The Yakuza Is Rebranding as a ‘Humanitarian Organization’:
"Japan’s yakuza may finally be changing. After years in the shadows, degenerating into
purely criminal organizations, one yakuza group formed this April looks like it’s trying to
go legitimate—and more. It wants to become a “humanitarian organization” that keeps
the peace and at least limits its criminal activity to the traditional tacitly socially
approved rackets. Publicly, at least, it’s aiming for a rep as the Boy Scouts of the
underworld.
The new group has adopted the name Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gum, which loosely
translates as “Chivalrous Humanitarian Yamaguchi-gumi.” And it is doing all this with a
very high profile: a press conference, scores of magazine interviews, and a PR blitz.
The savvy yakuza, it seems, wants to be a good guy."
"The Japanese police are still skeptical about the new group’s purported aims and
reasonably so. They are refusing even to recognize it as a new organization but are
trying to classify it as a branch of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. If they recognize it as a
new group, it could take several months to legally designate it as one and apply all
relevant laws."
See:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-yak...n-organization