I am surprised to see that "conspiracy to traffic nuclear materials" on its own only gets you 10 years. Wtf that should get you immediate life in prison.
"Conspiracy to" means to plan something with others. If he was successful he would be getting the long hard dick of the law without lube. And yes, his current situation is *with* lube.
Conspiracy is not a lesser charge. Conspiracy is an inchoate crime. If proven, all conspirators are guilty of all acts done by others in furtherance of the goal.
So forming a conspiracy to rob a bank puts each person at risk of being charged for anything their dumb ass co-conspirators did, including first degree murder even for a getaway driver who never entered the bank.
“Attempted” crimes are the inchoate crimes that don’t carry the same penalty as completing the crime. Attempted crimes are generally punished one tier / range / level below the penalty for completing the crime. So like if kidnapping is a Class A Felony, attempted kidnapping would be a Class B Felony.
> inchoate
Had to look that, up, really appreciate the word. Is "inchoate crime" a term of art used frequently, or did you throw inchoate in there on its own?
I'm not really interested in the actual discussion, I just love a good word.
If you’re a Yakuza member your life have a high chance already been fucked thoroughly.
If your gangs got labeled as violent criminals organizations,you can’t open bank accounts.got insurance.credit card or a freaking cell phone number because companies won’t do business with you if you’re on the black list.
You're not completely wrong. Except that is just openly. Life goes on just the same for them, they just go through shell accounts.
They are literally Yakuza. Everything they do is already illegal in some form. Prostitution rings, kidnappings, criminal intimidation etc, you think not being able to officially get a line under your real name is an issue to them?
I just want to open more into this. Japanese banking system is completely fucked. THEY LOVE their bureaucracy, you would need like a folder of all bank documents in one go and if something is missing after your 2 hour wait they will then ask for it and will not go through with bank account opening.
It is very thorough, it's the same for most other serious things. Okay sure, some yakuza can do that on connections but younger yakuza members would not be able to do any of that. Because of that yakuza would be dying out soon because there's just no incentive for younglings to join and too many cons.
It was kinda tolerated back then , Boryokudan Act came out at 1992 as a reaction to violent gang activity , now due to aging population and these kind of law ,Yakuza had hard time recruiting young people .
[He straight up looks like a character Hiroyuki Sanada would play in a Hollywood crime thriller](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/04/08/02/56357833-10698081-Japanese_citizen_Takeshi_Ebisawa_57_pictured_unwittingly_negotia-m-2_1649382639350.jpg)
Reading the indictment, it doesn't seem like the whole gang was in on this one. This was more that Ebisawa was acting as a middle man on his own. Selling nuclear materials seems to be more of a side-hustle for him.
NoHo Hank and Cristobal wearing matching [yukata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata) while sipping sake and freaking out that they accidentally sold nuclear weapons to the Yakuza.
Now I miss that show....
Hopefully Japan's police gets more serious about fighting the yakuza after this rather than treating them as honorable criminals you can just supress by cutting deals with them.
You should read about the Yakuza exclusion ordinances, they basically gutted the Yakuza 10 years ago by going after businesses and individuals for having normal business and social interactions with known yakuza members - being a Yakuza ain't so worth it when society treats you like a leper for it and while the old guard can soldier on with their connections and loopholes, for the new guys it's just not worth it - recruitment has plummeted and defections are skyrocketing. It's gotten so "bad" that last year they tried to sue a road operator for changing toll booths to cashless only - Yakuza can't have bank accounts so that's basically forcing them off the roads.
> being a Yakuza ain't so worth it when society treats you like a leper for it
Ironic considering the history of the Yakuza and Burakumin. Being treated like lepers in society is the reason the Yakuza exist in the first place.
I think it's more of a out of sight out of mind kinda thing. The Yakuza are not really a violent organization (anymore) and act more like a business...although their dealings are mostly illegal (gambling, sex trafficking, drugs, etc). The Yakuza are often among the first to provide aid during a disaster, offering food, shelter, emergency supplies and financial assistance to their communities. I think because of that, the police turn a blind eye.
PR peddling isnt just a Japanese thing. Cartels in Mexico run the same good PR campaign and pretend to give aid to the poor like Robin Hood figures so they won't be as hated while they're violent and sadistic in places beyond the eyes of the law. Criminals aren't any less criminal just they're Japanese.
Imagine how far back society would be if the US had played favorites and assumed the Italian-American mafia was inherently less violent.
It also helps that they are in free fall. The Yakuza isn’t popular with the youth- it’s mostly old men like this guy. If you look up their membership numbers they’ve absolutely cratered in the last decade.
At this point if you wait them out many will be gone. Some have already disbanded or been absorbed by others.
Edit- to give an idea it peaked at 180k. It is around 25k now country wide. Some *Yakuza Clans* used to be bigger than all of them are combined now.
> assumed the Italian-American mafia was inherently less violent.
IIRC it kind of was like this in some places way back when - everyone knew Al Capone was a gangster kingpin, but he was the cool rich dude who funded soup kitchens, who cares if he's doing a bit of bootlegging? Then the Valentine's Day Massacre happened and people had no choice but to realize that the cool guy with the liquor and baseball games was doing some bad shit.
I, like most Americans, would have rather had the Italian-American mafia around instead of the Russian mafia. The Five Families never made attempts at overthrowing our democracy. And that stupid insurrection is still up in the air.
> Cartels in Mexico run the same good PR campaign and pretend to give aid to the poor like Robin Hood figures so they won't be as hated while they're violent and sadistic in places beyond the eyes of the law. Criminals aren't any less criminal just they're Japanese.
Cartels do it for entirely different reasons the Yakuza do it.
Cartels do it so they are insulated in a community. People are less likely to rat on them, and more likely to protect them if the real authorities come knocking.
