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Yakuza

, also known as, are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and (by request of the police) media call them, while the yakuza call themselves. The English equivalent for the term yakuza is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization.

The yakuza are known for their strict codes of conduct, their organized fiefdom nature, and several unconventional ritual practices such as yubitsume, or amputation of the left little finger. Members are often portrayed as males with heavily tattooed bodies and wearing fundoshi, sometimes with a kimono or, in more recent years, a Western-style "sharp" suit covering them. At their height, the yakuza maintained a large presence in the Japanese media, and they also operated internationally. In 1963, the number of yakuza members and quasi-members reached a peak of 184,100. However, this number has drastically dropped, a decline attributed to changing market opportunities and several legal and social developments in Japan that discourage the growth of yakuza membership. In 1991 it had 63,800 members and 27,200 quasi-members, but by 2023 it had only 10,400 members and 10,000 quasi-members. The yakuza are aging because young people do not readily join, and their average age at the end of 2022 was 54.2 years: 5.4% in their 20s, 12.9% in their 30s, 26.3% in their 40s, 30.8% in their 50s, 12.5% in their 60s, and 11.6% in their 70s or older, with more than half of the members in their 50s or older.

The yakuza still regularly engage in an array of criminal activities, and many Japanese citizens remain fearful of the threat these individuals pose to their safety. There remains no strict prohibition on yakuza membership in Japan today, although many pieces of legislation have been passed by the Japanese Government aimed at impeding revenue and increasing liability for criminal activities.

Etymology
The name yakuza originates from the traditional Japanese card game Oicho-Kabu, a game in which the goal is to draw three cards adding up to a score of 9. If the sum of the cards is 10 or more, the second digit is the score. So a sum of 13 is a score of 3, a sum of 14 is a score of 4, etc. A sum of 10 or 20 is a score of 0. If the three cards drawn are 8-9-3 (pronounced ya-ku-sa in archaic Japanese), the sum is 20 and therefore the score is zero, making one of the worst possible hands that can be drawn. In Japanese, the word yakuza is commonly written in katakana (ヤクザ).

Origins
Despite uncertainty about the single origin of yakuza organizations, most modern yakuza derive from two social classifications which emerged in the mid-Edo period (1603–1868): tekiya, those who primarily peddled illicit, stolen or shoddy goods; and bakuto, those who were involved in or participated in gambling.

Tekiya (peddlers) ranked as one of the lowest social groups during the Edo period. As they began to form organizations of their own, they took over some administrative duties relating to commerce, such as stall allocation and protection of their commercial activities. During Shinto festivals, these peddlers opened stalls and some members were hired to act as security. Each peddler paid rent in exchange for a stall assignment and protection during the fair.

The tekiya were a highly structured and hierarchical group with the oyabun (boss) at the top and kobun (gang members) at the bottom. This hierarchy resembles a structure similar to the family – in traditional Japanese culture, the oyabun was often regarded as a surrogate father, and the kobun as surrogate children. During the Edo period, the government formally recognized the tekiya. At this time, within the tekiya, the oyabun were appointed as supervisors and granted near-samurai status, meaning they were allowed the dignity of a surname and two swords.

Bakuto (gamblers) had a much lower social standing even than traders, as gambling was illegal. Many small gambling houses cropped up in abandoned temples or shrines at the edges of towns and villages all over Japan. Most of these gambling houses ran loan-sharking businesses for clients, and they usually maintained their own security personnel. Society at large regarded the gambling houses themselves, as well as the bakuto, with disdain. Much of the undesirable image of the yakuza originates from bakuto; this includes the name yakuza itself.

Because of the economic situation during the mid-Edo period and the predominance of the merchant class, developing yakuza groups were composed of misfits and delinquents who had joined or formed the groups to extort customers in local markets by selling fake or shoddy goods.

Shimizu Jirocho (1820–1893) is Japan's most famous yakuza and folk hero. He was born Chogoro Yamamoto, but changed his name when he was adopted, a common Japanese practice. His life and exploits were featured in sixteen films between 1911 and 1940.

The roots of the yakuza survive today in initiation ceremonies, which incorporate tekiya or bakuto rituals. Although the modern Yakuza has diversified, some gangs still identify with one group or the other; for example, a gang whose primary source of income is illegal gambling may refer to themselves as bakuto.

