TOKYO (AP) Japan must dramatically toughen its laws to uproot the powerful
gangs behind the country's growing drug trade, a top U.N. anti-crime
official said Thursday.

Some 81,000 gangsters, known as "yakuza," operate in Japan, running
drug-trafficking, gun-smuggling, prostitution and illegal real estate
dealings.

"Japan has one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world and
an absolutely inadequate judicial structure to fight it," said Pino
Arlacchi, executive director for the U.N. drug control and crime prevention
office.

The gangsters are Japan's main source of amphetamines, said Arlacchi, who
was in Tokyo for a government-sponsored conference to fight drug-trafficking
in Asia.

About 2.8 million Japanese use amphetamines, imported mainly from China, and
the drug is growing in popularity among the young.

To stem the rise in substance abuse, Japan must stop the criminals who
distribute the drugs, Arlacchi said.

Arlacchi urged the government to pass laws that allow for easier
confiscation of criminal assets and to also set up an agency to investigate
money-laundering. He also called for a program to protect gang members who
become informants for the authorities.

In 1992, Japan adopted a sweeping set of anti-organized crime laws which
gave police greater power to act against groups designated as crime
syndicates.

But the "big three" syndicates the Yamaguchi-gumi, Inagawa-kai and
Sumiyoshi-kai continue to thrive.