ABSTRACT
Political organizations enjoy considerable legal protection under Japan’s postwar constitution, and right-wing organizations acquired additional political protection during four decades of uninterrupted rule by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party. These circumstances facilitated the development or re-emergence of (1) complex links and overlapping memberships between right-wing political groups, organized crime groups (yakuza), and professional corporate extortionists (sōkaiya); (2) tolerance and encouragement by state authorities of the use of violence by such groups as forms of private policing; and (3) the formation of bogus right-wing groups to facilitate extortion, intimidation, and political corruption under cover of legal protections afforded to political organizations. This situation is reassessed in light of new legislation, current changes in the Japanese political situation and a recent influx of foreign workers.
