Anti-Yakuza Laws Begin to Bite III- Famous Temple Bans Yakuza, Police Anti Mob Squad joins Olympus Investigation

Enryakuji Temple, one of Japan's most prestigious temples near the ancient capital Kyoto, has refused to allow members of Japan's biggest organized crime syndicate to pay their respects there, an official said on Saturday.

The temple's refusal follows a request from police, who are cracking down on yakuza gangsters nationwide. News of the temple's refusal was reported widely by Japanese media amid speculation that organized crime was somehow involved in an accounting scandal at Japan's disgraced Olympus.

Members of Yamaguchi gumi group have made annual visits to the temple each August. In June, the temple in the Shiga prefecture of eastern Japan told the group they would not be welcome this year, said an official from the temple.

The Enryakuji temple keeps spiritual tablets from Yamaguchi gumi's late leaders, the official said. The tablets are wooden bars on which the Buddhist names of sick members are printed and are used for memorial services.

"We allowed them to visit the temple because we wanted to give family members ... an opportunity to pay a visit," said the official, who asked not to be named. "But in the past four years we have only seen the group members visiting, which is different from the original purpose," he said.

The temple also wanted to cooperate with police in cracking down on organized crime groups, he said.
Japanese authorities are investigating Olympus after the maker of cameras and endoscopes admitted it hid investment losses for decades using funds from acquisition deals.

A unit from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's organized crime division has joined the investigation, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Links between companies, "yakuza" gangsters and politicians have a long tradition in Japan. Authorities have been trying to crack down for decades, most recently with laws targeting not only crime syndicates but firms that do business with them.

A 2010 report by the National Police Agency listed 22 designated crime syndicates, complete with their logos and the addresses of their headquarters.

Full and "associate" members totaled 80,900, down from 88,600 in 1990, of which almost half were members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, which is based in Kobe in western Japan.


http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111119/wl_nm/us_japan_temple