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Context: two yakuza men found out that Azami, a man that owed them money, committed suicide. Then, one says to the other:

おい、芥生【あざみ】のこと会社に連絡しろ

Does 会社 have a particular meaning here? Or do they simply consider their gang as a company? How could it be translated? Thank you for your help!

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  • I am not sure if it has a different meaning in this context but... In Japan, Yakuza groups are registered as official companies. The government knows where they are, who there are and accept their "business" as a normal company... Yes... it is messed up. They only get arrested if they seriously step out of line.
    – stack reader
    Mar 22, 2017 at 1:37
  • @stackreader AFAIK yakuza organizations themselves are not official companies of any kind, although they often secretly run some official companies.
    – naruto
    Mar 22, 2017 at 2:21
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    @naruto I see articles like that all the time. economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/09/…
    – stack reader
    Mar 22, 2017 at 2:34
  • That article is not saying Sumiyoshi-kai and Yamaguchi-gumi themselves are officially registered legal bodies. It's just saying they are "not technically illegal". Technically, they are just private organizations without any state as a legal body, and it's hard to entirely ban people form forming a group (presumably because there's the freedom of association). Of course yakuza is nothing but illegal in the common perception of Japanese people.
    – naruto
    Mar 22, 2017 at 2:48

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Modern yakuza organizations tend to camouflage themselves using common terms used by normal companies and NPOs. The name of such an organization itself can be camouflage. ～組 is the traditional naming convention which is strongly associated with yakuza (and construction companies), but some use confusing names like ～興業. From Wikipedia:

創設者の姓名や拠点とする地名、「任」「侠」等のスローガンとなる漢字を用いた文字などに「組」、「会」、「一家」、「連合」、「連合会」などを添えた団体名を名乗る場合が多い。他に暴力団ではなく一般企業であることを強調したい場合に「興業」、「総業」、「企画」、「商事」が用いられる（もちろんこれらの屋号を使う社が全てそうだというわけではなく、暴力団組織が一般企業を装って活動するための、言わば「隠れ蓑」）。

The heads of yakuza organizations used to be called 頭領 or 親分, but in some organizations it's now 組長, 総長 or even 会長. 会長 (≒"chairman") is the word used by most large Japanese companies including Toyota and Sony. So I won't be surprised if a yakuza member calls his organization 会社, although I don't know how common it is. Anyway, this does not mean he believes his organization is a proper company.

In addition, some (most?) yakuza organizations run real companies to make money, legally or illegally. So he may be referring to such a real company.

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