Photographer Chloé Jafé’s new series lends a voice to the notoriously closed subculture of women associated with the Yakuza.
The underworld infamy of organised crime has long been romanticised in pop culture. On the silver screen, cult classics like The Godfather or Goodfellas have shaped the public’s perceptions of what being a mobster means. In 2015, Netflix’s Narcos shifted the focus towards Colombia’s criminal organisations through the story of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
In Japan, organised crime syndicates are deeply embedded in the country’s business affairs and culture. However, stories about the women – the wives, daughters, mistresses, and bar hostesses – that orbit around the criminal activities of the male gangsters are rarely heard of.
- Dazed
