Drugs at an early age, complicity in crime…the “tragic reality” as told by the daughters of gangsters
Nonfiction writer Kota Ishii delves into the depths of Japanese society!
There are a total of 25,900 gang members and associate members in Japan today. 25,900 It is estimated that there are 25,900 gang members and quasi-members in Japan today (according to the Metropolitan Police Department). (Metropolitan Police Department, fiscal year 2008). (Metropolitan Police Department, fiscal year 2008).
The main source of income for these gangs is illegal drugs such as methamphetamine. Showa 50 50s In the 1950s, it was said that about half of the total income of all gangs was related to illegal drugs, and now that the Anti-Violence Law and the Anti-Violence Ordinance have made it more difficult to engage in real estate business, the percentage is likely to increase further.
According to a nationwide survey, the number of people who have used illegal drugs in Japan is about 2.16 million The domestic market is estimated to be worth several hundred billion yen per year. The domestic market is estimated to be hundreds of billions of yen a year, most of which goes to the gangs. It can be said that today’s gangs are covered in illegal drugs.
For my new non-fiction book, “Yakuza Children” (Taiyo Books), I have been interviewing children who grew up in gangster families for two years. The children have seen their parents smuggle and sell illegal drugs, and become addicts and cripples themselves.
In this reportage, I would like to shed light on the relationship between gangster parents and illegal drugs as seen by the children.
Since the enactment of the Anti-Violence Law, many gangsters have left the world of real estate and finance to deal in illegal drugs.
Most of the gang members who deal in illegal drugs are themselves addicts. Whether they are smugglers, middlemen, or end dealers, they have to understand the “quality” of the products. Therefore, you will find yourself involved in illegal drugs.
“I can fuck for hours.”
In Kanagawa Prefecture, there was a tertiary organization affiliated with the Kansai-based A-gumi, which was widely involved in the trafficking of methamphetamine. The leader of the group was a smuggler by trade and a regular user himself. The main purpose of using methamphetamine is to increase the pleasure of sexual intercourse, which is called “kimeseku”. Therefore, most of the time, his wife was also a regular user.
Hiko grew up in the home of this gang leader. She describes her childhood memories as follows.
“Her father and mother would stay in their room from morning to night, doing drugs and having sex endlessly. When the drugs were working, they could fuck for hours. I didn’t like to watch them, so I spent my time in the park with a Tamagotchi in my hand.
In the evening, when I came home hungry, I had to watch my parents being destroyed by drugs. Dad would run around the house saying, “A whale attacked me,” or “The woman who drove me to suicide a long time ago came out as a ghost,” and I would see him shaking with fright. She would say, “The woman who drove me to suicide a long time ago has appeared as a ghost.
That was my daily routine, so from the time I was in elementary school, I would wander around without coming home or going to school. When I became a junior high school student, I was allowed to stay at the homes of my friends and older students. But only delinquents would accept me as the daughter of a yakuza, so that’s where I learned to use anpan (paint thinner).
The couple’s relationship also broke down because of the methamphetamine. Her mother’s personality broke down first, and she began spending the money of the gang and bullying the members horribly. Her father abandoned her, left home, and remarried a Korean woman. A few months later, the mother, now alone, was arrested by the police.
Her daughter, Hiko, had nowhere to go. 16 years old Her daughter, Hiko, had nowhere else to go, so she started working as a prostitute in Kabukicho at the age of 16. However, the only place that would hire a girl with no address was a place where gangsters frequented.
The only way to survive in such a dangerous environment is for her to be protected by the gangs herself. Hiko was unable to escape and gave birth to three daughters.
She had three daughters.
“I wonder why I ended up with a yakuza. …… I’m not sure. I didn’t want to be a yakuza because I saw my father and mother. But because my parents lived in such an environment and I had been out of school since elementary school, I had never seen the normal world. So I couldn’t imagine myself living in the normal world, and I was afraid to go there.
After living under the violence of a member of the gang for eight years, her arrest led to her moving to a maternal and child living support facility and living on welfare.
Methamphetamine in her school bag
The city of Tachikawa, Tokyo, is home to a powerful Tokyo-based secondary organization, the B-kai. K Megumi was born to a member of this umbrella organization. Her parents were low-level gangsters and had been trafficking in the ends of the street, and they let their daughter help them with the shingles.
Her parents made a living buying methamphetamine from middlemen and selling it in town. However, instead of selling them on the streets or in clubs, they would have customers come to their apartment to sell them.
His parents did not try to hide the fact that he had a young daughter, Kie, in the apartment. On the contrary, after her daughter entered elementary school, they actively let her help them with the business.
K. remembers that she was made to put methamphetamine in her school bag every day on her way to school. She would hide the bag of methamphetamine in the back of her school bag or in a pocket with a zipper. Sometimes they would put it in a bag for gym clothes or in a paint set.
The parents thought that if they let the children take the drugs to school, they would not be found even if the police raided the house during the day. The elementary school was the place to hide the methamphetamine.
In addition, her parents made her help them with various tasks at home. For example, she had to cut aluminum juice cans in half with a knife without opening the bull tabs and throw away the contents. She would then put the methamphetamine sealed in plastic inside the can, pour water into it, and then glue the can back together. At first glance, it looks like an unopened can of juice, so the police overlook it.
K. says, “The yakuza have a tendency to take drugs.
“The yakuza are very clever when it comes to drugs. They come up with all kinds of ways to hide it. Even as a child, I thought my parents were geniuses.
In my case, being forced to help them all the time made me curious about drugs, and I started doing it myself in junior high school. When I wondered what kind of drugs my parents were so crazy about, I couldn’t help but do them.
When a child is exposed to his or her parents’ drug trafficking at an early age, it is natural for the child to develop an interest in it. It can be said that having a parent who is a trafficker is an environment that allows such things to happen.
In Part 2, we will report on the more detailed and graphic confessions of the “daughters of gangsters.
Interview and text: Kota Ishii
Born in Tokyo in 1977. Nonfiction writer. Graduated from Nihon University College of Art. He is active in reporting and writing about culture, history, and medicine in Japan and abroad. His books include "The House of 'Demons': Parents Who Kill Their Own Children," "Forty-three Killing Intentions: The Depths of the Kawasaki Jr. 1 Boys' Murder Case," "Rental Child," "Kinship Murder," and "Social Map of Disparity and Division.