I read a morbidly humorous story in SoraNews24 (courtesy of Mr. Casey Baseel) about a brawl involving the Chinese Dragon gang in a fancy French restaurant in a skyscraper in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro District. The story’s dark comedy comes from the fact that the gang was apparently celebrating the fact that one of its members was released from prison. What caught my attention most in the article was not the brawl itself, but instead the origin story of the Chinese Dragon gang:
Chinese Dragon was originally founded by descendants of Japanese nationals left in China after the end of World War II who eventually came to Japan. Originally forming in the late 1980s, the gang has managed to avoid being caught in many of the anti-organized crime ordinances that have reduced the size and influence of Japan’s yakuza syndicates since Chinese Dragon has not been officially classified as a boryokudan, or organized crime group, because of its looser hierarchal structure.
I will venture that few gangs have as colorful an origin story as this. When one considers the types of skills that the founding members would have likely had to cultivate in China given their own family situation, the nature of Communist China, and many post-war grievances, I suppose it is no surprise that the gang has been crafty in conducting its illicit business in Japan.