25 Years Later, What Impact Do Anti-gang Laws Have On Tekiya Street Vendors?
Tekiya street vendors are part of the Japanese urban landscape. However, they have always been closely monitored, and perhaps even more so today. Let’s take a look back at the laws and affairs that led to an unprecedented situation.
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The Bōhaijōrei Ordinance and the Push to Cut Ties with the Underworld
Why contact with gangs became illegal in 2010
In November 2010, the Bōryokudan haijōjōrei decree (also known as Bōhaijōrei) and its prefectural variants made it possible to pursue the goal of eradicating the underworld by cutting it off from citizens, as it is now illegal to have any contact with a member of the underworld without risking imprisonment. This ordinance led to prefectural decrees that were more or less restrictive depending on the prefecture in Japan.
Early Challenges and Legal Pushback
The gangs quickly reacted by filing complaints denouncing the “discriminatory and unconstitutional nature” of the Bōtaihō and Bōhaijōrei, which they claimed attacked civil liberties, freedom of association, and equality before the law. Convicts who had served their sentences demanded the right to be forgotten and to be treated like any other citizen.
Consequences for Yakuza and Tekiya Membership
One of the direct consequences of the application of the “anti-gang law” was the exclusion of members with too many criminal records in order to maintain the existence of the group, both among the yakuza and the tekiya.
The police preferred the existence of organized crime to its absence, and this had been the case since the Tokugawa era when the shogunal government granted privileges to groups in order to maintain order, according to K. G. Henshall, so that it could control certain social classes from a distance.
In fact, the purge carried out within the gangs, as well as among the tekiya, led members to join other more violent gangs, which diminished their impact and control on the streets to the benefit of the new gangs.
On the Osaka Shinnō-kai website, it is written in black and white: “No person associated with a gang is allowed to join the cooperative or open a stall. We reject any unreasonable requests from people associated with gangs. We cooperate closely with the relevant authorities and ensure mutual cooperation between members of the united unions.”
The Hyōgo Scandal: 12 Years After the Nishinomiya Shinnō-kai Affair
Following the implementation of prefectural decrees relating to Bōhaijōrei, the police were able to investigate violent gangs. In Hyōgo Prefecture, police investigated the money transfers, questioned members of the business cooperative, and kept the case secret until the suspects were arrested on June 6, 2013.
Three hundred million yen (just over €20,000) were allegedly transferred from the business cooperative to the Yamaguchi-gumi. This sum primarily consisted of display and parking fees that were not recorded in the accounts of the Hyōgo business cooperative, which comprised some two hundred street vendors.
A 300 Million Yen Money Trail
In an article in the Nikkei business daily, the journalist writes that the cooperative was responsible for approximately 400 festivals and 16,000 booths in total in 2013. On June 27, 2013, the Hyogo Prefectural Public Safety Commission published the name of the business cooperative on the prefectural police website, citing its close ties to a gang. This publication is mandated by a 1991 law and a 2010 decree.
The investigation revealed that the cooperative’s vice president had a personal, albeit prohibited, relationship with the Yamaguchi-gumi gang. For approximately 20 years, the gang had provided him with cash and consulting fees in exchange for booth space. Between March 2012 and April 2013, he reportedly received nearly 350,000 yen (2,300 euros) in this way. In August of the same year, the cooperative was finally dissolved.
Financial Burden on Small Vendors
Kanae Atsu, an anthropologist who has worked on the tekiya, mentions the event in his 2014 book: “A group of over 200 members contributed 350,000 yen annually, which, if you do the math, means that each street vendor was giving approximately 17,500 yen to the gang. It is very difficult for a street vendor selling cheap goods for 100 to 500 yen to make a net profit of 17,500 yen. This must have been a heavy burden for the street vendors.”
Public Exposure and Cooperative Dissolution
On June 30, 2013, another suspect was arrested on additional charges by the Hyōgo Prefectural Police’s Anti-Gang Division. Following the ban on a festival scheduled for the same month, the Hyōgo Prefectural Police requested that local authorities, temples, and shrines refrain from entrusting the management of their stalls to the vendors’ association in the future.
