CrimCross · How do criminals communicate and organise across cultures?

The repression of organised criminal groups (OCGs) in a country can lead to a paradoxical outcome: their expansion abroad. In Japan, intensified actions against the yakuza, Japan's OCGs, over the past fifteen years have resulted not only in a reduction of formal membership, but also in a strategic exploration of opportunities beyond national borders. The yakuza's established trade networks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China are well-documented, and recent reports indicate the emergence of branch offices in various East and Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, suggesting that they are becoming entrenched with local environments.While scholarship has examined why OCGs move, there is a lack of understanding of how they move: how they form the connections with other OCGs, how they manage to communicate successfully across cultures, why they fail. This research project, CrimCross, aims to bridge the gap in understanding how OCGs overcome cultural and language barriers in foreign territories. It will investigate the strategies employed by OCGs as they expand their operations internationally: how they approach socio-cultural contexts, linguistic challenges, and new legal landscapes when communicating with foreign OCGs. Focusing specifically on the yakuza, the project will examine their interactions in East Asia (South Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) and Southeast Asia (Thailand) to measure how adaptability plays a role in the penetration of OCGs in a local environment. By analysing three levels of interaction - culture, language, and law - CrimCross will not only contribute to theoretical discourses on OCG movement and communication, but will also offer valuable insights into the under-explored Asian criminal markets, and practical implications for policy development to mitigate the infiltration of OCGs into foreign territories.