Cure (2010)

was ineffectual. Hiroshi’s expression clouded.

“We subscribe to the same oyabun-kobun sworn brotherhood structure as everyone else,” Hiroshi stated with some indignation. “I am the oyabun of the Yamaguchi-gumi. I know what my brotherhood is doing in all respects.”

“My comments are not intended to disparage the Yamaguchi-gumi in any way. We all have great respect for the Yamaguchi-gumi, perhaps even a bit of envy for your recent successes. But I take your response to mean that you, personally, were aware of the break-in. If that is the case, I must formally complain that you did not inform me of what you were doing nor ask me to help. We Yakuza have, over the years, adhered to this policy of cooperation to avoid turf wars, and I would like to be assured that in the future you will contact me if you have needs in the Kyoto area. I don’t mean this to be a serious confrontation, and I hope it isn’t. We just need to maintain respect between our organizations, as has been the case over the years among all the Yakuza.”

“We Yamaguchi have the utmost respect for the Aizukotetsu-kai,” Hiroshi said without changing his expression.

As a realist, Hisayuki knew that Hiroshi’s response skirted rather than faced the issue. There was no apology implied, but Hisayuki was content to take the response as the first step toward a solution. As close as Kobe and Kyoto were physically, it was imperative that the problem be recognized, and at least now it had been formally broached.

Moving on to the next issue—namely, the very real threat to the Aizukotetsu-kai portfolio from the Yamaguchi-gumi action—Hisayuki said, “If I may ask, why did you, as the oyabun of the Yamaguchi-gumi, want the lab books from the Kyoto University laboratory, and why did you help their owner and his family defect to America? Didn’t you realize it was against our government’s interests, meaning all our interests as Japanese citizens, and especially those citizens who have invested in the Japanese start-up company iPS Patent Japan?”

“Perhaps as Japanese citizens it could seem to be against our interests, but not as a Yakuza businessman struggling in a global economy. Money and effort should be directed where it will make the most money, not where a selfish, bureaucratic government like ours suggests. Our government is not for the Japanese people, despite what they say. It is for themselves, like most governments in today’s world. Look what happened here in Kobe in the earthquake in ’95. Who rescued the people and maintained order in the first terrible days? Was it the government? Hell, no. It was us, the Yamaguchi-gumi. The government only came in later when they suddenly realized it was a public-relations nightmare in the making.

“Why I gave the order to aid this Satoshi was because it had been a direct request from our New York City saiko-komon, Saboru Fukuda. Perhaps you know him. He was originally from Kyoto but moved here to Kobe to work the docks as a mere laborer but ended up joining the Yamaguchi family. We recognized his skills early in his career. He’s a very smart businessman, a good administrator, and an intuitive investor.”

“I don’t know him,” Hisayuki said with a shake of his head, hardly listening. He was taken aback by Hiroshi’s statement suggesting that as a Yakuza businessman, he was not patriotic. The Yakuza had always been patriotic. It was part of the unwritten contract the Yakuza had with the government.

“Not only has Fukuda-san tripled our take with our gambling operations in New York, he’s also been laundering the money onsite through shrewd investments with a clever New York placement agent. This placement agent is slick and has no fear of dirty money, which he most willingly uses as venture capital to fund medical and biotech start-up companies, which is his specialty. Usually it costs money to launder money, as you well know, but with him we’ve been seeing up to a forty percent increase in original value. So the revenue Fukuda-san returns here to Kobe is already clean. With such a track record I have come to support him one hundred percent. Whatever he asks for, I give him and do so with confidence, no questions asked. Perhaps as sister organizations we could introduce you to this placement agent.”

“As I said, I don’t know him,” Hisayuki said distractedly.

“Kyoto’s loss and Kobe’s gain,” Hiroshi said, as if a proud father. “Since I appointed him more than five years ago, he has been running the Yamaguchi-gumi operation in New York. He’s turned New York into our most profitable foreign branch. How is your New York branch doing, if I may ask?”

