EDITORIAL: Sumo and gangland ties

The atmosphere is tense at the ongoing Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament. A sign at the venue reads: "No entry by gang members. Security cameras in operation."

Last week, Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department raided several sumo stables and other related facilities in an attempt to track down the bookmaker who took bets from wrestlers on professional baseball games and clarify the extent of sumo's ties with yakuza groups.

An independent panel of the Japan Sumo Association was to hold its first meeting Friday to discuss internal steps to reform the sport. Whether the sumo world is able to sever its unsavory ties with yakuza, ties that have existed for years through gang association with wrestlers and concessions, is the question.

But are ties with organized crime a problem that only concerns the insular world of sumo?

In the 18 years since the anti-organized crime law was enacted, the number of yakuza group members and associated group members has hovered at between 80,000 and 90,000. That indicates that yakuza groups continue to turn profits. While traditional, illegal methods to raise cash, such as gambling, have decreased, many groups use legal companies as fronts to enter real estate and financial businesses or intervene in public works projects. Their means of raising funds has diversified.

While society and yakuza groups continue to coexist, it is becoming harder year after year to grasp how deeply they are intertwined and expose suspected illegalities. At times, ordinary citizens get caught up in shooting incidents. All these suggest that the measures taken to crack down on organized crime are hitting a brick wall.

Yakuza groups by their very nature are drawn to sources of easy money. The only way to eliminate them is to wage a "social siege" to shut them out of all economic activity and prevent them from making money. For instance, many banks and securities companies are now incorporating clauses in contracts to prevent yakuza groups from opening accounts.

Under such clauses, financial institutions require new customers to confirm they are not linked to organized crime. If a customer is later found to have mobster ties, the contracts can be canceled.

Banks and securities companies nationwide are also building a system for sharing information on yakuza. Other industries should introduce similar steps.

If signs saying "no gang members allowed" are posted across all places where people congregate, such as sports events, concert venues, hotels and shops, to show the public's determination to weed out this scourge, it would up the psychological pressure on yakuza.

Ordinances aimed at stamping out yakuza enacted individually by local governments across the nation are also welcome tactics in this fight.

An ordinance enforced this spring by Fukuoka Prefecture bans business transactions that benefit yakuza groups. This ordinance is the first in the nation to include a punitive measure against companies and individuals who use gangs.

It is illegal to knowingly handle real estate deals that provide office space for yakuza groups. In Hyogo Prefecture, where the headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate is located, the government is considering expanding the law to include the "second houses" where chiefs of affiliated yakuza groups from across the nation stay while working at the headquarters.

We must stop tolerating the existence of yakuza groups, isolate them and push them out of society. The sumo world also needs to do its part. Unless it reforms itself, professional sumo should also expect to be pushed out of the dohyo ring.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 16