Yakuza

Organised crime syndicate. Orginating from seventeenth-century Japan

Names comes from the worst hand in the card game hanafu-da, 8-9-3 or ya-ku-za. The expression came to mean something wothless, and people attached it to a whole class of criminals, who adopted it as a badge of honour.

Key Terms

• Gumi
• Rengo
• Oyabun
• Wakagashira
• Wakagashira-hosa
• Kumi-in
• Komon
• Shingiin
• Hishro
• Kaikei