Threats Against Journalists and Heightened Tension
A street vendor, visibly dissatisfied with the situation, threatened a reporter from the Kobe branch of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper who had been covering the investigation. The Mainichi Shimbun reports that the suspect called the reporter on his cell phone and allegedly told him : “You’ve gone too far. Street vendors can no longer trade from now on. I’m going to do the same to your family. I’ll be finished in a week. You should show filial piety while you still can.”
The Creation of a Committee in Nishinomiya and Kobe
Following this embezzlement case, the issuing of permits and authorizations for setting up stalls and the granting of business licenses became stricter. The police sought to cut off this source of extortion by working closely with the shrine and other organizers (local shōtengai merchants and ujiko parishioners) to create a council to manage the stalls and as an alternative to the trade union.
At their initiative, two committees, Roten unei kyōgikai, were created, one with Nishinomiya Shrine and the other with Ikuta Shrine in Kobe. The committees do not manage all the shrine’s festivals, but only one. In Nishinomiya, this is only the Tōka Ebisu, the most important festival of the year.
The committee is divided into two parts: one manages the finances; the other selects the stalls and organizes their allocation. The first part consists of four people from the shrine (jinja), two representatives from the local merchants’ association (shōtengai), three members of the police (keisatsu), and one representative from the rotenshō.
In this city, both priests and street vendors used the term rotenshō to clearly distinguish themselves from the tekiya gangsters. The second part comprises the sole representative and is designated as the jimu toriatsukaisha (office manager). The street vendors still manage and allocate the stalls in the same way they did before. Only the handling of the finances differs.
“Even if they [the committee members] wanted to take on this task, they wouldn’t be able to do it properly because they don’t know how the distribution and agreements between vendors work here,” adds Mr. T., the current head of the Nishinomiya tekiya. By delegating these tasks to Mr. T., the committee ensures the vendors’ cooperation.
In the past, those wishing to participate in the festivals had to request permission from the head of the tekiya and then obtain the necessary permits. Today, the request is still made to the head, but the granting of permits is overseen by the municipality, the police, and the shrine. Mr. T. is the rotenshō, representing the other street vendors.
How Stall Permits Are Processed Today
Each year, he collects the permit forms, verifies the accuracy of the information provided by the applicants, and sends them to the police, the municipal health department, and the shrine. “Given that there are 350 yatai (traditional meeting places) for the Tōba Ebisu (religious festival), and that three permits need to be completed, that makes 1,050 files to review,” says T. Takase.
Financial Management and Oversight Structure
During our interview, priest Yoshī Yoshihide explained how the financial contribution works: “The tekiya (religious lodges) must pay 40,000 yen for installation, electricity, and garbage collection fees. If there is any extra money, the office keeps the surplus for the next time and reinvests it if the rental costs are higher. This is often the case due to inflation and the almost annual increase in electricity prices. So the committee only provides money when necessary for the organization.”
In this way, the festivities associated with the matsuri, and therefore with the shrine, are completely separate from the activities of the yatai, and the shrine no longer receives direct payment for setting up the tekiya, as was previously the case.
A New Mistrust
Since the 2000s, tekiya groups have been complaining about the crisis facing their profession, particularly as a result of these laws and decrees. Most street vendors insist that they are not gangsters. They advocate for the legality of their trade and want to differentiate themselves from the yakuza.
Long before the 1992 law, in 1965, Kosaka Tokio, tekiya himself, appealed to his readers as follows: “Some of the people who are now denounced as organized crime groups claim to be tekiya, but it is extremely rare for such people to operate street stalls properly. Why would someone who makes a living doing business harass people or cause trouble in order to extort money or goods from them? We have neither the time nor the need to do that. Has anyone ever been so stupid? Can we believe that these people who call themselves tekiya are really tekiya?