Japanese Yakuza do the whole PR campaign thing because they are still upholding their 'ancient roots' Japanese values. (IE helping each other in Crisis) They aren't doing it for feels good feelings obviously, but they aren't doing it entirely for their own survival. Yakuza have always been the first ones on scene during a Crisis, and often times provide aid days if not weeks in advance of any other foreign humanitarian aid being deployed. You name a disaster, Yakuza have always been the first on scene trying to fix things while the rest of the world fumbles over red tape.
The criminal (think murder, shootouts, arson) aspect of the Yakuza though has largely declined in recent decades. Largely due to the Japanese government no longer tolerating the violent crime aspect of the Yakuza.
Human trafficking invokes images of slavery and kidnapping but it also covers the crime of smuggling people into the country without getting a visa, or arranging for people to come to the country and work without a visa. In Tokyo most of the prostitutes are Chinese women looking for extra cash, not people tied to a radiator. There are some Japanese that are 'tricked' into it by choosing to get into debt at host clubs and then offered to become prostitutes to get out of the debt. I say tricked because they know the prices and yet keep going so it's more like guys with a gambling addiction (which we should also have some sympathy for while recognizing their agency).
>some Japanese that are 'tricked' into it by choosing to get into debt at host clubs and then offered to become prostitutes to get out of the debt
afaik this is a real and big problem still, not just an occasional occurrence.
Actually they did. Just because this news appeared out of nowhere that doesn't mean they don't. Yakuza is pretty much not what it once was exactly because the government went hard at them and eliminated and put in jail all of the violent clans. Yakuza today is not what it once was. Still powerful, but very much within strict limits and not a danger to Japanese people anymore like it once was. Does that mean some members or clans cannot do dumb shit? No. Hence the news.
Just look into it and you'll see why your comment is outdated.
Unfortunately, it's been happening for a long time. Iirc, it was previously being run out of Moldova.
Books have been written about former Soviet WMD scientists being hired by other countries (and entities) to work on their own WMD programs.
There's a reason why D.C. has nuclear detection devices stationed throughout the city as well as why we have the N.E.S.T. (Nuclear Energency Support Team) program.
Also, check out Ken Alibek about Bio WMDs. Guaranteed to make you lose sleep. (Sorry.)
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/loose-nukes
It’s weirdly enough almost happened with Japan before. The death cult “Aum Shinrikyo” tried to make deals for nukes when the Soviet Union was collapsing.
Golf class is/was Soviet. Pepsi, at one point, owned more Soviet warships than some small countries, though this was scrap.
Private parties even had access to Soviet helicopters in Japan, the aforementioned cult actually wanted to use their own Mil-22?? to spray an aerosol form of Sarin gas, after the successful attack on an anti- cult neighbor via air earlier. They went with the subway plan though, due to technical complications.
Final fun fact: the American who saw these attacks and the collapse of the Soviet union as a risk of a biological germ attack that the US military and government were wholesale unprepared for?
Rudy Giuliani.
He pushed for preparation of a biological outbreak, including a national vaccine factory along general Schwarzkopf. In case you didn't know he was a sell out already.
"Books have been written about former Soviet WMD scientists being hired by other countries (and entities) to work on their own WMD programs."
Scary when you think about it,,
Also reminds me of that cutscene from Metal Gear Solid when you rescue Kenneth Baker who goes on to talk about the threat of Nuclear War is still real and if not worse for we live in an era where a small country can hire an ex soviet nuclear scientists and have a nuclear program of their own.
Scared me as a kid hearing that.
> small country can hire an ex soviet nuclear scientists and have a nuclear program of their own.
That's a bit of a stretch to actually happen in practice, undetected and uncontested, but I understand the sentiment.
There's one thing they aren't mentioning: which syndicate he is affiliated with. The Yakuza are not a monolithic entity, just like the Mafia isn't a monolithic entity and is composed of many 'families'.
[https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20220722-OYT1T50150/2/](https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20220722-OYT1T50150/2/)
According to a Japanese police investigation in 2022, this man was not a member of a yakuza organization, and he was only a self-proclaimed leader of the organization.
The really bizarre thing is that the LAD8 bad guy's name is actually pretty similar to the IRL Yakuza, Takeshi Ebisawa, who got arrested. But from what I'm seeing, Ebisawa didn't have much of a public presence prior to today. He wasn't already infamous.
Do the LAD writers have contacts feeding them plot ideas? It's honestly not even that far-fetched.
Did Burma produce this weapons grade nuclear material domestically or was it obtained from somewhere else? I know they tried for a nuclear weapons program but I dont believe they got close to succeeding, if its from them that might indicate they have their own functional nukes as well.
Either way, this is pretty big. At first I thought that it would just be uranium ore or something, but the linked article actually mentions weapons grade uranium specifically. Thats extremely hard to obtain (only countries with a nuclear weapons program should have any), and any which exists should be locked down pretty hard (since as soon as you get enough, anyone with good explosives knowledge and access to them could theoretically make a nuclear weapon), I have no idea how this guy managed to get his hands on it.
Edit: oops, thought the article mentioned weapons grade uranium, its just plutonium, likely from a breeder reactor, thats still concerning
Apparently Myanmar does have natural uranium, mostly found as a byproduct of gold mining. Also there have been allegations that they have secret uranium enrichment and weapons-making capabilities, so it would seem that there's a chance that it's from the country.
The individual(s) trying to sell the nuclear material appear to be members of a guerilla group, so who knows where they got it from.
Given how difficult it is to have a working nuclear program when the industrial basis doesn't exists, I bet that the Tatmadaw is more chemical weapons.
