Japan's mobsters publish their own 'staff magazine'

Japan's biggest yakuza, or organised crime group, has published a magazine for its members that includes a poetry page and senior gangsters' fishing diaries.

The eight-page publication has been distributed among the Yamaguchi-gumi, a sprawling syndicate believed to have about 27700 members, in a bid to strengthen unity in the group, the daily Sankei Shimbun reported.

The front page of the Yamaguchi-gumi Shinpo (newsletter) carries a first-person piece by the group's don, Kenichi Shinoda, in which he instructs younger members in the values and disciplines they should observe, the Sankei said.

Shinoda writes that times have become hard for Japan's mafia and that they can no longer rely on their "brand" to generate profitability in their operations, the Mainichi Shimbun said.

The magazine, which is not being made publicly available, has an entertainment section detailing fishing trips by top mob officials, along with satirical haiku - a traditional form of Japanese poetry - and pieces on the board games go and shogi, the reports said.

"They may feel that it has become harder to carry on with their activities under anti-mafia ordinances that bar them from opening bank accounts and signing real-estate contracts," a police source was quoted by the Mainichi as saying.

The number of yakuza members has declined in recent years, standing at 63200 in late 2012, according to the National Police Agency.

The Yamaguchi-gumi accounts for more than 40% of the nation's mob-affiliated criminals, but it lost 3300 members in 2012, the agency said.

Like the Italian mafia or Chinese triads, the yakuza's activities include gambling, drugs, and prostitution, loan-sharking, protection rackets and white-collar crime.