From Tekiya to Rotenshō: Rebranding to Avoid Stigma
To avoid being confused with the mafia, some vendors have decided to abandon the pejorative term tekiya in favor of rotenshō, literally “open-air stall vendors,” without giving up their rituals such as sakazuki, the exchange of sake cups. “Today, certain words are overused by the yakuza, so we ban them,” explained Nishinomiya boss
Indeed, certain words that structure the language have fallen into disuse, such as the term oyabun, “boss,” which has been replaced by oyakata, more common in Japanese, or the term niwa, “garden,” referring to a group’s territory, which has been replaced by shoba, the slang form of basho, “place” in Japanese, to reduce confusion between the two groups.
Policing, Permits, and a Climate of Suspicion
Since the legislation of 1992 and 2010, a new mistrust of street vendors has taken hold. We know that the police are responsible for issuing some of the permits granted to tekiya to set up shop at matsuri festivals. Based on my investigations over the past three years, I have noticed that the police have become less tolerant of tekiya.
More Raids, More Checks, Fewer Warnings
Officers are conducting more regular raids on markets to check permits, punish vendors who do not have them, or remove trucks that are not allowed to park there. In reality, it seems that street vendors are mainly prosecuted for traffic violations rather than for their affiliation with gangs.
A Clash between East and West
When I talk to Japanese people about tekiya, they often quickly whisper to me that street vendors are yakuza. I have also read that while 100% of them are merchants, 30% are thugs affiliated with the underworld.
As I have often heard, one tekiya is always another’s yakuza. Indeed, there is a rivalry between Kansai and Kantō, Japan’s two main regions. In the east, street vendors consider western vendors to be part of the underworld, fueling rumors.
This is partly due to historiography, which links, or even confuses, the origins of the mafia with those of merchants. The two terms are even sometimes used interchangeably, exacerbating the confusion, as in an article by Jacob Raz, a rare Western specialist on tekiya. He has devoted his career to aspects of the Other in Japanese culture, and uses the terms yakuza and tekiya interchangeably in one of his articles.
Tekiya, yakuza, tekiyakuza ?
More recently, two new laws have hampered the work of street vendors, directly targeting the Japanese underworld and, indirectly, street vendors.
While there is no consensus on when the first yakuza appeared, it is certain that this mafia-like social group developed alongside the tekiya in the early 18th century and borrowed its codes, values, and organization, rather than the other way around. They share many cultural and ritualistic traits, such as the exchange of cups of sake.
Both the tekiya and the yakuza recruited their members from the same social strata. Until a few decades ago, the underworld, like the tekiya milieu, welcomed members regardless of their social background.
However, there are not only similarities; their sociolects, their sales pitches, and even their professional deities differ. Also, unlike the yakuza, the tekiya organized themselves into unions and associations very early on, with the first dating back to 1736.
Although they are to be considered two distinct groups, these two social bodies remain close. In his 2021 book, Philippe Pelletier points out that until 1945, the two groups evolved independently, one preferring the black market, the other outdoor stalls.
Containing or Eradicating Gangs
While Japan previously focused on containing gangs, the country now seeks to eradicate them. We have seen that legal texts have had repercussions on tekiya groups, which are now required to define their activities and ensure their legality. Their organization, however, has not fundamentally changed; they are still organized according to a model of fictitious kinship.
On the other hand, their relationships with shopkeepers and shrines, although already existing, have strengthened so that everyone can find advantages and benefit from the economic spin-offs. The case of Hyōgo Prefecture is, in this respect, a striking example, though one that has not been explored in depth.
It was the first and only prefecture in the country to propose delegating the organization of festivals to committees, allowing local institutions to reclaim ownership of the matsuri (festivals). Initially, the goal was to make these experiments a model that would then be implemented throughout the prefecture, and eventually the entire country.
To date, however, this has not been the case, and the committees in Kobe and Nishinomiya remain isolated instances. In 2013, while the police were communicating about the case, press articles reporting on it were published. Almost all of them ended with recommendations or advice of this kind: “The most important thing is to completely eliminate the gang context and create a space where the tekiya can conduct their business in peace. »
The tekiya contribute to maintaining this confusion with the yakuza in the eyes of the general public. While legislative rules erect barriers between them and the mafia, they continue to play on their reputation as petty criminals, do not deny the rumors, and cultivate this ambivalence.
The law, in digital format, is available at the following address: www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/ja/laws/view3830
