Yoshitomo Morohashi is every inch the lawyer, from his three-piece suit and designer glasses to the sunflower lapel badge identifying him as a member of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.

Then, with little encouragement, he removes his shirt and turns away to reveal a tattoo of an ancient warrior, a samurai sword clenched between his teeth, covering his entire back.

Morohashi’s readiness to expose his body art is relatively recent: there was a time when he did everything possible to conceal it and the dark past it represented.

His life story is an extreme example of poacher-turned-gamekeeper. For more than two decades, Morohashi lived a life of crime as a member of a yakuza organisation before he addressed his drug addiction, with a mental health crisis on a busy Tokyo street setting him on a path of professional and personal redemption.

“The thing is, I had a very happy, normal childhood,” Morohashi says in an interview at his office in Tokyo. “I was a very good student and always came top of my class, but I found it hard to settle … I was disruptive and drove my teachers crazy.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/27/yakuza-gangster-to-lawyer-yoshitomo-morohashi