FUKUOKA--Back in his junior high school days, Noboru Hirosue thought the gangsters he saw sporting designer clothing and flashy wristwatches looked cool.

Before long, he became a juvenile delinquent. But then his life turned around when police caught him trying to steal a motorbike.

At the police station, he saw a boy who appeared to be slightly older than him, handcuffed and sobbing. Hirosue realized that the same thing could “happen to me tomorrow.”

When police sternly warned him against stealing when he was just a third-year junior high school student, it was enough. He vowed to stay away from gangsters.

Hirosue, now 51, is a part-time lecturer of criminal sociology at Kurume University and researches crime syndicates.

He recently published a book about the circumstances that current and former yakuza members find themselves in today, and hopes his insights can help other former deviants get their lives back on track.

“Society should be a place where those who have fallen through the cracks are given second chances,” he said.

The book stresses how important it is for Japan to introduce a system to help former gangsters readjust to society, as the overall number of gang members declines due to police crackdowns.

Hirosue grew up in a poor family and lived near yakuza members.

When he graduated from junior high, he studied at a technical training school and got a job at a company. His supervisor there mocked his educational background, which made Hirosue decide he would go to college.

When Hirosue was studying criminal sociology at university, he thought back to the yakuza he knew and friends who had joined crime rings.

That led him to wonder: “What was the factor that made the difference, between me and them, in choosing that way of life?”

Hirosue began searching for answers to that question by interviewing current and former yakuza members.

One yakuza told Hirosue that his family lived in hiding during his childhood because his father was wanted by police. After his father died, his mother’s new common-law husband abused him.

The yakuza started down a bad path and was sent to a juvenile prison at age 17 for stimulant use and other problems. After that, he was invited into the gang by a senior yakuza who did him a favor when he was much younger, and the man entered the crime group when he turned 22.

An ex-yakuza said that as a small child, it was his drunken father who exposed him to violence. He was also bullied by classmates at junior high school. He dropped out of senior high school to work at a cabaret. He wanted to exact revenge on his father and classmates, so he joined the yakuza at age 19.

Hirosue concluded that the reasons people join the yakuza can be categorized into social factors, such as parental abuse and familiarity with gangsters, as well as individual elements, including having a history in a gang and a tendency to pursue higher positions in certain organizations.

Hirosue also discovered that most of his interviewees hoped to earn positive reputations within yakuza organizations, since they had failed to obtain one in ordinary society.

On top of all that, gangsters face difficulties in leading a normal life once they try to leave the criminal underworld.

One yakuza member said he could not find a permanent job when he attempted to leave the criminal community. He was mistreated as a day laborer at his workplace until he finally returned to a yakuza organization.

Another gang member said he is hesitating to change, haunted by the thought that “society would not accept me, even though I quit after a long period” of being involved with crime.

Hirosue said that a consultation center should be set up where people who have left crime rings can find help to transition back into society.

“It is essential to help former yakuza find places other than crime organizations where they can spend their time,” Hirosue said.

The 224-page pocket edition “Dakara Yakuza o Yamerarenai: Urashakai Meltdown” (Why yakuza cannot quit: Underworld meltdown), released by Shinchosha Publishing Co., is available for 760 yen ($6.86) before tax.