Gifu (Japan) (AFP) — A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few women yakuza. But after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society.

The multi-billion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade.

In recent years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and anti-mafia laws are tightened.

An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records began in 1958.

Heavily inked with dragon and tiger tattoos, 58-year-old Nishimura navigated the yakuza’s patriarchal hierarchy — where brute fo

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