The nature of Yakuza is greatly misunderstood in West, because Westerners consider Yakuza to be a Japanese version of Mafia.

If you want to see a yakuza in Japan, then you just have to go to a traditional festival in a nearby Shinto Shrine, and they are everywhere. Entire stalls are operated by a type of Yakuza called tekiya. And I don’t mean they are in management. I mean stall sellers are Yakuza, though some young guys and girls are just friends who are helping out.

Do you know this Japanese guy standing next to George Bush

His name is Junichiro Koizumi and he was our 56th Prime Minister. His grandfather, Matajiro Koizumi was an oyabun (boss) of dock labourers and he looked like this.

At that time, pretty much every dockyard oyabun had tatoo. Matajiro Koizumi, locally known as Mata-san, was a very popular local oyabun, so he was elected as a city councillor in 1907, then was elected as a member of lower house parliament in 1908.

He was a leader of the movement towards universal sufferage. He was appointed as the Minister of Communication in 1929, and got nicknamed as Tattoo Minister. Everyone knew his background, and it is pretty much given that he, as an oyabun of dockworkers, broke someone’s bones here and there, but no one regarded him a criminal.

If you want an American equivalent, travelling carnie, dockworkers, Teamsters, street hotdog sellers would all be yakuza. And if one operates a construction business, pachinko parlour, stripper joint, massage parlour or payday loan, event/gig business which requires bouncers, etc you would have at least affiliate relationship with a local Yakuza.

If you try to set up a hotdog stand in a legal way without talking to whoever owns that area, you probably get your stand broken. (as one Western Quoran who tried to do busking in Japan found out.

From what I read, the yakuza who punched and kicked him wasn’t charged. The police probably thought the professor “partially” deserved it too, pissing on a guy who trying to make a living from street. ). But none of the above activities are illegal on its own.

Do you know the world longest running film series is about a Japanese travelling street vendor called Tora-san. He is a yakuza. And in his 48 films, not even once he kills someone (but he does get involved in few fights).

Do you know all-time most beloved TV character in England? It’s a market trader called Del Boy from Fools and Horses. And he doesn’t kill anyone either.

Are these guys dodgy? Sure. Are they a part of a secret brotherhood which assassinates people including politicians (like JFK). Of course not.

That is why Yakuza has an office which everyone knows where it is. They don’t need to hide because their business is (semi) legit. For example, the above temple festival yakuza, only one tekiya yakuza group is currently classified as boryokudan (criminal organisation) by the police.

That means a majority of tekiya yakuza are just groups of street vendors. The type of yakuza with high proportion of criminality have territory in urban entertainment district. They are heavily involved in a more sinister type of activities and they tend to wear suits.

This bad/good (scratch that, bad/not-that-bad) yakuza can’t be said about mafia because all of the mafia are by definition, criminals (and murders), and they are secret organisation because of it. Also, most mafias are thieves. On the other hand, theft would be fairly rare for yakuza because their income come from (unofficial) tax/due income from affiliates and their members.

When I was in Japan, a disbanded yakuza group’s boss was caught trying to rob a warehouse. That was reported fairly widely as a fall-from-grace story because it is highly embarrassing for a yakuza to steal. Among yakuza, they sometimes refer to drug dealers, and band of thieves and scam artist as “mafia” because these guys can’t walk under the sun.

But on another end, I once saw Japanese porn, where the male actor had proper yakuza tatoo. A made-man doing a porn would be unthinkable but a dirt-poor dude (who happened to be a yakuza) doing porn could happen. Most yakuza aren’t loaded and typically live off works given by their oyabun.

So, no, Yakuza don’t need to hide. However, they are still low-life, and if you hang out with them, the chance of being sucked into some level of criminal activities are much more elevated than normal but getting involved in a serious crime like murder would still be exceptionally rare.