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JEOC is a project that aims to investigate what happens when a mafia ‘dies’, in order to identify the criminogenic effects resulting from the power vacuum left by a diminished mafia. 

This research focuses on emergent forms of crime in Japan and Italy: whereas mafias still hold a degree of power in Italy, Japan can be considered as the next stage in the ongoing state struggle against autochthonous mafias, where their power has begun to steadily decline.

The comparison between Japan and Italy provides a comparative understanding of the impact of anti-mafia regulations and the long-term results of seemingly successful policies. Japan and Italy are particularly suited for comparison because of the presence of long-standing mafia groups, but they also present a series of historical, institutional, political, and economic parallelisms. Most notably, both anti-yakuza and mafia regulations were implemented in the early 1990s after an escalation in violence, along-standing economic stagnation has hit both countries, and both Italian and, more conspicuously, Japanese mafia groups appear to have weakened with the concurrent emergence of forms of crime that elude their monopolistic tendencies.