can you guys please read? mafia have little to no power anymore. yakuza are still extremely influential. jesus.

I dare you to go to Sicily and say that!

^ who makes the mafia movies? america. i'm talking about the american mafia. they have little to no power anymore. obviously the sicilian mafia can't do a damn thing about a hollywood studio choosing to make a mafia movie.

but the yakuza games are made by a japanese company, and the actual yakuza are just right there in the same area. and the yakuza have a lot of power and influence. so there is no similarity between mafia and yakuza.

Semi-legitimate might be the best way to describe their business. It's not all illegal and they have been known to take care of their territories, rather than just extort "protection money" for nothing more than protection from the extortioners themselves. The local Yakuza responded before the Japanese government in providing emergency aid following the Kobe earthquake.

Of course one isolated instance hardly makes them esteemed members of the community.

So I suppose the best answer would be to say that they exist and thrive for the same reasons as the drug cartels; because there is a need for illegal goods and services they peddle in and because they are essentially entrenched in the local communities in which they operate.

fail troll is fail

they may be influential, but i wonder how something like that would work?

you believe the different clans come together and decide who is going to threaten Sega for making a game?

i also see some potential for ridicule when the Yakuza start doing something like that.

"Japanese Mafia complains about Video game"

...wait, THAT would boost sales

The game is amazing by the way, i even stopped playing Final Fantasy for now, since it doesn't let me go! I just wanted to look into it, but its so fun, i can't stop playing :)

Why do you think SEGA is pumping out so many Yakuza games lately? Yakuza liked the first and asked for more.

Yakuzas aren't that hardcore.

Compared to other organizations like drug cartels of Mexico they make the Yakuza look pretty innocent.

And they don't hide who they are they make it very public.

They've done some bad things but they also do legit business.

And Yakuza is one of the most popular film genres in Japan.

Like action,drama,comedy,yakuza.

So a videogame finally came along.

Its just joins movies,books,manga etc....

It is only a game and is fictional.  Not real! If you understand japanese culture, there are lots of comics and movies based on YAKUZA, it is the same applied to movies and comics based on gangland story in Hong Kong.  Some of the studios who made the movies was actually sponsored by them.  Hey, is only a game

the same reason why they allow the tons of japanese movies about yakuza!

they probably even play them