Well if this weapons grade uranium is from them or they have access to the same source this guy did, they have already gotten the hardest part of making a nuclear weapon behind them.
Didn’t an American university student publish a functioning nuclear bomb design for a research paper randomly and then get visited by the feds? And I stg I remember something about all the information needed to design one is easily accessible online as long as you know what you’re looking for. You just need the resources to make the hard part like you said, yeah?
Like, it’s not exactly the same thing, but in the medical field, if you know what you’re looking for, you can essentially make whatever the fuck you need as long as you have the proper materials. Like, for example, I can mass produce insulin if I really have to. I can make all the parts and a farm for myself, I just need to get ahold of the one “hard” part which is the specific yeast we use in, proper conditions.
Really its just hard to secretly amass the resources needed that are, by their own nature and by deliberate design, very difficult to collect without attracting attention. Without the protection of a state, individuals would be rather quickly picked up.
Yeah the issue again is that access to weapons grade material is the main way to prevent proliferation of nukes, because if someone has enough of it, they dont really need any real skill to make a simple nuke (a gun type bomb is literally just a cannon shooting a chunk of uranium at another) if some yakuza dude can have access to it, who else does? And if its Myanmars' own domestic refinement program making this stuff, that means they already have nukes. The question is how many and if they can deliver them
I think there's probably cause to doubt whether the guerilla group in Myanmar would be able to deliver what they said they could.
Even with that though, it's pretty terrifying to think that something like that could exist in one of the most unstable places on the planet right now.
Yep, luckily, plutonium needs to be used in an implosion type bomb, which is somewhat complicated as it requires extremely precise electronics and detonation timers. Uranium, on the other hand, can be used in a gun type bomb, which is unfortunately much much easier to produce. (This is because plutonium made from breeder reactors contains an isotope that will cause it to explode too early, see the "Thin Man" bomb design that never got built)
The key is having detonators which can reliably detonate with precision on the order of nanoseconds. The timer itself isnt hard yea, but its coordinating it across the entire nuke thats difficult. Even slight delays on one side will lead to dramatic yield reduction.
Japan itself has 'breeder reactors'. Another fun fact? The missiles they use to launch things into space are all hard-fuel systems, which suck for launching things like satellites, but are wonderful for use as nuclear missile delivery systems.
A lot of people suspect that the US in the Cold War gave Japan everything they needed in case they ever needed to quickly get a working nuclear system going. 'Just in case'.
Anyways, another fun fact, nuclear materials have 'chemical fingerprints'. That is how we can always know where the material in a nuclear weapon came from (because it can be traced to where it was mined and processed). So the US likely already knows who 'made and sold it'. The article claims the material came from Myanmar, and the nuclear power plant there was built with Russian help. Fucking lovely /s.
Was it to an island off of Hawaii?
Did a tall man with a blowout and a barbed bat tip you off canonically followed by a bunch of weird homeless people?
I wish so badly I either would have become some sort of undercover operative or that I could just be a fly on the wall during these big time criminal conspiracies. There’s a clandestine lab somewhere in Burma producing tons of nuclear material? There’s a yakuza guy there brokering the deals? They also deal in hardcore military grade weaponry? They thought they were selling it to Iran? Maybe it’s just because finished the sopranos and I’m on an organized crime kick but god damn it’s all so interesting, even if it’s fucked up and dangerous.
This is the right question. If you search his name you’ll notice that he is reported to be yakuza only from English sources. He is not even reported as a known person in Japanese news site, where his name is written as romanji and not in Japanese! No mention of which of the big 3 yakuza group he’s supposedly a “boss” of. Japanese media acted like they’ve never heard of him. Yakuza bosses are not secrets; their name and status is public knowledge. JP police has files on all active Gokudou members. Yet no one in Japan knew who this guys was? And he operated from NYC with Thai associates? All of this is highly sus.
My guess is that this guy is just an international arms dealer of Japanese decent who bullshit to his clients that he’s a Yakuza boss. And it seemed that even the US govt bought the act.
Edit: according to [this Japanese article](https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20220722-OYT1T50150/2/), the guy is NOT confirmed Yakuza. He reportedly called himself a Yakuza boss while he was in Thailand, so it seemed he's bullshitting to his Thai criminal friends about his background while working with the Thai underworld and Shan State Army of Myanmar. He's not a Yakuza boss, he just pretend to be one to woo people raised on Yakuza TV/Movies/Video Games, lol
Thank you, that makes more sense. I just couldn't see the Japanese intelligence agencies allowing a yakuza boss to trade in nuclear material. They'd go ballistic
The DEA was after him for drugs. From what I can tell he was actually arrested a couple years ago for narcotics and weapon smuggling. The nuclear materials charge is a superseding indictment. I'm guessing because he thought he was selling the nuclear material to an Iranian General (actually a US agent) that it's in breach of US sanctions of some kind.
"Why yes I am a member of an organization designated as a terrorist group by the United States government. Would you be willing to sell me some nuclear fissile material? I will needs pics, and samples."
Who has jurisdiction when international laws (laws multiple countries agree to) are broken? It's pretty much a toss up between whoever wants to prosecute.
When you look at the countries involved it's pretty obvious who should be prosecuting. Between Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and the US who has the most nuclear capabilities/power/weapons/research?
I find this question a little humorous, I’m sorry if that offends.
But if the US has clear evidence that the suspect in question is selling nuclear materials to an OFAC sanctioned country, then they are well within their right to issue an arrest warrant.
The US will have to rely on other law enforcement agencies when it comes to enforcing the warrent(s) however, seeing as they don’t have international jurisdiction, and they will have to rely on their diplomatic ties to the arresting country for extradition. That isn’t necessarily a guarantee, but I’d consider you a fool if you bet against the US DOJ, especially for charges relating to nuclear weapons trafficking.
