The Yakuza: Goldman Sachs With Guns

With the stereotypical, commonly proliferated images of gangsters of the ’50s of America and the Corleone family of Hollywood, it’s a sin to be unaware of the deep roots of the mafia throughout the rest of the world. Our Gangster of the Week focuses on Yakuza Godfather, Kenichi Shinoda. As the figurehead of a multi-billion dollar crime ring that flirts seamlessly with the Japanese government, Kenichi Shinoda is undoubtedly one of the most feared and respected men to ever walk the earth.

Yakuza history traces its origins to the Tokugawa era, the time of the shogunate, when Ieyasu Tokugawa unified the country of Japan. Japan had made rather notable progression from its period of civil war, but was not yet a stable nation. The newfound era of peace left as many as 500,000 samurai unemployed, and there were not enough jobs to support their numbers. Many of these samurai joined the merchant class, but those who didn’t – the ronin – had to...(Continue Reading)