Kyushu
Kyushu island (and particularly its northern prefecture Fukuoka) has a reputation for being a large source of yakuza members, including many renowned bosses in the Yamaguchi-gumi. Isokichi Yoshida (1867–1936) from the Kitakyushu area was considered by some scholars and political watchers as one of the first renowned modern yakuza. Recently Shinobu Tsukasa and Kunio Inoue, the bosses of the two most powerful clans in the Yamaguchi-gumi, originate from Kyushu. Fukuoka, the northernmost part of the island, has the largest number of designated syndicates among all of the prefectures.

Structure
During the formation of the yakuza, they adopted the traditional Japanese hierarchical structure of oyabun-kobun where kobun (子分; lit. foster child) owe their allegiance to the oyabun (親分). In a much later period, the code of jingi (仁義) was developed where loyalty and respect are a way of life. The oyabun-kobun relationship is formalized by ceremonial sharing of sake from a single cup. This ritual is not exclusive to the yakuza – it is also commonly performed in traditional Japanese Shinto weddings, and may have been a part of sworn brotherhood relationships.

The structure of yakuza organizations is characterized by a multi-layered hierarchical structure. The pseudo child of an organization become family head and pseudo parent and run their own subsidiary organizations, and the kobun of the subsidiary organizations also become oyabun and run their own subsidiary organizations. A large yakuza organization such as Yamaguchi-gumi is made up of five or six layered organizations. In other words, the heads of subsidiary organizations are often executives of the parent organizations.

The oyabun of the organization is generally called a kumichō (組長) or chairman (会長), the person corresponding to pseudo younger brother of the kumichō is called a shatei (舎弟), and the person corresponding to pseudo child of the kumichō (kobun) is called a wakanaka (若中) or wakashū (若衆).

Although positions in yakuza organizations vary from clan to clan, the three most important yakuza positions are kumichō, second-in-command and pseudo eldest son of the kumichō (若頭), and pseudo oldest younger brother of the kumichō (舎弟頭). general manager (本部長), deputy kumichō (副組長), and secretary general (事務局長), are also important positions. In general, the executive office (執行部) of an organization is run by the wakagashira, shateigashira, and honbuchō. Since the shatei are the pseudo-younger brothers of the kumichō, they are generally older and have higher nominal positions but relatively little real authority. In the Yamaguchi-gumi pecking order as of 2024, the order is kumichō, wakagashira, shateigashira, and honbuchō.

Yakuza groups are headed by an oyabun (kumichō or kaichō) who gives orders to his subordinates, the kobun. In this respect, the organization is a variation of the traditional Japanese senpai-kōhai (senior-junior) model. Members of yakuza cut their real family ties and transfer their loyalty to the oyabun. They refer to each other as family members—fathers (親父), uncles (叔父貴), and elder and younger brothers (兄弟). The yakuza is populated almost entirely by men and the very few women who are acknowledged are the wives of bosses, who are referred to by the title ane-san (姐さん). When the 3rd Yamaguchi-gumi boss (Kazuo Taoka) died in the early 1980s, his wife (Fumiko) took over as boss of Yamaguchi-gumi, albeit for a short time.

During the World War II period in Japan, the more traditional tekiya/bakuto form of organization declined as the entire population was mobilised to participate in the war effort and society came under the control of the strict military government. However, after the war, the Yakuza adapted again.

Rituals

Yubitsume, also referred to as otoshimae, or the cutting off of one's finger, is a form of penance or apology. Upon a first offence, the transgressor must cut off the tip of his left little finger and give the severed portion to his boss. Sometimes an underboss may do this in penance to the oyabun if he wants to spare a member of his own gang from further retaliation. This practice has started to wane amongst the younger members, due to it being an easy identifier for police.

Its origin stems from the traditional way of holding a Japanese sword. The bottom three fingers of each hand are used to grip the sword tightly, with the thumb and index fingers slightly loose. The removal of digits starting with the little finger and moving up the hand to the index finger progressively weakens a person's sword grip.

The idea is that a person with a weak sword grip then has to rely more on the group for protection—reducing individual action. In recent years, prosthetic fingertips have been developed to disguise this distinctive appearance.

