Free Agents of Yakuza

Not everyone is on the side of the new or the old. Gangs, ninja, and even some of the smaller Yakuza outfits haven’t decided where they fit into the puzzle. Here are a few players still holding out for a team.

Ninja Organizations

Ninja and Yakuza are not synonymous but we do a lot of business together. Yakuza are hesitant to hire runners, especially gaijin, so when delicate work needs doing a ninja group is often contacted first.

This is true of the old-school way of thought. The more modern gumi are eager to use deniable assets such as shadowrunners. We’re cheaper and harder to trace back to any specific employer.

— Riser

These organizations are extremely secretive and selective with their clients. The only group I have dealt with came during my time with the Mita-gumi prior to the split. On several occasions I was asked to deliver digital payments to the Oni do kai for services rendered. I’ve only seen the results of their bloody handiwork, which they mark by leaving their daimon at the scene. Extreme prejudice doesn’t begin cover it.

Megacorps

Nowadays every Yakuza organization has members that own significant stock, liens, mortgages, bonds, or other financial interest in a number of businesses. Mostly these interests stem from traditional underworld activities—loansharking, fraud, money laundering, and investing in legitimate businesses to conceal taxable sources of income. Some Yakuza members are more heavily leveraged into the corps and may be operating as moles for a corp and being paid off in stock.

In fact, the majority of Yakuza organizations in Neo-Tokyo are old and well-established, with the bulk of the members successfully pursuing legal and extralegal activities simultaneously. To this end, many senior kobun and oyabun are university graduates, investors, and property owners of note, and officers on the boards of corporations. Occasionally, a rengo will pool these resources through the incorporation of new companies, mergers, and friendly buy-outs. The most successful of this type of “Yakorp” is Mitsuhama Computer Technologies because of the four Komon, but most such conglomerates are at most A-rated.

— Mr. Bonds

Certain companies also maintain discreet agreements with the local gumi to facilitate their business practices or to carry out extralegal activities requiring deniable assets, such as surveillance, arson, money laundering, espionage, extortion, legbreaking, kidnapping, or murder. In return, the megacorp repays the gumi either in currency (nuyen, corporate scrip, bonds, or even stock), services (access to corporate clinics, employment for gumi members, and sometimes arranging the release of imprisoned gumi members), or some other form of compensation. A partial list of the megacorps involved with the Neo-Tokyo gumi is included below

Watada-gumi	Mitsuhama Computer Technology, Renraku Computer Systems
Mita-gumi	Evo Corporation, Mitsuhama Computer Technology, Shiawase Corporation
Wanibuchi-gumi	Angel Telecom, Hisato-Turner Broadcasting, Mangadyne, Mitsuhama Computer Technology
Kodachi-gumi	Mitsuhama Computer Technology, Yakashima Corporation

Parent Organization

Yakuza