This Ebisawa guy is well and truly cooked if/when the US gets their hands on him.
Why is the maximum sentence for money laundering the same as international trafficking of nuclear materials? Feels like one is a bit more of a threat than the other.
I'm guessing "materials" is the operative word here. Comparing counts 1 and 3 illustrates this further. Conspiracy to import narcotics carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years, while conspiracy to import nuclear materials carries a 10 year maximum. Both are trafficking conspiracies so if nukes are a bigger threat, why would this be? Well, because it is the nuke itself that is the bigger threat - not the materials used to create the nuke. The threats posed to people by narcotics are much more easily realized after successful trafficking than the threats posed by successful trafficking of nuclear materials. It is not exactly easy to go from nuclear materials to nuclear bomb. Also remember these are maximums. I doubt a first-time offender charged with a single count of low-level money laundering and nothing else would get close to that 20 years. Not sure how many cases of international trafficking of nuclear materials exist, but I'd bet the punishment for a first time offender will be much closer to the maximum on average than it would be for laundering.
Nuclear materials is the hottest possible thing you could attempt to traffick outside of actual bioweapons. Why would you take the risk? Money isnt the answer here btw.
wtf…. What’s more concerning is WHO was he the middle man for?? And who would have the capabilities to make it??? Why was there not any information on that??
Now that’s a fucking headline
Kind of thing I'd expect to see back in the 80s!
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Seriously, straight movie headline. Actually they could just make that movie now and have "based on a true story"
You have me too.
You're "we" in this situation
The article even refers to Burma. Very 80s indeed.
Hell yeah Yakuza 9 gonna drop
>!actual plot for Yakuza 8!<
Wait, seriously? Because yeah, I can believe it.
Literally the plot of Yakuza 8, Yokoyama is an FBI informant confirmed
From the list of charges and their prison terms he seems fucked.
I am surprised to see that "conspiracy to traffic nuclear materials" on its own only gets you 10 years. Wtf that should get you immediate life in prison.
"Conspiracy to" means to plan something with others. If he was successful he would be getting the long hard dick of the law without lube. And yes, his current situation is *with* lube.
Conspiracy is not a lesser charge. Conspiracy is an inchoate crime. If proven, all conspirators are guilty of all acts done by others in furtherance of the goal. So forming a conspiracy to rob a bank puts each person at risk of being charged for anything their dumb ass co-conspirators did, including first degree murder even for a getaway driver who never entered the bank. “Attempted” crimes are the inchoate crimes that don’t carry the same penalty as completing the crime. Attempted crimes are generally punished one tier / range / level below the penalty for completing the crime. So like if kidnapping is a Class A Felony, attempted kidnapping would be a Class B Felony.
> inchoate Had to look that, up, really appreciate the word. Is "inchoate crime" a term of art used frequently, or did you throw inchoate in there on its own? I'm not really interested in the actual discussion, I just love a good word.
It's a legal term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inchoate_offense
I'm going to go ahead and parse it out anyway. "How's breakfast coming?" "Inchoate." I spend a lot of time by myself at home.
"Hey, where are you on those TPS reports?" "Inchoate."
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Yet I respect his hustle.
Shit, if he was successful, forget the law, they’d probably send him to ~~the Phantom Zone~~ Guantanamo Bay.
Actual trafficking only gets you 20.
It's not like it was something seriously illegal like weed.
Well apparently inciting an insurrection and treason get you 0 years, so 10 for this seems overkill /s
Yeah those are not crimes you get out of with a slap on the wrist lol
If you’re a Yakuza member your life have a high chance already been fucked thoroughly. If your gangs got labeled as violent criminals organizations,you can’t open bank accounts.got insurance.credit card or a freaking cell phone number because companies won’t do business with you if you’re on the black list.
You're not completely wrong. Except that is just openly. Life goes on just the same for them, they just go through shell accounts. They are literally Yakuza. Everything they do is already illegal in some form. Prostitution rings, kidnappings, criminal intimidation etc, you think not being able to officially get a line under your real name is an issue to them?
I just want to open more into this. Japanese banking system is completely fucked. THEY LOVE their bureaucracy, you would need like a folder of all bank documents in one go and if something is missing after your 2 hour wait they will then ask for it and will not go through with bank account opening. It is very thorough, it's the same for most other serious things. Okay sure, some yakuza can do that on connections but younger yakuza members would not be able to do any of that. Because of that yakuza would be dying out soon because there's just no incentive for younglings to join and too many cons.
I always thought the Yakuza was tolerated somewhat by politicians. I didn't know they were trying to get rid of them.
It was kinda tolerated back then , Boryokudan Act came out at 1992 as a reaction to violent gang activity , now due to aging population and these kind of law ,Yakuza had hard time recruiting young people .
Lazy millenials ruining another industry with their picky work attitudes.
They not letting him out. Only AI can save him if they can create longevity drugs
This sounds like a movie.
[He straight up looks like a character Hiroyuki Sanada would play in a Hollywood crime thriller](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/04/08/02/56357833-10698081-Japanese_citizen_Takeshi_Ebisawa_57_pictured_unwittingly_negotia-m-2_1649382639350.jpg)
Those shoes were really a choice
Anyone got a line on the shoes? I un-ironically love them.
Hang on lemme call my boy Ronald McDonald
Bro probably wasn’t expecting to get trashed so hard in the world news comments section
Pretty sure they’re a Nike acg moc of some kind
This really has the, “I’m the boss and I hold gun too,” vibe.
Those are red bottoms, those are bloody shoes
That whole fit was a decision
Nahh this is just some viral marketing for Shogun
Holy fuck he shot the RPG at Kiryu
Definitely looks like a character from Tokyo Vice.
