Japan's yakuza is cutting back, hiring freeters, part-timers.

For the second straight year, the number of part-time gangsters in Japan has outnumbered the full-time crooks.

The National Police Agency is counting heads. What they should be doing is rounding them up.

Anyway…

"Because full-timers are more likely to come under police scrutiny, crime syndicates have come to adopt more elaborate methods to secure funds, such as disguising themselves as regular companies or sending part-timers to their affiliate companies,'' an NPA official said.

The mobster population in Japan at the end of last year was estimated at 84,200, down 500.

Full-timers numbered 40,900 and part-timers 43,300, up 100.

The three biggest mobs -

Yamaguchi-gumi

Sumiyoshi-gumi

Inagawa-kai 

accounted for 73% of the total - 61,100 members.

The Yamaguchi-gumi makes up 46% of the overall total.

Arrests were up 20-30% says the Nikkei. Twenty to 30%. Can't we get a more accurate figure than that? Or is it because the NPA doesn't know?

For the first time since 1958, last year there were no gang wars.

Instead, the crooks are advancing into financial and construction fields, disguising illegal transactions.

Last year there were 42 shooting incidents, 12 gang-related ones, in which 13 people were killed, up 11 from the year before.

Police seized 231 handguns, also up, 27 from the year before.

There's always something for bad guys to do. If only legitimate business was so good. 

Have you ever met a Japanese gangster?

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