Many yakuza have full-body tattoos (including their genitalia). These tattoos, known as irezumi in Japan, are still often "hand-poked", that is, the ink is inserted beneath the skin using non-electrical, hand-made, and handheld tools with needles of sharpened bamboo or steel. The procedure is expensive and painful, and can take years to complete.

When yakuza play Oicho-Kabu cards with each other, they often remove their shirts or open them up and drape them around their waists. This enables them to display their full-body tattoos to each other. This is one of the few times that yakuza display their tattoos to others, as they normally keep them concealed in public with long-sleeved and high-necked shirts. When new members join, they are often required to remove their trousers as well and reveal any lower body tattoos.

Number of members and quasi-members
The total number of yakuza members and quasi-members peaked at 184,100 in 1963, and then continued to decline due to police crackdowns. The number of regular members decreased with the implementation of the Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members (暴力団員による不当な行為の防止等に関する法律) in 1992, and the total number of members and quasi-members began to decline rapidly with the implementation of the yakuza exclusion ordinances in all 47 prefectures around 2010. Between 1990 and 2020, the total number of members and quasi-members decreased by 70 percent.

The National Police Agency reported that Japanese yakuza organizations had 10,400 members and 10,000 quasi-members in 2023.

Designated yakuza (Shitei Bōryokudan)
A designated yakuza (指定暴力団) is a "particularly harmful" yakuza group registered by the Prefectural Public Safety Commissions under the Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members (暴力団対策法) enacted in 1991. Groups are designated as designated yakuza if their members take advantage of the gang's influence to do business, are structured to have one leader, and have a large portion of their members hold criminal records. After the Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members was enacted, many yakuza syndicates made efforts to restructure to appear more professional and legitimate.

As of 2023, Under the Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members, the Prefectural Public Safety Commissions have registered 25 syndicates as the designated yakuza groups. Three of these organizations have more than 1,000 regular members, eight have more than 100, and 14 have less than 100. Fukuoka Prefecture has the largest number of designated yakuza groups among all of the prefectures, at 5; the Kudo-kai, the Taishu-kai, the Fukuhaku-kai, the Dojin-kai, and the Namikawa-kai.

In August 2021, the Fukuoka District Court sentenced Satoru Nomura, the fifth head of Kudo-kai, to death for murder and attempted murder. This was the first death sentence handed down to a designated yakuza head. Kudo-kai is the only one of the designated yakuza to be designated as a especially dangerous designated yakuza (特定危険指定暴力団), a more dangerous type of yakuza.

Three largest syndicates and six major syndicates
As of 2023, the National Police Agency has designated Yamaguchi-gumi, Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, Kizuna-kai, Ikeda-gumi (ja), Sumiyoshi-kai, and Inagawa-kai as major organizations (主要団体) among the designated yakuza. These six organizations have a total of 7,700 members and 6,800 quasi-members, for a total of 14,500 members, or 71.1 percent of the total 20,400 yakuza members and quasi-members in Japan.

Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi split off from Yamaguchi-gumi in August 2015, Kizuna-kai split off from Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi in April 2017, and Ikeda-gumi split off from Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi in July 2020. These Yamaguchi-gumi and the three organizations that split from them are fighting each other.

In recent years, the three major yakuza syndicates have formed a loose alliance, and in April 2023, Kiyoshi Takayama, the wakagashira (second-in-command) of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Shuji Ogawa, the kaichō (chairman) of the Sumiyoshi-kai, and Kazuya Uchibori (ja), the kaichō of the Inagawa-kai, held a social gathering.

Japan
In the 2010s and 2020s, the yakuza's main source of funding is a fraud called special fraud (特殊詐欺), which mainly targets the elderly to cheat them out of large amounts of money. Their methods include calling the homes of elderly people to beg for money by pretending to be the elderly person's son, or visiting the homes of elderly people posing as employees of financial institutions to swindle them out of their money. In 2014, tokushu sagi accounted for 10.4 percent of all yakuza arrests, surpassing theft for the first time at 10.2 percent, and 34.6 percent of tokushu sagi perpetrators were yakuza and their associates. The total damage from tokushu sagi identified in 2019 exceeded 30 billion yen, and while yakuza accounted for just over 10 percent of the lowest level members of criminal groups, such as cash receivers who play the role of financial institution employees, yakuza accounted for nearly 40 percent of the main perpetrators leading fraud schemes.

