How to Use yakuza in a Sentence

yakuza

noun

• And the idea that yakuza were on the side of the common man was rarely anything more than a pretense.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• The decades after Japan’s defeat were a golden age for the yakuza.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• In real life, the yakuza gangs were not always so xenophobic.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• Over the past century, the yakuza and the cinema that helped shape their self-image have been tightly linked.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• Did Adelstein, for instance, really use aikido skills to beat up a huge yakuza bouncer?
  — Gavin J Blair, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Apr. 2022
• The firm’s leader promises to help clear his name and help his mentor win a power struggle within his Tokyo yakuza clan.
  — Gieson Cacho, The Mercury News, 1 Feb. 2017
• The moral distinctions among mainstream business, the yakuza gangs, and the police were often blurry.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• Ishii’s tactic, in these situations, is to apply a temporary tattoo to his neck and dress like a yakuza.
  — Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 23 Apr. 2018
• What could the antiwar students possibly have had in common with an anachronistic yakuza hero?
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• Sold to a yakuza clan to work off her ne’er-do-well father’s debts, she’s been locked away and forced into drug addiction and prostitution.
  — Los Angeles Times, 26 Sep. 2019
• The team comes up with scenarios in which Emi fights a mech or battles yakuza in the clouds, and the fights defy expectations.
  — Gieson Cacho, Mercury News, 21 Aug. 2026
• Their mission pairs them with an eccentric yakuza boss (Kitano) who leads them deep into the underworld.
  — Sara Aridi, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2020
• Like a yakuza, a police officer, or the Japan Self-Defense Force.
  — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 25 Sep. 2025
• But after Kikuo’s father, a yakuza crime boss, is murdered, Hanjiro takes the grieving teen under his wing.
  — Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2026
• But when one of his subscribers (Mizuhara) lures him to Japan to sell the rare jeans, he gets tangled in a love triangle and runs afoul of the yakuza.
  — Angelique Jackson, Variety, 9 Sep. 2026
• To avenge an injustice and restore honor, a good yakuza, like Ken-san, would set off alone for a suicidal last stand against his wicked rivals.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• At the same time, politicians and business leaders still employed yakuza for various tasks in mid-century Japan.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• Meanwhile, a deviant killer operating in the yakuza underworld seems to be shadowing their moves.
  — Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 1 Jan. 2026
• Nick is so readily accepted into the yakuza's ranks that there's little dramatic tension.
  — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Mar. 2018
• In the 1964 Olympics, Tokyo shooed away its organized criminals, or yakuza.
  — The Christian Science Monitor, 13 June 2018
• The yakuza, in particular, are rarely presented in any realistic way.
  — Mikey O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Feb. 2024
• No longer confined to gambling dens and brothel districts, yakuza muscled their way into other businesses, some legal, some not.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• When democratic activists demanded greater civil rights in the late nineteenth century, some yakuza came out to guard their rallies.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• This is because the yakuza, or the mob, is known for amputating fingers (although usually pinkies) as punishment.
  — Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post, 14 May 2023
• Love Hotel chronicles the encounter of a call girl and a married man with a debt to the yakuza who have a violent rendezvous in a cheap love hotel.
  — Zac Ntim, Deadline, 4 Feb. 2025
• Lapses in yakuza discipline were atoned for by offering the offended party one of the offender’s fingers, wrapped in silk cloth.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• The yakuza movies of the nineteen-sixties have more in common with classic Westerns than with American gangster flicks.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• Rick has made enemies of a different yakuza clan, and by interfering with their hit on him, Pearl might just have ignited a deadly gang war.
  — Jennifer Maas, Variety, 27 Feb. 2024
• The late nineteen-forties provided another favorite setting for classic yakuza films.
  — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
• Actually, Sato is not always safe in his yakuza family, Chihara-Kai.
  — Demetrius Patterson, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Apr. 2024