Yakuza 'gangster-nerds'

Short but interesting piece in the Economist about the Yakuza keeping their hustle going during the economic downturn.

It mentions the emergence of ‘gangster-nerds’ within the ranks:

The floundering economy has eaten into revenue from traditional activities that required muscle, such as gambling, prostitution and loan-sharking. To compensate, the groups have ploughed into financial fraud, stock manipulation and cybercrime, giving rise to a new generation of gangster-nerds, more interested in business than blackmail. Still, the yakuza boasts 84,000 members (of whom half are “part-timers”) and is estimated to haul in as much as ¥2 trillion (around $21 billion) annually.

$21 billion annually puts them behind Google’s ‘08 total revenue numbers by less than a billion.

Not too shabby.

Their origins dating back to 17th century Tokugawa Japan, I suppose it’s not too surprising the Yakuza are still managing to keep up w/ the times.

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Although, in light of their migration into the world of cybercrime, the Yakuza may want to rethink the cutting off the finger thing (at least until voice recognition software is perfected)…

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