The yakuza and its affiliated gangs control drug trafficking in Japan, especially methamphetamine. While many yakuza syndicates, notably the Yamaguchi-gumi, officially forbid their members from engaging in drug trafficking, some other yakuza syndicates, like the Dojin-kai, are heavily involved in it. The most common charge for yakuza and their associates arrested in 2014 was violation of the Stimulants Control Act (覚せい剤取締法), which prohibits the import, export, sale, transfer, possession, and use of methamphetamine, accounting for 26.5 percent of arrests.

Some yakuza groups are known to deal extensively in human trafficking. In the Philippines Yakuza trick girls from impoverished villages into coming to Japan by promising them respectable jobs with good wages. Instead, they are forced into becoming sex workers and strippers.

Yakuza frequently engaged in a unique form of Japanese extortion known as sōkaiya. In essence, this is a specialized form of protection racket. Instead of harassing small businesses, the Yakuza harass a stockholders' meeting of a larger corporation. Yakuza operatives obtain the right to attend by making a small purchase of stock, and then at the meeting physically intimidate other stockholders. The number of sōkaiya has decreased over the years, and in 2023 there were only about 150 sōkaiya, of whom 30 worked in groups and 120 worked alone.

Yakuza also had ties to the Japanese real estate market and banking sector through jiageya. Jiageya specializes in inducing holders of small real estate to sell their property so that estate companies can carry out much larger development plans. The Japanese bubble economy of the 1980s is often blamed on real estate speculation by banking subsidiaries. After the collapse of the property bubble, a manager of a major bank in Nagoya was assassinated, prompting much speculation about the banking industry's indirect connection to the Japanese underworld.

In 1989, Susumu Ishii, the Oyabun of the Inagawa-kai (a well-known yakuza group) bought US$255 million worth of Tokyo Kyuko Electric Railway's stock. Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission has knowledge of more than 50 listed companies with ties to organized crime, and in March 2008, the Osaka Securities Exchange decided to review all listed companies and expel those with yakuza ties.

Yakuza involvement in politics functions similarly to that of a lobbying group, with them backing those who share in their opinions or beliefs.

Yakuza's aid in earthquakes
In 1995 Kobe earthquake, the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza group, who are based in the area, mobilized to provide disaster relief services (including the use of a helicopter). Media reports contrasted this rapid response with the much slower pace at which the Japanese government's official relief efforts took place.

Following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011, the yakuza sent hundreds of trucks filled with food, water, blankets, and sanitary accessories to aid the people in the affected areas of the natural disaster. CNN México said that although the yakuza operates through extortion and other violent methods, they "[moved] swiftly and quietly to provide aid to those most in need."

United States
The presence of individuals affiliated with the yakuza in the United States has increased tremendously since the 1960s, and although much of their activity is concentrated in Hawaii, they have made their presence known in other parts of the country, especially in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Seattle, Las Vegas, Arizona, Virginia, Chicago, and New York City. The yakuza are said to use Hawaii as a midway station between Japan and mainland America, smuggling methamphetamine into the country and smuggling firearms back to Japan. They easily fit into the local population, since many tourists from Japan and other Asian countries visit the islands on a regular basis, and there is a large population of residents who are of full or partial Japanese descent. They also work with local gangs, funneling Japanese tourists to gambling parlors and brothels.

In California, the yakuza have made alliances with local Korean gangs as well as Chinese triads and Vietnamese gangs. The yakuza identified these gangs as useful partners due to the constant stream of Vietnamese cafe shoot-outs and home invasion burglaries throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. In New York City, they appear to collect finder's fees from Russian, Irish and Italian gang members and businessmen for guiding Japanese tourists to gambling establishments, both legal and illegal.

Handguns manufactured in the US account for a large share (33%) of handguns seized in Japan, followed by handguns manufactured in China (16%) and in the Philippines (10%). In 1990, a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver that cost $275 in the US could sell for up to $4,000 in Tokyo.

In 2001, the FBI's representative in Tokyo arranged for Tadamasa Goto, the head of the group Goto-gumi, to receive a liver transplant at the UCLA Medical Center in the United States, in return for information of Yamaguchi-gumi operations in the US. This was done without prior consultation of the NPA. The journalist who uncovered the deal received threats from Goto and was given police protection in the US and in Japan.

