Mapping drug smuggling networks in Japan: a social network analysis of trial documents.

This paper addresses a significant gap in drug market literature by examining high-level drug trafficking networks in Japan. We focus on three aspects: the structure of drug importation networks, the impact of transport methods on these structures, and the role of Japan's mafia, the yakuza. Using novel statistical techniques that extend exponential random graph models (ERGMs) to multi-network samples, we analyse 573 Japanese trial documents on wholesale drug importation.

Under a setting sun: the spatial displacement of the yakuza and their longing for visibility.

Spaces occupied by organised crime are usually kept secret, hidden, invisible. Japanese criminal syndicates, the yakuza, made instead visibility a key feature of the spaces they occupy through an overt display of their presence in the territory: in the past, a yakuza headquarter could have been instantly recognised by the crest and group name emblazoned on the front wall. However, recent changes in legislation have restrictively regulated these spaces, and the hygienisation of central neighbourhoods that used to be vital loci of yakuza activity has eroded the visibility of the groups.