The Reality of Mikajime Fees: The Shadow of the City and the Backside of the Economy: The End of the 1990s

The Reality of Mikajime Fees: The Shadow of the City and the Backside of the Economy: The End of the 1990s

The origins of the mikajime fee can be traced back to the postwar turmoil, when the yakuza took money from street vendors and restaurants under the guise of maintaining order. The yakuza eventually absorbed this system and institutionalized it as "bouncer fee" and "guardian fee. During the period of rapid economic growth, the system changed from a symbol of violence to a business practice, and the yakuza collected money as "security keepers" in the community. In the 1990s, when the Anti-Riot Law was enacted, the name of the fee was changed to "cooperation fee" or "event fee," and the yakuza skillfully slipped through the net of the law. In rural areas, it was considered more advantageous to circulate funds in a natural way, using "mutual aid societies" or "yorimoko koso" (mutual aid societies). When financial instability became a reality with the bursting of the bubble economy, the mikajime fee survived again as a kind of fee for fundraising. Violence may have lurked in the s
hadows, but the structure of control and dependence did not disappear, and it persisted as a secret contract between power and the economy on the other side of the city.