On April 26, Tokyo police arrested a high-ranking yakuza member who allegedly stole €1,500 (¥252,000) worth of merchandise, including 25 Pokémon trading cards. The value of these cards has surged following the COVID-19 pandemic, with the most expensive one selling for $5.28 million.
According to a report in the French newspaper Le Monde, such petty thefts are not consistent with the typical criminal activities of the yakuza, nor with the idealized profiles presented in popular series that depict their lives, such as Tokyo Vice.
Traditionally, the yakuza were associated with crimes such as extortion, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and usury.
That’s because the Japanese mafia has shrunk, with its membership dropping from 87,000 in 2006 to 22,000 in 2022, according to police figures. Both numbers are far less than the 184,000 members it had in its heyday in the 1960s.
Contributing to this decline is the fact that in 1992 and 2011, Japan passed laws targeting “anti-social forces,” as the mafia is officially termed. These laws banned them from opening bank accounts, signing property contracts, and driving on highways. Moreover, companies are prohibited from engaging in business with them.
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