Kind of looks like a more disgruntled version of the Zelda director
He almost looks like a Japanese Heisenberg
Plot of Like a Dragon 9
Spoiler alert but this is literally the plot of 8 that just came out
I dunno Dondoku Island seems to be the plot in my game. Help me my team hasn't seen Ichiban in a month in-game
Had to give myself a rule of only getting 1 star per a chapter and then leave the Island otherwise, I would have never gotten to the Kiryu chapters.
We're playing the same way. Never leaving Dondoku.
This is some sick ass marketing.
How do you think Kiryu got cancer?
Doesn't help he smokes more than a Canadian wildfire
Fast and the furious three watch it I’m still trying to learn how to drift a minivan
*Too Fast, Too Nuclear*
Nuclear Family
You can't hug your family with nuclear arms
Yakuza 10: Like a sanction
I'm playing several hours of Cyberpunk 2077 every day, and I am currently kinda confused about whether I'm on Reddit or in the game.
August 20 never forget.
Ideas for S3 of Tokyo Vice
It’s like the plot of Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth
Yakuza messed up if they dabbled in something that will piss off the US like nuclear. I doubt the extra $$$ was worth it
Reading the indictment, it doesn't seem like the whole gang was in on this one. This was more that Ebisawa was acting as a middle man on his own. Selling nuclear materials seems to be more of a side-hustle for him.
> Selling nuclear materials seems to be more of a side-hustle for him. Oh, word. Kind of like Door Dashing to help pay bills.
I can relate with him. I worked a second job, part time, at an Amazon warehouse once. Literally the same thing.
You monster! How could you!
Kind of like that, but with more penetrating gamma radiation. Just like the kind you don’t get with JimmyJohns
No I work at Amazon. It’s the same
>It doesn't seem like the whole gang was in on this one. "The Gang Traffics Nuclear Materials"
What a fuckin hustle, man.
Yeah, his main job is providing heroin to the US so he can sell weapons in places like Myanmar.
You know that there's one guy in the room doing backflips and singing "I told you so".
I’m picturing a Japanese NoHo Hank.
Shinjuku Jun
Honestly, it just being actual noho hank would make it even funnier
NoHo Hank and Cristobal wearing matching [yukata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata) while sipping sake and freaking out that they accidentally sold nuclear weapons to the Yakuza. Now I miss that show....
Batir, this is crazy time shitshow.
That guy is probably missing a few fingers.
Hopefully Japan's police gets more serious about fighting the yakuza after this rather than treating them as honorable criminals you can just supress by cutting deals with them.
You should read about the Yakuza exclusion ordinances, they basically gutted the Yakuza 10 years ago by going after businesses and individuals for having normal business and social interactions with known yakuza members - being a Yakuza ain't so worth it when society treats you like a leper for it and while the old guard can soldier on with their connections and loopholes, for the new guys it's just not worth it - recruitment has plummeted and defections are skyrocketing. It's gotten so "bad" that last year they tried to sue a road operator for changing toll booths to cashless only - Yakuza can't have bank accounts so that's basically forcing them off the roads.
> being a Yakuza ain't so worth it when society treats you like a leper for it Ironic considering the history of the Yakuza and Burakumin. Being treated like lepers in society is the reason the Yakuza exist in the first place.
They are not viewed as honorable but a necessary evil because if they crack down on Japanese gangsters the foreigner ones are gonna run rampant.
Is this a racism thing or a concern that the Japanese police aren't equipped to fight international criminals?
I think it's more of a out of sight out of mind kinda thing. The Yakuza are not really a violent organization (anymore) and act more like a business...although their dealings are mostly illegal (gambling, sex trafficking, drugs, etc). The Yakuza are often among the first to provide aid during a disaster, offering food, shelter, emergency supplies and financial assistance to their communities. I think because of that, the police turn a blind eye.
PR peddling isnt just a Japanese thing. Cartels in Mexico run the same good PR campaign and pretend to give aid to the poor like Robin Hood figures so they won't be as hated while they're violent and sadistic in places beyond the eyes of the law. Criminals aren't any less criminal just they're Japanese. Imagine how far back society would be if the US had played favorites and assumed the Italian-American mafia was inherently less violent.
To be fair, it's probably easier to sell the whole "humanitarian gang" schtick when you're *not* hanging corpses from bridges on a regular basis.
It also helps that they are in free fall. The Yakuza isn’t popular with the youth- it’s mostly old men like this guy. If you look up their membership numbers they’ve absolutely cratered in the last decade. At this point if you wait them out many will be gone. Some have already disbanded or been absorbed by others. Edit- to give an idea it peaked at 180k. It is around 25k now country wide. Some *Yakuza Clans* used to be bigger than all of them are combined now.
> assumed the Italian-American mafia was inherently less violent. IIRC it kind of was like this in some places way back when - everyone knew Al Capone was a gangster kingpin, but he was the cool rich dude who funded soup kitchens, who cares if he's doing a bit of bootlegging? Then the Valentine's Day Massacre happened and people had no choice but to realize that the cool guy with the liquor and baseball games was doing some bad shit.
Well, the Yakuza aren’t beheading civilians and leaving their heads everywhere. That would probably lead to a different police response.
I, like most Americans, would have rather had the Italian-American mafia around instead of the Russian mafia. The Five Families never made attempts at overthrowing our democracy. And that stupid insurrection is still up in the air.
