This is not the way organized crime works in Japan! The 
Yakuza are usually left alone by the police if they do not hassle ordinary 
citizens so they do not hassle ordinary citizens. In fact many Yakuza gangs 
see it as their responsibility to help protect ordinary citizens and would 
not be tolerant of a man or orginazation that commited crime like this. Most 
Yakuza only bride/blackmail politicians and other upper level government and 
buisness offcials. The crimes they do on the street level are prostitution 
rings and loan sharking. They would never harass an ordinary store owner for 
money if they did they would be considered disgraced and dishonored

You make an interesting point.  Didn't occur to me when I
first read this one over.

One way to solve this might be to portray the criminals in question as
foreign imports of some sort.  It would probably be a bit too silly to 
make them American, but perhaps they could be Chinese Triad?  If
they've fled Hong Kong after the recent takeover by Chinese government
and are looking for new territory in which to operate, that might 
explain it.  It doesn't have to be a probable scenario, just a remotely
plausible one.

That would also give the criminals a strong martial arts angle.  The
Triads are known for their martial artists, since they were originally
a rebellion of Shaolin monk refugees (from what I understand, anyway).
I'm pretty sure the Triad gangs are less scrupulous than the Japanese
Yakuza you describe.  

Does this seem like a reasonable angle?

Grayson Towler
grayson@rigroup.net
http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless