JAPAN: YAKUZA

Independent: Out of the shadows
Despite a police crackdown, traditional, tattoo-covered organised criminals still wield extraordinary power in Japan. In a rare encounter, a high-ranking gang member tells David McNeill why his country needs the Yakuza

If you bumped into Mitsunori Agata on the street, you might mistake him for a retired civil servant. From his neatly trimmed silver hair to his sensible shoes, little marks him as out of the ordinary except a certain hardness lurking behind the crinkly pensioner's eyes.

But here in his office in Kabukicho, in the licentious pink heart of Tokyo's vice trade, it's clear that Agata is a Very Important Person. The evidence is in the many photos around the room of Agata bonding with flinty-faced men in expensive suits. Or the way his male assistant approaches and retreats on his knees, his shaven head almost touching the floor.