I made the 3D map of the Yakuza in Japan. In this map, the symbols stand on the location of the main offices, and grow up to the height according to the number of their members.

The yakuza groups:

You would be surprised by the fact: Yakuza is not illegal in Japan. Rather, the Japanese police designates the yakuza group, and announces the address of the offices to the public.

That’s why I can make the map with location, symbols, members by the official data. You can also search the locations on Google maps with the data I put below.

Anyway.

Yamaguchi-Gumi holds dominant members among the Yakuza, about three times as many as the second largest group. The biggest syndicate sits in Kobe city.

The second and third biggest groups, Sumiyoshi-Kai and Inagawa-Kai live in around Tokyo area.

Kudo-Kai, which has its turf in Fukuoka, is regarded the most fierce group, although it has tiny members.

Data visualization elements:

Symbols are png images with transparent parts taken from wikipedia. I should admit that the visibility is not good. I could use tooltip line to move symbols into other spaces, but I thought stacking icon on the place is more direct visualization of coordinates.

The tooltip has glass material. I think it’s good setting for 3D data visualization because glass allows us to see background and text at the same time.

The color is too bright to show such a underground topic. I like the below sea material. But it seems a little bit noisy. I think it’s a long-standing conflict between clarity and expression.

Interpretation of the data:

The not linear distribution in number among the group is perhaps the consequence of Zipf’s law, or long tail. Under the law, the small top group gain huge value of something, but as the rank go down, the value run short very soon.

The distribution can be found in many areas such as appearance frequency of words in a literature, income of world’s top 3%, population of cities. or web page access.

What makes the Yakuza converge at top three groups? Maybe the criminal organizations are taking benefits from its scale through corruption of politics and the police.

And for thugs, they can use the baddest reputations, like “I’m a Yamaguchi-Gumi” to make a threat. In fact, in the Yakuza, members must pay to the organization monthly.

It is like franchise management that a store owner pays money to the headquarter to use the franchising name.

Behind the scenes:

The map below is the bone of the 3D map, made by D3.js. The map has the geography of Japan and prop lines of symbols. I exported the image as svg, and imported the svg as curve in Blender to make 3D map.

The below is a snapshot of the process in Blender.

Data:

Data source:

THE WHITE PAPER on POLICE 2010, Chapter II. Promotion of Measures against Organized Crimes, Table 2-1 List of Designated Boryokudans（22 Organizations

English version:

csv format data.

