Real-life Yakuza members think Yakuza 3 is pretty accurate

We’ve heard stories, we’ve read articles, we’ve seen movies, so there’s an image of the Yakuza imprinted on the mainstream. So when we take a look at Sega’s Yakuza games, it’s pretty much what that image tells us – ruthless gangsters with a lot of thirst for power and money. But what would real-life members of the Yakuza think?

We’ve heard stories, we’ve read articles, we’ve seen movies, so there’s an image of the Yakuza imprinted on the mainstream. So when we take a look at Sega’s Yakuza games, it’s pretty much what that image tells us – ruthless gangsters with a lot of thirst for power and money. But what would real-life members of the Yakuza think?

Writer Jake Adelstein of BoingBoing got three real-life Yakuza members to play Yakuza 3, and asked them for their take on the game’s portrayal of their organization. Naturally, you can’t ask them to play through an entire game and give you an elaborate review, but the three managed to get enough out of the game to arrive at interesting conclusions. Note that the following are not the Yakuza members’ real names.

Midoriyama: The corporate yakuza guys get a thumbs up for realism. Nice suit. Smart. Financially savvy. Obsessed with money. Sneaky and conniving. Ruthless.
Shirokawa: There are a lot of guys whom I feel like I know. The dialogue is right too. They sound like yakuza.
Kuroishi: Braggarts, bullies, and sweet-talkers. I agree – it feels like I know the guys on the screen.
M: Kiryu is the way yakuza used to be. We kept the streets clean. People liked us. We didn’t bother ordinary citizens. We respected our bosses. Now, guys like that only exist in video games.
S: I don’t know any ex-yakuza running orphanages.
K: There was one a few years ago. A good guy.
M: You sure it wasn’t just a tax shelter?
K: Sure it was a tax shelter but he ran it like a legitimate thing. You know.

So the three are in agreement – Yakuza 3 had an accurate depiction of the Yakuza. But what about the fashion side?

M: What’s the deal with Kiryu’s scarlet red shirt? He’s supposed to be a former boss of the Inagawakai–and he dresses like a chinpira (low level yakuza punk). He’s a yakuza, not a host.
S: Except for Kiryu’s crappy shirt, it’s realistic. The top executive yakuza are all wearing good suits. They look like businessmen. The cabaret girls have incredible outfits.The hosts in the game are dressed like hosts. Somebody did his homework.
K: The lady cop, her outfit is perfect too. The boring black suit with the white blazer. That’s what a woman yakuza cop dresses like.
M: Except for Kiryu’s shirt, good. And his tattoo.
S: Not much of a tattoo.
K: Only on his back as far as I can tell. Maybe he ran out of enough money to get it finished.

About the only things about the game that the three thumbed down to be unrealistic fell into the fighting category. Yakuza don’t walk the streets and brawl all the time, and when they do get into a fight, it’s mostly short and brutal. It’s also quite unrealistic, as Shirokawa pointed out, that casualties are kept to a minimum. Well, that’s commercialism for you, gotta have lots of fights, yes?

Other than the fighting, it all seems pretty accurate from their point of view. The feature at BoingBoing is a pretty good read, you should check it out too via the source below.

BoingBoing [via Kotaku]