspectives and priorities have seen some of thoseconcerned with national security acting in perhaps a more pragmatic police–yakuzarelationship to achieve their aims, whilst conventional policing practitioners have, asperhaps would be expected, pursued more aggressively the traditional law enforcementinvestigation/prosecution model.

This is an important observation for two reasons: firstly with the end of the cold war(1989–1991) national security considerations changed dramatically, and, secondly, with theenactment and passing into law of new anti-yakuza legislation in March 1992 (BoryokudanTaisaku Ho, or boryokudan countermeasures law) yakuza rationalisation of their businessaffairs became much less discernable, whilst their relationship with the authorities, per se,became much more scrutinised. At the national level the security consciousness of theNational Police Agency changed; however, this was not reflected at the prefectural level.Criminal investigation was, however, pursued vigorously and aided by the subsequentpassing in 1999 of three new organised crime countermeasures laws, which ensured aharsher sentencing regime (p. 275).

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Overall, Hill has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the yakuza anda Japanese mafia. The book is well researched and deserves to be read by academics andpractitioners and those interested in organised crime. For those interested in Japanesesociety the book provides an excellent insight to a little understood aspect of that society.

References

Chu, Y. K. (2000). The Triads as Business. London: Routledge.Gambetta, D. (1993). The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection. Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press.

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