Néa Vanille wrote:I don't really know how much the yakuza are accepted in Japan, but one thing I DO find puzzling is the portrayal of them in JDramas.
I mean, sure, they are portrayed as being quite evil and ultimately, young people are advised to stay away from them (as seen in My Boss, My Hero), yet one can't deny that there's humour in the way they are described and considering that it's a pretty serious criminal organization we're talking about, they are portrayed as rather cutesy.

Compare this to how Japanese police is usually protrayed in JDramas. They're usually not really the brightest and most members are shown as somewhat incompetent. Except if the hero's a cop, then he -and sometimes his team- are the smartest and best cops around (just take Remote or Rookie).
As for the American gangs. Oh please, bunch of dumb kids trying to play criminal. Smoke'em. Use a fitting ammount of force and they'll wet their pants. If you can compare Yakuza to something in America, I'd compare them to the mid-war organizations, like the one run by a certain Al Capone (even though Yakuza today is nothing like that anymore).
That said, don't use JDramas as a reference of how it really is. I mean, we all know KITT isn't real, right? And that there is no A-Team and no Airwolf and that the Stargate is really just an invention for TV, right? So why would Yakuza be the way they're portrayed in a tv series?
AngelicLayer wrote:Well, maybe those are just rumors , not facts, but yakuza don´t have anything to do with Nazism or Nationalsocialism, they just are patriots!!
So it's patriotic to support right-winged wannabe groups who park their black truks outside Yasukuni, play the Battleship March and try to blast everyone with their racist and nationalist messages through their speakers? Interesting... Besides, patriotism is the virtue of the vicious and harbors a huge danger since it ALWAYS leads to nationalism, as history proves (if you ask me, being a patriot is nothing to be proud of, it just shows how narrow your view is). Be happy they're just a minority. I would really hate to see them gain actual political power over there. It would ruin the country and that would really be a pity. Yet, they're somewhat entertaining, too, especially when they start rambling about "pure Japanese" and "Yamato people". It's so stupid that it's already funny again.