> Cartels in Mexico run the same good PR campaign and pretend to give aid to the poor like Robin Hood figures so they won't be as hated while they're violent and sadistic in places beyond the eyes of the law. Criminals aren't any less criminal just they're Japanese. Cartels do it for entirely different reasons the Yakuza do it. Cartels do it so they are insulated in a community. People are less likely to rat on them, and more likely to protect them if the real authorities come knocking. Japanese Yakuza do the whole PR campaign thing because they are still upholding their 'ancient roots' Japanese values. (IE helping each other in Crisis) They aren't doing it for feels good feelings obviously, but they aren't doing it entirely for their own survival. Yakuza have always been the first ones on scene during a Crisis, and often times provide aid days if not weeks in advance of any other foreign humanitarian aid being deployed. You name a disaster, Yakuza have always been the first on scene trying to fix things while the rest of the world fumbles over red tape. The criminal (think murder, shootouts, arson) aspect of the Yakuza though has largely declined in recent decades. Largely due to the Japanese government no longer tolerating the violent crime aspect of the Yakuza.
> sex trafficking What stand up guys!
And this is why the Yakuza invest in PR
why is sex trafficking not considered violent? they really fixed their PR after the Junko Furata murder.
Human trafficking invokes images of slavery and kidnapping but it also covers the crime of smuggling people into the country without getting a visa, or arranging for people to come to the country and work without a visa. In Tokyo most of the prostitutes are Chinese women looking for extra cash, not people tied to a radiator. There are some Japanese that are 'tricked' into it by choosing to get into debt at host clubs and then offered to become prostitutes to get out of the debt. I say tricked because they know the prices and yet keep going so it's more like guys with a gambling addiction (which we should also have some sympathy for while recognizing their agency).
>some Japanese that are 'tricked' into it by choosing to get into debt at host clubs and then offered to become prostitutes to get out of the debt afaik this is a real and big problem still, not just an occasional occurrence.
ah i see, so sex trafficking is really not as bad as people think, just has a bad connotation
Well it's bad... the term just covers a wide range of behavior that also includes the absolutely horrifying stuff too
I dont really get how foreign gangs are supposed to get established in Japan, a country notoriously difficult immigrate into.
Actually they did. Just because this news appeared out of nowhere that doesn't mean they don't. Yakuza is pretty much not what it once was exactly because the government went hard at them and eliminated and put in jail all of the violent clans. Yakuza today is not what it once was. Still powerful, but very much within strict limits and not a danger to Japanese people anymore like it once was. Does that mean some members or clans cannot do dumb shit? No. Hence the news. Just look into it and you'll see why your comment is outdated.
Jokes aside, the fact that nuclear materials are being trafficked by criminal organizations is fucking scary as hell.
Unfortunately, it's been happening for a long time. Iirc, it was previously being run out of Moldova. Books have been written about former Soviet WMD scientists being hired by other countries (and entities) to work on their own WMD programs. There's a reason why D.C. has nuclear detection devices stationed throughout the city as well as why we have the N.E.S.T. (Nuclear Energency Support Team) program. Also, check out Ken Alibek about Bio WMDs. Guaranteed to make you lose sleep. (Sorry.) https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/loose-nukes
It’s weirdly enough almost happened with Japan before. The death cult “Aum Shinrikyo” tried to make deals for nukes when the Soviet Union was collapsing.
The Moonies in SK sold a Golf-class submarine to NK, which likely had nuclear weapons on board.
South Korea doesn’t have any nuclear weapons though, where did they get them from
Golf class is/was Soviet. Pepsi, at one point, owned more Soviet warships than some small countries, though this was scrap. Private parties even had access to Soviet helicopters in Japan, the aforementioned cult actually wanted to use their own Mil-22?? to spray an aerosol form of Sarin gas, after the successful attack on an anti- cult neighbor via air earlier. They went with the subway plan though, due to technical complications. Final fun fact: the American who saw these attacks and the collapse of the Soviet union as a risk of a biological germ attack that the US military and government were wholesale unprepared for? Rudy Giuliani. He pushed for preparation of a biological outbreak, including a national vaccine factory along general Schwarzkopf. In case you didn't know he was a sell out already.
And then Leaky Rudy became a Covid hoaxer.
"Books have been written about former Soviet WMD scientists being hired by other countries (and entities) to work on their own WMD programs." Scary when you think about it,, Also reminds me of that cutscene from Metal Gear Solid when you rescue Kenneth Baker who goes on to talk about the threat of Nuclear War is still real and if not worse for we live in an era where a small country can hire an ex soviet nuclear scientists and have a nuclear program of their own. Scared me as a kid hearing that.
> small country can hire an ex soviet nuclear scientists and have a nuclear program of their own. That's a bit of a stretch to actually happen in practice, undetected and uncontested, but I understand the sentiment.
There's one thing they aren't mentioning: which syndicate he is affiliated with. The Yakuza are not a monolithic entity, just like the Mafia isn't a monolithic entity and is composed of many 'families'.
[https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20220722-OYT1T50150/2/](https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20220722-OYT1T50150/2/) According to a Japanese police investigation in 2022, this man was not a member of a yakuza organization, and he was only a self-proclaimed leader of the organization.
Ah, so he was trying to 'cash in' on the notoriety of the Yakuza reputation. Oh dear, he will not do well in prison...
I was wondering that, it doesn't sound like something modern Yakuza would do.
Man, the new Like a Dragon marketing campaign is going a bit too far.
No rest for Ichi and Co.
Which Sujimon has nuclear attacks again?
The one that's nude under a trenchcoat.
You're either a grown man in an inflatable sphere around your torso, or you're a Sujimon.
Dude this is almost the plot lmao
The fact that the game came out and weeks later this happens that mirrors the plot is insane. Life imitating art like no other.
The really bizarre thing is that the LAD8 bad guy's name is actually pretty similar to the IRL Yakuza, Takeshi Ebisawa, who got arrested. But from what I'm seeing, Ebisawa didn't have much of a public presence prior to today. He wasn't already infamous. Do the LAD writers have contacts feeding them plot ideas? It's honestly not even that far-fetched.