The FBI suspects that the yakuza were using various operations to launder money in the US.

Asia (outside Japan)
The yakuza have engaged in illegal activities in Southeast Asia since the 1960s; they are working there to develop sex tourism and drug trafficking. This is the area where they are still the most active today.

In addition to their presence in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, yakuza groups also operate in South Korea, China, Taiwan, and in the Pacific Islands (mainly Hawaii).

Yakuza groups also have a presence in North Korea; in 2009, yakuza Yoshiaki Sawada was released from a North Korean prison after spending five years there attempting to bribe a North Korean official and smuggle drugs.

Constituent members
Prospective yakuza come from all walks of life. The most romantic tales tell how yakuza accept sons who have been abandoned or exiled by their parents. Many yakuza start out in junior high school or high school as common street thugs or members of bōsōzoku gangs. Perhaps because of its lower socio-economic status, numerous yakuza members come from burakumin and ethnic Korean backgrounds. Low-ranking youth may be referred to as chinpira or chimpira.

According to a 2006 speech by Mitsuhiro Suganuma, a former officer of the Public Security Intelligence Agency, around 60 percent of yakuza members come from burakumin, the descendants of a feudal outcast class and approximately 30 percent of them are Japanese-born Koreans, and only 10 percent are from non-burakumin Japanese and Chinese ethnic groups.

Burakumin
The burakumin is a group that Japanese society socially discriminates against, and its recorded history goes back to the Heian period in the 11th century. The burakumin are the descendants of outcast communities which originated in the pre-modern, especially the feudal era, mainly those people with occupations which are considered tainted because they are associated with death or ritual impurity, such as butchers, executioners, undertakers, or leather workers. They traditionally lived in their own secluded hamlets and villages away from other groups.

According to David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro, burakumin account for about 70% of the members of Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza syndicate in Japan.

Ethnic Koreans
While ethnic Koreans make up only 0.5% of the Japanese population, they are a prominent part of yakuza because they suffer discrimination in Japanese society along with the burakumin. In the early 1990s, 18 of 90 top bosses of Inagawa-kai were ethnic Koreans. The Japanese National Police Agency suggested Koreans composed 10% of the yakuza proper and 70% of burakumin in the Yamaguchi-gumi. Some of the representatives of the designated Bōryokudan are also Koreans. The Korean significance had been an untouchable taboo in Japan and one of the reasons that the Japanese version of Kaplan and Dubro's Yakuza (1986) had not been published until 1991 with the deletion of Korean-related descriptions of the Yamaguchi-gumi.

Japanese-born people of Korean ancestry who retain South Korean nationality are considered resident aliens and are embraced by the yakuza precisely because they fit the group's "outsider" image.

Notable yakuza of Korean ancestry include Hisayuki Machii the founder of the Tosei-kai, Tokutaro Takayama the head of the 4th-generation Aizukotetsu-kai, Jiro Kiyota (1940–) the head of the 5th-generation Inagawa-kai, Shinichi Matsuyama (1927–) the head of the 5th-generation Kyokuto-kai and Hirofumi Hashimoto (1947–) the founder of the Kyokushinrengo-kai (affiliated with Yamaguchi-gumi, dissolved in 2019).

Operation Summit
Between 1964 and 1965, the Japanese police carried out mass arrests of yakuza leaders and executives in what they called the First Operation Summit (第一次頂上作戦) in response to public demands for the yakuza to be banished from society. As a result, crime declined and the number of arrested yakuza fell from about 59,000 in 1964 to 38,000 in 1967. The number of yakuza organizations and members also declined, from 5,216 organizations and 184,091 members in 1963 to 3,500 organizations and 139,089 members in 1969. As a result, 1963, the year before the First Operation Summit was launched, was the peak of yakuza power.

From around 1970, yakuza leaders and executives who had been imprisoned began to be released from prison, and yakuza organizations that had been disbanded during the First Operation Summit were revived and reorganized, leading the police to conduct the Second Operation Summit in 1970 and the Third Operation Summit in 1975. These series of police crackdowns led to a decline in the number of yakuza organizations and members, from 2957 organizations with 123,044 members in 1972 to 2517 organizations with 106,754 members in 1979. As a result, small yakuza organizations were forced to dissolve, and the total number of members decreased, but some members transferred to large yakuza organizations, so the number of members of large organizations actually increased during this period. The three major organizations, Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai, and Inagawa-kai, expanded during this period. During this period, Japan was in a recession following the energy crisis of the 1970s, and it became difficult for the yakuza to acquire sufficient financial resources through traditional methods alone, so it was inevitable that they would consolidate into large yakuza organizations with diverse or legal sources of funding.