“Reasonably well,” Hisayuki said. Normally he would not have even acknowledged there was a New York City branch of his operation, much less tell how it was doing, but he was asking Hiroshi similarly confidential questions, and Hiroshi was answering. Hisayuki needed Hiroshi to keep talking, because he needed to find out if Hiroshi had any idea why his saiko-komon wanted Satoshi aided. As Hisayuki was trying to come up with the next question without giving away why he wanted to know, it all suddenly hit him, and once it did, he was amazed it had taken him so long to figure it out. The vice minister had to have been correct. The Yamaguchi, through their saiko-komon in New York, Saboru Fukuda, were investing in iPS USA, the start-up company the vice minister had spoken of. It had to be the explanation.

“If your operation in New York is only doing reasonably well,” Hiroshi continued, unaware of Hisayuki’s epiphany, “then why don’t we team up, merge our New York operations and share proceeds in proportion to our respective personnel roster. There should be more cooperation in these tough times between all Yakuza organizations, even here in Japan.”

Glancing briefly at his saiko-komon, Hisayuki wondered if he’d come to the same conclusion, and was eager to ask him once they got back into the car. Looking back at Hiroshi, who was still going on about the idea of their two organizations colluding, Hisayuki wondered if he dared to ask Hiroshi some direct question, like whether or not the Yamaguchi had any stock in iPS USA. He was worried that Hiroshi might come to a similar conclusion, that the Aizukotetsu-kai had a serious financial involvement with iPS Patent Japan, meaning that their respective Yakuza organizations were in direct financial conflict. Of course, Hisayuki didn’t know if the sizes of the investments were anywhere equivalent, but he didn’t think it would make that much difference. It was an awkward situation, since the two companies’ market values were inversely connected like a zero-sum game: If one were to go up, the other would invariably have to go down. Internecine Yakuza wars had been fought over circumstances even less definitively connected, and Hisayuki had the sudden fear that this was going to be a war as well. The Aizukotetsu-kai simply could not afford to lose what they had invested in iPS Patent Japan, nor could they simply pull out, since the company’s cash reserves were nil. “It will be a war,” Hisayuki found himself prophesying and already planning how to limit the collateral damage, and even possibly how to outsource the whole mess to New York City.

“So what do you think?” Hiroshi questioned. He had been continuing to talk up his suggestion of some kind of partnership between the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Aizukotetsu-kai, an idea Hisayuki dismissed out of hand since he knew that if that were to happen, Aizukotetsu-kai would be swallowed up by the Yamaguchi. The concept of partnership was one of the Yamaguchi-gumi’s main methods of expansion. “I tell you, Ishii-san,” Hiroshi went on when Hisayuki failed to respond immediately, “we all have to accept that the world as we knew it in our lifetime is rapidly changing, and we Yakuza have to change, too. The government is not going to leave us alone, like in the past, as evidenced by the anti-gang laws passed in ’92. It’s only going to get worse.”

“When I met with the vice minister just the other day, this issue came up.”

“And what did he say?”

“He said the laws that have been passed had been done so merely for political reasons, and that there was no intention of truly enforcing them.”

“And you believed him?”

“He said that if the government was serious about enforcement, they would have to pass something similar to the United States’ RICO Act, and they haven’t, and I know for certain that there isn’t anything in the works. So, yes, I believed him.”

“With all due respect, Ishii-san, I believe you are being much too trusting and even a bit naive,” Hirsohi said, beginning a long monologue about his vision of the future with the Japanese government. “Soon the benign neglect that has characterized our relationship is going to change to become progressively more antagonistic. It stands to reason. Even today the government is envious of the money they believe that we, the Yakuza, are, from their perspective, sucking from the economy and paying little or no taxes on.”

As Hiroshi talked, Hisayuki became progressively more uncomfortable as a guest, and realized how easy it would be for the Yamaguchi-gumi to overwhelm the Aizukotetsu-kai, which he worried they might feel was appropriate if Hiroshi were to make the association between their conflicting investments in what was going to be a trillion-dollar industry.