• aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    In Japan, some Yakuza gangs opened a restaurant as a front for their crimes. In recent years, it’s become harder to operate as a criminal organization and a lot of families just gave up doing crime and now run their restaurants full time.

    • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      In Denver, there used to be a food court (on the lower level of Republic Plaza, for any interested locals) that had a Japanese place and a Chinese place. The Chinese place had a line that would stretch around most of the food court, where the Japanese place had almost no customers. The owner of the Japanese place would just stand there and glower at the line.

      I’m guessing the Chinese place probably served a few hundred people during a typical lunch rush, where the Japanese place might have served like 3 or 4. I’m still convinced there’s no way the Japanese place was able to stay open that long without being some sort of front. Why the Yakuza would have a front in Denver is beyond me, but I don’t see how they could’ve stayed open otherwise.