Photo/Illutration Higashimon Street in Kobe’s Chuo Ward is famous for its restaurants. Photo taken in August 2022 (Akihito Ogawa)

KOBE--Despite crackdowns and anti-gang ordinances, yakuza groups still maintain a stranglehold over some small business operators as a recent case here illustrates.

Just days ago, local authorities instructed a restaurant owner to stop paying 200,000 yen ($1,530) in monthly protection money to a gangster. The man, a member of a group affiliated with the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation’s largest crime syndicate, was also ordered to stop harassing the woman.

The restaurant operator said she had been handing over money for the past 10 years or so to the gangster who is now aged 76.

The Hyogo Prefectural Public Safety Commission decided to act and issued the warnings on March 24 based on prefectural ordinances against organized crime.

Demanding money with menaces from business establishments is a long-standing custom known as “mikajimeryo” and a key source of revenue for yakuza gangs.

Numerous establishments, fearful of the consequences, dare not refuse and cough up whatever is demanded.

In such cases, those operators are often obliged to charge more for their services to cover their costs, risking the ire of regular customers.

The warnings in Kobe last week were the first to be issued by the prefecture in three years and mark the 16th time the authorities have acted based on local ordinances, according to police.

Police said that the Kobe restaurant owner handed over a total of 800,000 yen to the gang member between last October and January on the premise of “resolving” possible disputes in her establishment.

“It was to get help in dealing with troublesome customers,” the woman maintained.

TIES WITH GANGS HARD TO CUT

The prefectural ordinance banning organized crime activities took effect in 2011. It stipulates that residents have an obligation to avoid contact with yakuza groups or seek their assistance to resolve a problem.

Warnings are issued when there is a risk that establishments will continue to pay protection money. Those that do not comply with the warning will have their names made public.

The ordinance was revised in 2019 to give it more teeth.

It designates four districts as organized crime exclusion special reinforcement areas in the prefecture, namely Sannomiya in Kobe’s Chuo Ward, Fukuwara in Hyogo Ward, Kanda-Shinmichi in Amagasaki and Uomachi in Himeji.

Not only gangsters but restaurant owners who provide them with money are subject to punishment. They can face up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 500,000 yen.

“Protection money payments are believed to have fallen due to the revision of the ordinance, but there are bound to be instances of establishments that find they are unable to cut their long-standing relationships (with organized crime groups),” an investigator said.

GANG NUMBERS NOW 20% OF PEAK

The number of gang members in Hyogo Prefecture has been falling constantly in recent years in tandem with crackdowns mounted by the authorities.

Hyogo prefectural police announced March 23 that local yakuza numbers were at a record low of 600 as the end of 2022, down 90 from the previous year.

The number was less than 30 percent compared with 10 years previously and less than 20 percent of its peak. The figure has continued to hit record lows for 14 years in a row.

For example, the Yamaguchi-gumi now boasts 280 members, down 30 from the previous year, while the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, also locally based, has 170 members, a decrease of 70 from the previous year. Kizuna-kai remains with 50 members.

The total number of the gangsters in the prefecture is less than one-fifth from its peak in 2005 when the figure stood at 3,260. The anti-organized crime law took effect in 1992.

Related News