Anti-yakuza laws
The Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members (暴力団員による不当な行為の防止等に関する法律), passed in 1991 and enacted in 1992, was a landmark piece of legislation that cracked down on the yakuza. The law prohibited 27 acts by yakuza, including demanding hush money or donations, collecting debts and conducting land grabbing activities in an unjustified manner. The law also made it illegal to demand and collect so-called protection racket from downtown restaurants and bars, which were the yakuza's main source of funding. Police could issue two cease-and-desist orders to offenders who demanded mikajime-ryō, and could arrest offenders who still refused to comply. Until then, the yakuza had charged bouncer fees to restaurants and bars in their territory, especially those open at night, and made various threats, such as ramming dump trucks into businesses that refused, and business owners, fearing reprisals, had paid mikajime-ryō, but the new law resulted in more businesses refusing mikajime-ryō and the yakuza's financial resources were lost. In 1991, the yakuza had 63,800 members, but by 1992, when the new law took effect, the number had dropped sharply to about 56,600, then to about 48,000 in 1994 and 43,100 in 2001.

Additional regulations can be found in a 2008 anti-yakuza amendment which allows prosecutors to place the blame on any yakuza-related crime on crime bosses. Specifically, the leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi has since been incarcerated and forced to pay upwards of 85 million yen in damages of several crimes committed by his gangsters, leading to the yakuza's dismissal of around 2,000 members per year; albeit, some analysts claim that these dismissals are part of the yakuza's collective attempt to regain a better reputation amongst the populace. Regardless, the yakuza's culture, too, has shifted towards a more secretive and far less public approach to crime, as many of their traditions have been reduced or erased to avoid being identified as yakuza.

Beginning in 2009, led by agency chief Takaharu Ando, Japanese police began to crack down on the gangs. Yamaguchi-gumi's number two and Kodo-kai chief Kiyoshi Takayama was arrested in late 2010. In December 2010, police arrested Yamaguchi-gumi's alleged number three leader, Tadashi Irie.

Yakuza exclusion ordinances
In addition to the anti-yakuza laws, the Yakuza exclusion ordinances enacted by each of Japan's 47 prefectures between 2009 and 2011 also contributed significantly to the decline of the yakuza. Ordinances were enacted in Osaka and Tokyo in 2010 and 2011 to try to combat yakuza influence by making it illegal for any business to do business with the yakuza. While the anti-yakuza laws prohibited the yakuza from making unreasonable demands on businesses and citizens, these ordinances prohibited businesses and citizens from offering benefits to the yakuza. This made it increasingly difficult for the yakuza to raise funds, as fewer businesses and citizens succumbed to the yakuza's threats and offered benefits to the yakuza, such as contracting work or paying money to the yakuza. According to the media, encouraged by tougher anti-yakuza laws and yakuza exclusion ordinances, local governments and construction companies have begun to shun or ban yakuza activities or involvement in their communities or construction projects.

In addition, these ordinances have made it difficult for yakuza members to lead normal civilian lives. The ordinances also require businesses and citizens to refuse to rent meeting rooms or parking spaces to the yakuza, or to print business cards with the name of yakuza organizations on them. Companies can now also refuse to open bank accounts, sign mobile phone contracts, credit card contracts, lease real estate, or process various loans for people identified as yakuza under the anti-yakuza laws, making it more difficult for yakuza to live in society. Even companies that provide lifelines have become tough on the yakuza, with Osaka Gas terminating contracts if a contractor is discovered to be a yakuza. To prevent yakuza from nominally leaving the organization and signing contracts with companies, these ordinances allow companies to treat a person as a yakuza for five years even if he or she has nominally left the yakuza and become a civilian.

Since 2011, regulations outlawing business with yakuza members, government-ordered audits of yakuza finances, and the enactment of yakuza exclusion ordinances have hastened a decline in yakuza membership. The number of yakuza members and quasi-members fell from 78,600 in 2010 to 25,900 in 2020.

