Yes, we can. We can get along!
Posted on 03/27/2005 9:33:19 AM PST by wesley_windam-price
On a July night two years ago, nearly 200 Sumiyoshi-kai gangsters and Chinese gathered in the hall of a Chinese restaurant in Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district. They had come together for a "friendly meeting."
"We've got to avoid trouble and conflict," a Sumiyoshi-kai executive said, clutching a microphone before the assembly. Executives of the Chinese group agreed -- the two sides had run into trouble over their territory in the past and appeared keen to strike a deal.
The Chinese participants numbered about 150, while around 30 gang members were present, police said. Never before had that many Chinese and Japanese gang executives come together. For two hours they sat calmly, passing around plates of food in an amiable atmosphere.
Two months later the situation changed.
The sides that had peacefully shared the same room clashed with gunfire. The shooting took place at the Parisienne coffee shop in the six-story Furin Kaikan building in Kabukicho.
Six Chinese were present at the restaurant. "If we're going to fight, now's the time," the leader shouted in Japanese, and five of them opened fire with handguns. One of the gangsters was hit with three bullets and died, while another was hit in the leg, suffering serious injuries.
A Sumiyoshi-kai executive who was at the coffee shop moments before the shooting remains furious. "They were waiting for our numbers to drop," he said. "It was a place where there were a lot of regular customers and there was no need to blast off shots like that."
Gangs ordered members to capture the Chinese before police did, and soon afterwards a number of tear gas attacks broke out in Chinese restaurants, forcing some of them to suspend their business. One man close to a Chinese organization was killed, resulting in the arrest of several people.
Since that incident, no meetings between Chinese and gangsters have been confirmed as having taken place. Gang members say finding a way to deal with their Chinese rivals is hard
"If we worked to integrate them under us, that would act as a conflict deterrent. But if we strengthened our relationship with them to do that, their profits would increase and there's a good chance we would only get a tiny share of them. The Chinese are really tough."
Some Chinese organization members view the situation differently.
"The meaning of the July meeting is not necessarily lost," one Chinese member said. "There are various ways to mediation."
On a spring evening in 2003, a line of luxury cars with smoked glass windows lined a busy street in a shopping district near a JR station in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. In a Japanese restaurant in the area, a group of gang members not related to those in the Parisienne incident waited for a meeting with several Chinese organization members.
On the street outside, men talked loudly in Chinese. Remembering the Parisienne incident and not knowing what could happen, several dozen Chinese organization members were called to the area.
"It was a meeting to solve trouble," a Chinese organization member explains. The two sides had run in problems over area they claimed as their territory. Executives of both sides faced each other for the first time.
"We calmed things down before anything major happened," a laughing Chinese executive said. "We didn't have to use guns."
Between April last year, when the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau opened a branch in Shinjuku, and July this year, 1,438 illegally residing foreigners have been apprehended. Over half of those were Chinese.
Fewer Chinese are reportedly being seen on the streets of Kabukicho, but both gang members and Chinese group members agree -- the only ones being apprehended are the serious Chinese who are caught easily. The bad ones are lying low.
Despite the conflict that sometimes goes on between Chinese groups and gang members, they are not always at odds.
"If there's trouble, we sometimes seek mediation," a Chinese group member explains. "If it's a case of collecting money from Chinese, we sometimes help gang members. Our relationship is certainly getting closer."
One gang member said Chinese groups could not be ignored.
"Some Chinese stores will outright refuse to pay the monthly 'protection fee.' They have made their own factions."
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The Yakuza tend to be very nationalistic. As such I find it hard to believe they'd really want to get along with Chinese gangs, seems like they's just get most of them turned into immigration authorities and deported.
Japan * BONG *
Now if there was ever an appropriate name: a Furin Kaikan in Kabukicho.
I am surprised that any of the Chinese stores and restaurants are failing to make their monthlies. I have read that such payments to Chinese gangs are common even here in the U.S.
Chinese mafia is doing just fine here in New York selling hand bags and shaking down chinese restaurants.
Yes, we can. We can get along!
My interpretation is that the Chinese stores and restaurants refuse to pay the Japanese gangs.
You're right: that final bit is talking about failure to pay the Japanese gangs, which is not as surprising as a failure to pay the Chinese extortionists.
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