Narrating against dominance: Women and organized crime in Japanese discourse and popular culture

ABSTRACT

Globally, women have often been marginalized in discourses about organized crime and are typically cast as passive agents exploited by men in their daily lives. Rather than accepting this stereotype as given, this article traces various discourses and lived experiences of women involved in Japanese organized crime. In the case of Japan, common understandings of organized crime often refer back to the stereotypical roles filled by men with reference to popular culture: as gangsters, gamblers, goons, or thugs. Engaging existing scholarship that examines women’s participation in organized crime, this paper interrogates women’s experiences and participation through the lens of Japanese manga featuring stories involving female criminality, complemented by nonfictional accounts drawn from collections of interviews and autobiographies. Whereas most discourses and narratives concerning organized crime in Japan suggest women are disempowered or passive agents, narratives by women themselves suggest that women connected to organized crime wield significant influence and authority in certain situations. I suggest that women’s agency in the real world of organized crime can be seen most clearly in Japanese manga and popular culture, which – while fictional – in fact makes the actual voices and stories that inform them widely visible to a broad audience, thereby giving voice to these silenced actors.

KEYWORDS:

• yakuza
• organized crime
• manga
• popular discourse
• silences
• women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies Conference. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and Rachael Hutchinson for raising a number of key observations and suggestions at the early stages of this article.

² There is some confusion regarding how to read the title of Ieda’s book, later film adaptations, and articles written about or referencing both. Differences in reading are linked to the last word, wives (tsumatachi). In the case of film adaptations, this character is glossed to read onnatachi (women) to suggest the broader involvement of women in underworld activities. See the interview with Tōei producer Kusakabe Gorō in Kabuki (1995, 94–95). I will maintain this distinction throughout the article when necessary.

³ I underscore here that I am not advocating the reverse either: that we recognize the agency of these women at the expense of the many who are abused or coerced into exploitive relationships, sexual or otherwise.

⁴ Others, such as Schodt (1983, 120–137), may reasonably disagree by noting the extent to which manga indulges fantasy and imagination. I see this mainly as a matter of perspective with no one correct interpretation. In support of Ito’s point, I would argue that fantasy and escapism may itself be reflective or indicative of certain societal environments at the time driving the need or desire for such narratives. For instance, the emergence of the sekai-kei (“world-style”) genre is variously contextualized by pointing to the apocalyptic nature of the Kobe Earthquake and Aum subway gas attacks in 1995, which shattered the image of a safe and stable Japan; the growing recognition of hikikomori as a serious social issue by the late 1990s; and/or the economic precarity of freeters and NEETs since the mid-1990s. See Tanaka (2014, 49–52) for a discussion on these and related points.

⁵ Originally serialized in the monthly magazine YOU by Shūeisha from 2000 to 2007, Gokusen totals 15 volumes in its collectable tankōbon form and sold in excess of 3.5 million copies (not including serialized sales in YOU or second-hand sales, which would likely add several million more). Refer to the obi (advertising band) of volume 11 for sales figures according to the publisher. While selling several million copies total, Gokusen only made one appearance in monthly sales charts charting the top 20 tankōbon (for volume 11 in June 2005) (Shuppan geppō 2005, 29).

⁶ In terms of age ranges, shōjo manga is typically defined as targeting school-age girls up to the late teens, while josei manga is geared towards women from the late teens to 40s. For details on the production, sale, and broader cultural significance of girls’ manga in Japan, see Prough (2011, 1–11).

⁷ Actress and idol Nakama Yukie starred in all three TV series to popular acclaim as well as in the feature film. The live action TV dramas in 2002, 2005, and 2008 had an average national audience of 17.4%, 28.0%, and 22.8% respectively. See Oricon (2009).

⁸ I note here that a different edition (Morimoto 2010) of Gokusen sees minor changes in panel composition and artwork at this point, with her grandfather and other key members of the Kuroda-gumi superimposed over a roaring dragon rather than the greyed-out panels of the original. In both cases the written narrative remains the same. My argument applies in either case: in the 2010 edition, the dragon is stylized to evoke connections to tattoo artwork associated with yakuza and her grandfather (e.g. Morimoto 2003c, 153), and thus speaks to the same incomprehensible childhood experience of the original 2000 version.

⁹ Tsukasa’s crossdressing is less a challenge to conventional gender roles and more a device to move the plot forward. For an analysis of crossdressing in shōjo manga and how it may subvert patriarchal ideas and norms, refer to Shamoon (2012, 119–136) who details one of the most popular and well-known cases of Oscar in Rose of Versailles.

¹⁰ Here it is important to emphasize that Paradise falls into a genre separate to that of the magical girl (mahō shōjo). Unlike magical girls (for example, Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, or Magic Knight Rayearth), Tsukasa does not derive her powers or abilities from an enchanted object or supernatural power, nor does she magically transform into an extraordinary or magical form; rather, her skills and abilities as a bodyguard – e.g. karate, marksmanship, and swordplay – have all been learned over time through training and practice. The implication is that gangster women like Tsukasa have the ability to acquire the necessary skills and training that male gangsters have – to equal them in skill and deadliness or (in the case of Tsukasa) to surpass them.

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Erik Ropers

Erik Ropers is Associate Professor of History and Director of Asian Studies at Towson University, Maryland, and author of Voices of the Korean Minority in Postwar Japan (Routledge, 2019). He has published on topics including forced labor, survivors of the atomic bombings, gendered violence, and historical representation in manga.