the yakuza it’s news in Japan. And not because of his coups, a particularly successful police raid or a change in policy by the Government of Sanae Takaichi to combat the criminal network that takes centuries filtering into Japanese society. No. The yakuza is in the news because after several years of seeing its ranks decimated, it has reached an all-time low. According to police statistics, in 2025 their criminal groups numbered about 17,600 people (among members and allies), far from the more than 80,000 just a decade and a half ago.
This loss of strength is explained by the control of the police and a turn in the underworld towards new criminal networksbut also because of a trend that affects the rest of the country: the yakuza ages, just like society ages Japanese.
The yakuza is shrinking. These are not good times for the yakuza. Not at least as far as follow-up is concerned. Statistics from the National Police Agency show that Japan’s quintessential criminal institution (and one of the best-known in the world) has seen its member and affiliate base fall to a minimum. In 2025 They totaled 17,6001,200 less than the previous year. If we look only at the hard core, the full members, the figure is even more devastating: it remains at 9,400, the lowest since there are records.
Is the data so bad? Yes. The problem is not that 2025 has been a particularly bad year for the yakuza, but that it maintains a trend that goes back a long time. Nippon explains that the institution has been seeing its ranks thinning little by little for at least 21 years, tracing a negative curve that has no signs of improving. For reference, the newspaper recalls that until 2009 the yakuza had more than 80,000 people spread throughout the country. If we go back to the 1960s, that support base was considerably higher.
The crisis also seems to be affecting (to a greater or lesser extent) the different organizations that make up the yakuza. Nippon appointment half a dozen entities that have either stagnated their social mass or have lost members. The worst stop is Sixth Yamaguchi-gumiwhich in 2025 remained at 3,100 members and 3,200 affiliates. They are 200 and 400 less respectively than a year before.
Curious yes, new no. The 2025 data is revealing, but will probably surprise few people in Japan. The country takes years reading headlines that report the gradual loss of base of organized crime networks. In 2022 the Police Agency already revealed that the number of members and associates of mafia groups had fallen to 24,100, the lowest figure since at least 1958, the first year with statistics. Only a few years later the ranks of the yakuza fell below the 20,000 barrier, a new low.
What is the reason? As is often the case with all social phenomena, whether related to crime or not, this trend is explained by a combination of factors. In the case of Japanese bands, however, there is one particularly interesting one: age. The Japan Times reveals that one of the theories that the authorities use to explain this decline is the aging suffered by organized groups. The yakuza is getting older, just like japan.
In 2022, the Japanese police estimated that 30.8% of members They were between 50 and 59 years old, making it the largest cohort. People between 60 and 69 years old represented 12.5% and septuagenarians 11.6%. More than 50% were 50 or older. In general, the average age of the members was 54.2 years, seven more than a decade before. Members between 40 and 30 years old accounted for 12.9% and those in their twenties did not exceed 5.4%.
An increasingly aging country. That the ranks of the yakuza are aging can be explained for several reasons. A key one is that Japan in general is getting older. The country has been immersed in a serious demographic crisis which has plunged its birth rate and raised the average age of the population.
According to the records According to Statista, in 1950 this indicator marked 21.3 years, in the mid-90s it had already risen to 39 years and in 2020 it was close to 48. Their forecasts assume that at the end of this century the average will comfortably exceed 50 years. The result of that drift? Japan presents one of the worst percentages of population over 65 years of age: represents more than 29%.
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One word: tokuryū. There is, however, another factor that explains why the organizations that make up the yakuza are increasingly aging. It is not that crime is fading in Japan, rather it is transforming and it is doing so by leaning towards a new format: the tokuryūcriminal networks that flee from hierarchical and well-structured models, such as the yakuza.
The tokuryū (the word is the sum of tokumeik“anonymous” and ryūdo“fluid”) often operate as groups of criminals who form for coups, without structure, codes, organizational rigidity or bonds. That nature deprives them of some of the advantages of the yakuza, but it also has its strengths. The police find it difficult to deal with such loosely knit groups. And they also seem to offer an attractive model for younger offenders.
The Japan Times assures that last year 12,178 people related to tokuryū were arrested, 2,073 more than in 2024. Many of them were under 40 years old or even in their twenties, which gives another clue about the changes that the underworld world is experiencing. “The younger generations’ aversion to yakuza organizations, with strict codes of conduct and hierarchies, is a contributing factor to their decline,” precise the diary Sankei Shimbun.
Fighting crime. When explaining the bleeding of the yakuza, the authorities point to another factor: the work of legislators and police. Specifically, they point to greater application of the law and ordinances that complicate the participation of companies and individuals in organized crime.
To combat crime the country has become complicated that the signed yakuza can carry out procedures as simple as opening a bank account, having a credit card in their name or taking out insurance policies. Against that backdrop, their magnetism seems to be fading among the youngest.
Images | Elmimmo (Flickr) 1 and 2
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