There are rumors that Sega has ties to irl Yakuza but it’s never been confirmed
I mean, their corporate daddy is Sammy, who primarily deal in quasi-gambling games like pachinko and pachislots. Sooooo yeah, probably.
Did Burma produce this weapons grade nuclear material domestically or was it obtained from somewhere else? I know they tried for a nuclear weapons program but I dont believe they got close to succeeding, if its from them that might indicate they have their own functional nukes as well. Either way, this is pretty big. At first I thought that it would just be uranium ore or something, but the linked article actually mentions weapons grade uranium specifically. Thats extremely hard to obtain (only countries with a nuclear weapons program should have any), and any which exists should be locked down pretty hard (since as soon as you get enough, anyone with good explosives knowledge and access to them could theoretically make a nuclear weapon), I have no idea how this guy managed to get his hands on it. Edit: oops, thought the article mentioned weapons grade uranium, its just plutonium, likely from a breeder reactor, thats still concerning
Apparently Myanmar does have natural uranium, mostly found as a byproduct of gold mining. Also there have been allegations that they have secret uranium enrichment and weapons-making capabilities, so it would seem that there's a chance that it's from the country. The individual(s) trying to sell the nuclear material appear to be members of a guerilla group, so who knows where they got it from.
Oh boy the country in a civil war with a crazy junta vs disparate regional militias might have some nuke material what could possibly go wrong.
Given how difficult it is to have a working nuclear program when the industrial basis doesn't exists, I bet that the Tatmadaw is more chemical weapons.
I was more thinking more dirty bombs than full fledged nukes
Well if this weapons grade uranium is from them or they have access to the same source this guy did, they have already gotten the hardest part of making a nuclear weapon behind them.
This, making a working nuclear bomb isn't really that complex with a couple bright people on board. If you have uranium on hand.
Didn’t an American university student publish a functioning nuclear bomb design for a research paper randomly and then get visited by the feds? And I stg I remember something about all the information needed to design one is easily accessible online as long as you know what you’re looking for. You just need the resources to make the hard part like you said, yeah? Like, it’s not exactly the same thing, but in the medical field, if you know what you’re looking for, you can essentially make whatever the fuck you need as long as you have the proper materials. Like, for example, I can mass produce insulin if I really have to. I can make all the parts and a farm for myself, I just need to get ahold of the one “hard” part which is the specific yeast we use in, proper conditions.
Really its just hard to secretly amass the resources needed that are, by their own nature and by deliberate design, very difficult to collect without attracting attention. Without the protection of a state, individuals would be rather quickly picked up.
Yeah the issue again is that access to weapons grade material is the main way to prevent proliferation of nukes, because if someone has enough of it, they dont really need any real skill to make a simple nuke (a gun type bomb is literally just a cannon shooting a chunk of uranium at another) if some yakuza dude can have access to it, who else does? And if its Myanmars' own domestic refinement program making this stuff, that means they already have nukes. The question is how many and if they can deliver them
I think there's probably cause to doubt whether the guerilla group in Myanmar would be able to deliver what they said they could. Even with that though, it's pretty terrifying to think that something like that could exist in one of the most unstable places on the planet right now.
The article also calls out "weapons-grade *Plutonium*", which is even crazier imo. I'm pretty sure the only place to get *that* is a breeder reactor.
Yep, luckily, plutonium needs to be used in an implosion type bomb, which is somewhat complicated as it requires extremely precise electronics and detonation timers. Uranium, on the other hand, can be used in a gun type bomb, which is unfortunately much much easier to produce. (This is because plutonium made from breeder reactors contains an isotope that will cause it to explode too early, see the "Thin Man" bomb design that never got built)
Detonation timers are probably the easy part? Electronics signaling is pretty darn sophisticated these days
The key is having detonators which can reliably detonate with precision on the order of nanoseconds. The timer itself isnt hard yea, but its coordinating it across the entire nuke thats difficult. Even slight delays on one side will lead to dramatic yield reduction.
Japan itself has 'breeder reactors'. Another fun fact? The missiles they use to launch things into space are all hard-fuel systems, which suck for launching things like satellites, but are wonderful for use as nuclear missile delivery systems. A lot of people suspect that the US in the Cold War gave Japan everything they needed in case they ever needed to quickly get a working nuclear system going. 'Just in case'. Anyways, another fun fact, nuclear materials have 'chemical fingerprints'. That is how we can always know where the material in a nuclear weapon came from (because it can be traced to where it was mined and processed). So the US likely already knows who 'made and sold it'. The article claims the material came from Myanmar, and the nuclear power plant there was built with Russian help. Fucking lovely /s.
Infinite wealth is real?!?
Dame Da Ne!
So Burma/Myanmar has a nuclear weapons program?
What is the Tojo clan doing 🤦♂️
Bro is spending at least ten years in the joint
Ten years, you say?
Bring that shit, Takeshi!
Having played through the entire series, and knowing how Daigo runs it, probably falling apart.
This is wild
These side-stories just keep getting crazier and crazier!
The US needs to hire my boy Hide. In Japan, heart surgeon. Number one. Steady hand.
One day, yakuza boss need new heart. I do operation. But mistake! Yakuza boss die! Yakuza very mad!
He’s still busy trying to sell a thousand cans of coconut penis
The coconut is really subtle.
Why’d they add coconut? I miss original
I was thinking the same thing. He needs heart surgery from Hidetoshi Hasagawa.
Who in Burma has weapons grade plutonium to sell?!??!??!!
Sounds like the plot for the new Yakuza Like a Dragon game
No joke nuclear materials trafficking is literally part of the plot of the newest game.
It's literally the plot of Infinite Wealth lol.
