This group is still regarded as being among 'the most sophisticated and wealthiest criminal organizations'. Members are often portrayed as males with heavily tattooed bodies and wearing fundoshi, sometimes with a kimono or, in more recent years, a Western-style 'sharp' suit covering them. The yakuza are known for their strict codes of conduct, their organized fiefdom nature, and several unconventional ritual practices such as yubitsume, or amputation of the left little finger. The English equivalent for the term yakuza is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them bōryokudan ( 暴力団, 'violent groups', IPA: ), while the yakuza call themselves ninkyō dantai ( 任侠団体, 'chivalrous organizations', IPA: ). Yakuza ( Japanese: ヤクザ, IPA: English: / j ə ˈ k uː z ə, ˈ j æ k uː z ə/), also known as gokudō ( 極道, 'the extreme path', IPA: ), are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. Varied, including illegitimate businesses, an array of criminal and non-criminal activities. Primarily Japanese occasionally Koreans and Japanese Americans Primarily Japan, particularly, Kantō/ Tokyo, Kansai, and Chūbu also internationally in, South Korea, Australia, and the Western United States ( Hawaii and California)

(presumed to have originated from the Kabukimono)

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