Crime · Japan
Shitei bōryokudan
In plain English
A formal designation applied to a named group by a Prefectural Public Safety Commission under the Bōtaihō. Designation does not ban the group or make membership an offence. It unlocks administrative powers against it — cease-and-desist orders, exclusion from contracts and premises, and liability provisions reaching the leadership. A designation is valid for three years; the Act provides no renewal mechanism, so on expiry the commission makes a fresh designation.
Register
Administrative designation. An act performed under a statute, applied to a named group.
The instrument
暴力団対策法
Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Bōryokudan Members
Art. 3 (designation by 都道府県公安委員会); Art. 8(1) — 指定は、三年間その効力を有する
Escalated categories carry 等 in their statutory names: 特定抗争指定暴力団等 (Art. 15-2, up to three months, extendable) and 特定危険指定暴力団等 (Art. 30-8, up to one year, extendable). Within the designated 警戒区域 the listed acts become directly criminal WITHOUT a prior order — the ordinary route requires a cease-and-desist order first.
Literally
Designated violence group.
What English gets wrong
Reporting designation as "outlawing" or "proscribing" a group. It does neither — the organisation continues to exist lawfully, and no offence of membership exists anywhere in the Act: the penalties attach to breaching an order, not to belonging. Also: describing the three-year term as "renewable", which implies a mechanism the statute does not contain.
What to write instead
designated bōryokudan. Where a group carries one of the escalated designations, name it specifically rather than flattening it.
Related
- Bōryokudan — 暴力団
Sources
- Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Bōryokudan Members
- Prefectural police and 暴力追放運動推進センター designation notices