Outside Japan
Yakuza organizations also face pressure from the US government; in 2011, a federal executive order required financial institutions to freeze yakuza assets, and as of 2013, the U.S. Treasury Department had frozen about US$55,000 of yakuza holdings, including two Japan-issued American Express cards.

Current situation
The number of yakuza members and quasi-members fell by about 70 percent in the 30 years between 1990, before the anti-yakuza law, and 2020, after the anti-yakuza laws and the yakuza exclusion ordinances took effect.

With the addition of the employer liability clause in the 2008 amendment to the Anti-yakuza law, there have been a number of situations in which yakuza bosses have been held liable for crimes committed by members of the yakuza. For example, in a civil case, the Tokyo High Court held the head of Sumiyoshi-kai liable for a special fraud (特殊詐欺) committed by members of Sumiyoshi-kai under the employer liability article of the Anti-yakuza law in 2021. As a result, Sumiyoshi-kai paid 652 million yen to the victims, 35 million yen more than the amount of damages. In criminal cases, Nomura Satoru became the first "designated yakuza" (指定暴力団) boss to be sentenced to death under the employer liability clause on August 24, 2021. Nomura was involved in one murder and assaults of three people. The presiding judge Adachi Ben of the Fukuoka District Court characterized the murders as extremely vicious attacks. On March 12, 2024, the Fukuoka High Court overturned Nomura's death sentence and downgraded it to life imprisonment. The High Court found him not guilty of murder.

On top of the already staggering anti-yakuza legislation, Japan's younger generation may be less inclined to gang-related activity, as modern society has made it easier especially for young men to gain even semi-legitimate jobs such as ownership in bars and massage parlors and pornography that can be more profitable than gang affiliation all while protecting themselves by abiding by the strict anti-yakuza laws.

Citizens who take a stronger stance seem to also have taken action that does not lead to violent reactions from the yakuza. In Kyushu, although store owners initially were attacked by gang members, the region has reached stability after local business owners banned known yakuza and posted warnings against yakuza entering their premises.

Yakuza in society
The yakuza have had mixed relations with Japanese society. Despite their pariah status, some of their actions may be perceived to have positive effects on society. For example, they stop other criminal organizations from acting in their areas of operation. They have been known to provide relief in times of disaster. These actions have at times painted yakuza in a fairly positive light within Japan. The yakuza also attract membership from traditionally scorned minority groups, such as the Korean-Japanese. However, gang wars and the use of violence as a tool have caused their approval to fall with the general public. According to Jake Adelstein, one study found that 1 in 10 adults under the age of 40 believed that the yakuza should be allowed to exist.

Film

The yakuza have been in media and culture in many different fashions. Creating its own genre of movies within Japan's film industry, the portrayal of the yakuza mainly manifests in one of two archetypes; they are portrayed as either honorable and respectable men or as criminals who use fear and violence as their means of operation. Movies like Battles Without Honor and Humanity and Dead or Alive portray some of the members as violent criminals, with the focus being on the violence, while other movies focus more on the "business" side of the yakuza.

The 1992 film Minbo, a satirical view of yakuza activities, resulted in retaliation against the director, as real-life yakuza gangsters attacked the director Juzo Itami shortly after the release of the film.

Yakuza films have also been popular in the Western market with films such as the 1975 film The Yakuza, the 1989 film Black Rain and The Punisher, the 1995 film Johnny Mnemonic, the 2005 film Into the Sun, 2013's The Wolverine, 2018 film The Outsider, and Snake Eyes in 2021.

Television
The yakuza feature prominently in the 2015 American dystopian series The Man in the High Castle. They are also the basis for the 2019 BBC TV Series Giri/Haji, which features a character whose life is put in danger after he comes under suspicion for a murder tied to the yakuza. The 2022 HBO Max series Tokyo Vice explores the dealings of the yakuza from the perspective of an American reporter Jake Adelstein. The anime series Akiba Maid War is a dark comedic parody in which maid cafés and yakuza culture are synonymous with one another.

