Japan’s been beset by a new type of criminal that operates online, using vulnerable and desperate people to do their dirty work. Now comes a report that some of these enterprises are targeting Japan’s old-school criminals for fun and profit.
“Grab 100 million yen”
The report comes from a case in the city of Karatsu in Saga Prefecture, located in the northwest of Kyushu. The 20-year-old defendant describes how he met his “boss.” The former construction worker says a friend introduced him to the man for “dark part-time” work (闇バイト; yami-baito), a system in which criminals recruit people desperate for money to commit crimes on their behalf in exchange for a healthy payout.
Much dark part-time work operates online with social media posts promising easy money. In the past, crimes have mostly centered around running financial scams against the elderly. However, yami-baito workers are increasingly being used by crooks for violent break-ins, such as the bold daylight robbery of a luxury watch store in Ginza.
In the Karatsu case, the young man’s boss had a particularly interesting target: a house belonging to someone connected to the yakuza, Japan’s infamous organized crime syndicates.
“Bring me 100 million yen [$700K],” the man’s recruiter told him. The theory was that, since yakuza can’t keep their money in banks, there was likely a large stash of cash in the house. He gave him a mask as well as a pair of headphones to receive orders during the heist.
According to the man’s court testimony, he broke into the home where he found a 60-year-old woman living. On orders, he started strangling her to incapacitate her, then bound her and demanded to know where the money was.
The criminals didn’t get the huge payout they’d hoped for. The 20-year-old made off with five million yen ($35K) from a money counting machine, of which the robber got 20%, or one million yen (7K). The man managed to avoid police for a full week before he was caught in Kagoshima Prefecture.
As the yakuza wane, dark part-time work rises
While the yakuza used to reign over Japan’s criminal underworld, their presence is dwindling. That’s largely the result of “yakuza exclusion ordinances” that forbid organized crime members from doing everything from renting an apartment to obtaining a subway card. In 2023, for example, police prosecuted a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate on charges that he had illegally obtained supermarket point and ETC toll payment cards.
In recent years, the gap left by the yakuza has been filled by different types of criminals, such as the hangure. Many criminals are also learning the benefits of leveraging the dark part-time economy to commit crimes in Japan. Some organizations, like the infamous “Luffy” gang, run their operations from overseas in order to avoid discovery and arrest.
Young people, foreign residents, and others desperate for money turn to yami-baito to make a quick buck. Once in, the criminals take their IDs and use threats and coercion to keep them embroiled in a life of crime.
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Sources
「やくざの家、1億円取って来い」闇バイト指示内容明らかに 唐津市・暴力団関係者宅の強盗事件. Saga Shimbun
唐津市・暴力団関係者宅の強盗事件 「闇バイト」で実行役に 被告、起訴内容認める 佐賀地裁で初公判. Saga Shimbun
6代目山口組の最高幹部らも「スーパーのポイントカード」「ETCカード」の詐欺容疑で逮捕される時代に. Daily Shincho
