The Yakuza, Japan's organised crime syndicates, are a dying breed. Their members are aging and the government of Japan has launched a large-scale crackdown on them to eradicate them once and for all. But who are the Yakuza? The cancer of a nation or a necessary evil in a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the industrialised world? Undoubtedly the Yakuza are involved in crimes including extortion, fraud, murder, drugs and gambling. However, Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the industrialised world, with crimes related to drugs - officially against the Yakuza code of honour - or street gangs strikingly low, a fact that many contribute to the presence of the Yakuza. Deeply rooted in Japanese society, they are seen as a necessary evil and 'problem solvers'. They have been around since the 1700s and were said to protect the weak from the strong, following a rigorous code of honour.