Article. Published in the collection: Criminological journal of Baikal State University of Economics and Law. - 2013 - No 3 (25). - C. 159-164. The article discusses the current trends of organized crime in Japan. It is shown that organized crime in Japan is a specific criminological phenomenon, the formation and development of which differs from the processes of crime development in other industrialized countries. Particular attention is paid to the establishment of specific features of organized crime at the present stage of state development. Revealed the legal nature of the emergence of organized crime in the middle of the XVII century ; reflects the characteristics of three groups of semi-criminal and criminal communities; provides evidence that the yakuza is actively involved in the system of transnational crime.