Read this…

Because perhaps hundreds of Japanese Yakuza gangsters are nearing retirement age, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has drafted rules for the former gambling, loan shark, and protection workers to qualify for benefits, according to a March dispatch from Tokyo in The Times of London. Since organized crime leaves no employment paper trail, ex-mobsters must supply a letter of retirement from their crime boss in order to sign up, although local governments are expected to accept as partial proof gang tattoos, criminal records, demonstrations of missing finger tips (the sign of traditional Yakuza punishment for mistakes).[The Times (London), 3-3-06]

http://www.militantplatypus.com/blog/

Now, one thing that I just cannot stand anymore, it’s the fact that so many people make excuses for everyone’s bad behavior (to put it lightly)…we make social excuses for morally repressible behavior. This article (if it’s true) is now a state sanctioned version of that “oh its not his fault” attitude that allows people to continue to get away with committing crimes.