Yakuza Group Representative(Including second-in-command) Approximate number of members Location of Main Office latitude longitude Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi Kenichi Shinoda 19000 4-3-1 Shinohara-honmachi, Nada-ku, Kobe City, Hyogo 34.7200220 135.2264577 Inagawa-kai Sin Byon-Gyu 4700 7-8-4 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 35.6651999 139.7295315 Sumiyoshi-kai Shigeo Nishiguchi 6100 6-4-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 35.6707300 139.7349920 Fourth Kudo-kai Satoru Nomura 690 1-1-12 Kantake, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka 33.8727382 130.8903182 Third Kyokuryu-kai Yoshihiro Onaga 270 4-301-6 Shuri Ishimine-cho, Naha City, Okinawa 26.2351148 127.7300069 Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai Kiyoshi Tominaga 370 2-6-19 Tsuji, Naha City, Okinawa 26.2169979 127.6714126 Sixth Aisukotetsu-kai Yoshitsugu Baba 470 176-1 Higashi-tagasegawa-suji, Uenokuchi-agaru Iwataki-cho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto 34.9930830 135.7657780 Fifth Kyosei-kai Atsumu Moriya 290 18-10 Minami-oko-cho, Minami-ku, Hiroshima City, Hiroshima 34.3709662 132.4848377 Seventh Goda-ikka Kim Kyo-Hwan 160 3-13-6 Takezaki-cho, Shimonoseki City, Y a ma guc hi 33.9518921 130.9213914 Fourth Kozakura-ikka Kiei Hiraoka 100 9-1 Kotsuki-cho, Kagoshima City, Kagoshima 31.5810332 130.5582189 Third Asano-gumi Yoshiaki Kushita 130 615-11, Kasaoka, Kasaoka City, Okayama 34.5006165 133.5093465 Dojin-kai Tetsuji Kobayashi 840 247-6 Kyo-machi, Kurume City, Fukuoka 33.3189308 130.4992328 Second Shinwa-kai Hirofumi Kira 70 2-14-4 Shiogami-cho, Takamatsu City, Kagawa 34.3379260 134.0560090 Soai-kai Masanori Shioshima 230 1343-8 Uruido, Ichihara City, Chiba 35.5227610 140.1675190 Third Kyodo-kai Nozomu Watanabe 180 3025-1 sanba-cho, Onomichi City, Hiroshima 34.4258890 133.2291940 Taishu-kai Hiroshi Hidaka 170 1314-1 Ugeta, Oaza, Tgawa-city, Fukuoka 33.6335140 130.7842800 Seventh Sakaume-gumi Nam Yeoil 110 1-3-17 Taishi, Nishinari-ku, Osaka-City, Osaka 34.6484651 135.5037524 Kyokuto-kai Jo Gyu Hwa 1200 1-29-5 Nishi-ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 35.7322141 139.7110941 Second Azuma-gumi Hiroshi Takimoto 170 1-11-8 Sanno, Nishi-nari-ku, 34.6470736 135.5064078 Matsuba-kai Yoshiro Ogino 1200 2-9-8 Nishi-asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo 35.7128685 139.7902670 Third Fukuhaku-kai Kim In Sun 300 5-18-15 Chiyo, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka 33.6085946 130.4119253 Kyushu Seido-kai Park Jeong Ho 380 2-4-2 Jyokan-cho, Omuta City, Fukuoka 33.0251767 130.4518459

Japanese version:

csv format data.

暴力団 代表者( 代 表 す る 者 に 代 わ る べ き 者 を 含 む 。) 主たる事務所の所在地 六代目山口組 篠田 建市 兵庫県神戸市灘区篠原本町 4-3-1 稲川会 辛 炳圭 東京都港区六本木 7-8-4 住吉会 西口 茂男 東京都港区赤坂 6-4-21 四代目工藤會 野村 悟 福岡県北九州市小倉北区神岳1-1-12 三代目旭琉会 翁長 良宏 沖縄県那覇市首里石嶺町 4-301-6 沖縄旭琉会 富永 清 沖縄県那覇市辻 2-6-19 六代目会津小鉄会 馬場 美次 京都府京都市下京区東高瀬川筋上ノ口上る岩滝町176-1 五代目共政会 守屋 輯 広島県広島市南区南大河町 18-10 七代目合田一家 金 教煥 山口県下関市竹崎町 3-13-6 四代目小桜一家 平岡 喜榮 鹿児島県鹿児島市甲突町 9-1 三代目浅野組 串田 芳明 岡山県笠岡市笠岡 615-11 道仁会 小林 哲治 福岡県久留米市京町 247-6 二代目親和会 吉良 博文 香川県高松市塩上町 2-14-4 双愛会 塩島 正則 千葉県市原市潤井戸1343-8 三代目俠道会 渡邉 望 広島県尾道市山波町 3025-1 太州会 日高 博 福岡県田川市大字弓削田 1314-1 七代目酒梅組 南 與一 大阪府大阪市西成区太子1-3-17 極東会 曺 圭化 東京都豊島区西池袋 1-29-5 二代目東組 滝本 博司 大阪府大阪市西成区山王1-11-8 松葉会 荻野 義朗 東京都台東区西浅草 2-9-8 三代目福博会 金 寅純 福岡県福岡市博多区千代 5-18-15 九州誠道会 朴 政浩 福岡県大牟田市上官町 2-4-2



