[Sangetsu]

The Emperor is a figurehead whom everyone respects, but he has no real "power". The Yakuza are uneducated dropouts who hate the police, and living under the rule of law, but who try to justify their obnoxious behavior by driving around even more obnoxious speaker trucks squawking out nationalistic trash at maximum volume.

In the real world the Yakuza do the usual nonsense, like loan-sharking, gambling, drugs, prostitution, drug-dealing, and money laundering. They are the slime at the bottom of Japanese society. Many of them affect being "loyal" to the Emperor (such as saluting at the Emperor's car when it goes by), but the Emperor would degrade himself if he ever exchanged words with a gangster.

Many of the yaks blame modern Japanese society for making them the way they are, and they mistakenly believe that returning to the old Imperial system would somehow make things better for them and the country. I guess they don't remember that they were more severely depressed under the old system than they are now.

The cops do not "wear kid gloves" when dealing with the Yakuza. Japanese police may look weak and stupid when you see them sitting in the koban filling out forms or reading the newspaper, but they have far stronger powers than western police. Yaks who have been picked up by the police often look like they've taken a fall down a flight of stairs, but of course the police can hold them without charge long enough for the bruises to heal.

There is no "mystique" to being a gangster, they are simply losers who can't compete honestly in life.