As the Japanese yakuza weakens, a new type of criminal emerges: the tokuryu

Tokyo: A top yakuza member was arrested for allegedly stealing Pokémon cards near Tokyo in April, a case seen as an example of Japanese organized crime groups battling declining membership.

Police officers who were busy dealing with thousands of yakuza members just a few years ago have noticed something new: disorganized, loosely connected groups they believe are behind a series of crimes once dominated by the yakuza.

Police call them “tokuryu,” anonymous gangsters and young techies hired for specific jobs. They often cooperate with the yakuza, obscuring the border between them and making police investigations difficult, experts and authorities say.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police are investigating six suspects in their 20s and 30s, most of them with no connections to each other, who are believed to have been hired on social media to kill, transport and burn the bodies of an elderly couple in the shore of the Nasu River. , 200 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.