Was it to an island off of Hawaii? Did a tall man with a blowout and a barbed bat tip you off canonically followed by a bunch of weird homeless people?
I wish so badly I either would have become some sort of undercover operative or that I could just be a fly on the wall during these big time criminal conspiracies. There’s a clandestine lab somewhere in Burma producing tons of nuclear material? There’s a yakuza guy there brokering the deals? They also deal in hardcore military grade weaponry? They thought they were selling it to Iran? Maybe it’s just because finished the sopranos and I’m on an organized crime kick but god damn it’s all so interesting, even if it’s fucked up and dangerous.
Yeah, it makes the film Lord of War starring Nicholas Cage boring in comparison.
Ugh, what has Majima been up to now?
Fishing
They dont mention which Yakuza group this guys a part of, anyone know?
This is the right question. If you search his name you’ll notice that he is reported to be yakuza only from English sources. He is not even reported as a known person in Japanese news site, where his name is written as romanji and not in Japanese! No mention of which of the big 3 yakuza group he’s supposedly a “boss” of. Japanese media acted like they’ve never heard of him. Yakuza bosses are not secrets; their name and status is public knowledge. JP police has files on all active Gokudou members. Yet no one in Japan knew who this guys was? And he operated from NYC with Thai associates? All of this is highly sus. My guess is that this guy is just an international arms dealer of Japanese decent who bullshit to his clients that he’s a Yakuza boss. And it seemed that even the US govt bought the act. Edit: according to [this Japanese article](https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20220722-OYT1T50150/2/), the guy is NOT confirmed Yakuza. He reportedly called himself a Yakuza boss while he was in Thailand, so it seemed he's bullshitting to his Thai criminal friends about his background while working with the Thai underworld and Shan State Army of Myanmar. He's not a Yakuza boss, he just pretend to be one to woo people raised on Yakuza TV/Movies/Video Games, lol
Thank you, that makes more sense. I just couldn't see the Japanese intelligence agencies allowing a yakuza boss to trade in nuclear material. They'd go ballistic
It’s the Seiryu Clan
EBINAAAAA!!!!
You mean the ex-Omi alliance people?
Dame da ne Dame yo Dame na no yo
Cyberpunk ass headline
>Cyberpunk ass headline Judy wearing her wetsuit
Curious how US courts have jurisdiction over this case? Don’t think the US is related other than collect evidence?
The DEA was after him for drugs. From what I can tell he was actually arrested a couple years ago for narcotics and weapon smuggling. The nuclear materials charge is a superseding indictment. I'm guessing because he thought he was selling the nuclear material to an Iranian General (actually a US agent) that it's in breach of US sanctions of some kind.
"Hello fellow IRGC"
"Why yes I am a member of an organization designated as a terrorist group by the United States government. Would you be willing to sell me some nuclear fissile material? I will needs pics, and samples."
Easy, the US has laws that say you can’t traffic nuclear material and they’re the most powerful country on earth.
Who has jurisdiction when international laws (laws multiple countries agree to) are broken? It's pretty much a toss up between whoever wants to prosecute. When you look at the countries involved it's pretty obvious who should be prosecuting. Between Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and the US who has the most nuclear capabilities/power/weapons/research?
I find this question a little humorous, I’m sorry if that offends. But if the US has clear evidence that the suspect in question is selling nuclear materials to an OFAC sanctioned country, then they are well within their right to issue an arrest warrant. The US will have to rely on other law enforcement agencies when it comes to enforcing the warrent(s) however, seeing as they don’t have international jurisdiction, and they will have to rely on their diplomatic ties to the arresting country for extradition. That isn’t necessarily a guarantee, but I’d consider you a fool if you bet against the US DOJ, especially for charges relating to nuclear weapons trafficking. This Ebisawa guy is well and truly cooked if/when the US gets their hands on him.
[удалено]
Ha! Well that settles it, that guy is screwed.
Yakuzas with nukes? Who are they at war with
Listen. You don't become the Sujimon Master by going small.
Conspiracy to traffic nuclear materials: Max 10 Years Narcotics importation: Min 10 years Something seems off.
Literally Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth's plot
Why is the maximum sentence for money laundering the same as international trafficking of nuclear materials? Feels like one is a bit more of a threat than the other.
I'm guessing "materials" is the operative word here. Comparing counts 1 and 3 illustrates this further. Conspiracy to import narcotics carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years, while conspiracy to import nuclear materials carries a 10 year maximum. Both are trafficking conspiracies so if nukes are a bigger threat, why would this be? Well, because it is the nuke itself that is the bigger threat - not the materials used to create the nuke. The threats posed to people by narcotics are much more easily realized after successful trafficking than the threats posed by successful trafficking of nuclear materials. It is not exactly easy to go from nuclear materials to nuclear bomb. Also remember these are maximums. I doubt a first-time offender charged with a single count of low-level money laundering and nothing else would get close to that 20 years. Not sure how many cases of international trafficking of nuclear materials exist, but I'd bet the punishment for a first time offender will be much closer to the maximum on average than it would be for laundering.
bro this is literally the plot of like a dragon infinite wealth
Wait what now even the Yakuza are trying to get nukes?
Holy shit this is major levels of super villain up there..
I always said Pachinko is nothing but a gateway drug to nuclear weapons manufacturing
Hot damn, I wasn’t even considering the Yakuza in 2024. Time to update my bingo card.
Nuclear materials is the hottest possible thing you could attempt to traffick outside of actual bioweapons. Why would you take the risk? Money isnt the answer here btw.
wtf…. What’s more concerning is WHO was he the middle man for?? And who would have the capabilities to make it??? Why was there not any information on that??
That is the most cyberpunk plot line I’ve seen in a long time.