Thread:Univero/@comment-24166893-20190726015356/@comment-24166893-20190726032934

It's why I called it trivia. Which is historical fact and what the current situation is in the real world. In Cyberpunk lore, in the year 2020 the most powerful nation megacorp is Japanese and the megacorps are mostly Japanese, American, and European. Japan is one of the most powerful nations in the world, with the European Union being number one. The Yakuza is a global mafia and one of the most powerful mafias in the world, if not the most powerful in the world. The Triads are one of the big 3, and control organized crime in China and dominate in Southeast Asia. The Mafia is a criminal power in Europe and is number one in the United States. The Russian Mafiya controls organized crime in the former Soviet Union and is a power in Europe.

In the real world, Japan is not a great power. The United States is still number one and in second place is China which is threatening to dislodge us from our position as top dog. The European Union is not considered a great power by anyone, and gets no respect from either Moscow, Beijing, Washington DC (under Trump), Ankara, or Tehran. When it comes to the corporate world, a good number of Japanese corporation still are in the top tier but they are players in few of the new cutting edge industries and in few strategic industries. Likewise a good number of European corporations are found in the top tier but few are players in the aforementioned sectors. It's American corporations which are the most numerous in the top tier and it's the Chinese corporations who are rising fastest and displacing other corporations in the top tier. When it comes to strategic industries and those of the future, it's mostly American and inceasingly Chinese corporations that are the players.

In the real world, the Italian mobs are still a criminal superpower in Europe but in the United States, they dominate only in NY City. The Yakuza rules in Japan but nowhere else, and focuses on bringing girls and product into Japan from elsewhere. The Russian Mafiya dominates in the former Soviet Union and is a criminal power in Europe.  Within the United States, it's the Latino underworld that dominates. With Mexican cartels at the top of the American undeworld, as they control the drug trade and U.S.-Mexico border smuggling (and also control organized crime within Mexico, dominate the upper tier of the underworld in Central America, and whose influence reaches across the  coca-producing Andes in South America). It's the Chicano (Mexican-American) prison gangs who dominate the prison systems of California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, work with the Mexican Cartels in the drug trade, and control the Hispanic street gangs in those states. It's the Chicano, Mexican, and Puerto Rican street gangs that dominate the streets of those four states plus Chicago and various smaller cities in other states in the West.

The Chinese Mafia (including the Triads of Hong Kong) controls the underworld in China and Hong Kong, dominates in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, and has operations in both North & South America, Australia, East and Southern Africa, Europe, and Siberia.  As I mentioned earlier they dominate environmental crime (illegal fishing fleets, illegal lumber, ivory, animals, etc), the counterfeit goods trade (electronics, clothing, pharmaceuticals, etc), and the illegal sportsbetting racket (soccer - World Cup, professional, etc).  Counterfeit goods and betting in soccer are each worth several hundred billion a year, and the Chinese syndicates control most of the aforementioned. They also control the drug trade in Southeast Asia, worth tens of billions a year.