Video games
The video game series Like A Dragon, formerly known as Yakuza outside of Japan, launched in 2005, portrays the actions of several different ranking members of the yakuza, as well as criminal associates such as dirty cops and loan sharks. The series addresses some of the same themes as the yakuza genre of film does, like violence, honor, politics of the syndicates, and the social status of the yakuza in Japan. The series has been successful, spawning sequels, spin-offs, a live-action movie and a web TV series.

Grand Theft Auto III features a yakuza clan that assists the protagonist in the second and third act after they cut their ties with the Mafia. The yakuza derive most of their income from a casino, Kenji's, and are currently fighting to keep other gangs from peddling drugs in their territory while seeking to protect their activities from police interference. Towards the end of the third act, the player assassinates the leader of the clan, and the other members are later executed by Colombian gangsters. In Grand Theft Auto III prequel, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, the yakuza play a major role in the storyline. In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the yakuza are mentioned, presumably operating in Vice City.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin features a mission set in Japan that sees Agent 47 assassinating the son of a wealthy arms dealer during his dinner meeting with a yakuza boss at his private estate. A mission in the 2016 game, Hitman, set at a secluded mountaintop hospital, features a notorious yakuza lawyer and fixer as one of two targets to be assassinated.

Manga, anime and television dramas

 * Stop!! Hibari-kun!: manga (1981–1983), anime (1983–1984). The story focuses on Kōsaku Sakamoto, a high school student who goes to live with yakuza boss Ibari Ōzora and his four children—Tsugumi, Tsubame, Hibari and Suzume—after the death of his mother. Kōsaku is shocked to learn that Hibari, who looks and behaves as a girl, is male.
 * Gokusen: manga (2000), drama (2002, 2005 and 2008) and anime (2004). The heiress of a clan becomes a teacher in a difficult high school and is assigned a class of delinquents, the 3-D. She will teach them mathematics, while gradually getting involved in several other levels, going so far as to get her students out of a bad situation by sometimes using her skills as heir to the clan.
 * My Boss My Hero: Film stock (2001), drama (2002). A young gang leader, who seems to be too stupid to do his job, misses a big deal because he cannot count correctly, and on the other hand, is practically illiterate. In order to access the succession of the clan, his father then forces him to return to high school, to obtain his diploma. He must not reveal his membership in the yakuza, under penalty of being immediately excluded.
 * Twittering Birds Never Fly: manga of the shōnen-ai genre (2011–?). Yashiro, a totally depraved masochist, boss of a yakuza clan and the Shinsei finance company, hires Chikara Dômeki, a secretive and not very talkative man, as his bodyguard. While Yashiro would like to take advantage of Dômeki's body, the latter is helpless.
 * Like the Beast: manga, yaoi (2008). Tomoharu Ueda, a police officer in a small local post, meets Aki Gotôda, son of the leader of a yakuza clan, in pursuit of an underwear thief. The next morning, Aki shows up at his house to thank him for his help and finds himself making a declaration of love for him. Taken aback, Ueda replies that it is better that they get to know each other, but that's without counting Aki's stubbornness, ready to do anything to achieve his ends.
 * Odd Taxi: anime, manga (2021). A taxi driver becomes entangled in the rivalry of competing kobun and uses his position to undermine the local yakuza organization.

Several manga by Ryoichi Ikegami are located in the middle of the Japanese underworld:
 * Sanctuary (1990): Hôjô and Asami, childhood friends, have only one goal: to give the Japanese back a taste of life, and to shake up the country. For this, they decide to climb the ladder of power, one in the light, as a politician, the other in the shadows, as yakuza.
 * Heat (1999): Tatsumi Karasawa is the owner of a club in Tokyo who plans to expand his business. He gives a hard time not only to the police but also to the yakuza, of which he manages, however, to rally a certain number at his side.
 * Nisekoi (2014): Nisekoi follows high school students Raku Ichijo, the son of a leader in the yakuza faction Shuei-gumi, and Chitoge Kirisaki, the daughter of a boss in a rival gang known as Muchi-Konkai.

title: Yakuza


text:
Complete measure

In mathematics, a complete measure (or, more precisely, a complete measure space) is a measure space in which every subset of every null set is measurable (having measure zero). More formally, a measure space (X, Σ, μ) is complete if and only if

 * $$S \subseteq N \in \Sigma \mbox{ and } \mu(N) = 0\ \Rightarrow\ S \in \Sigma.$$

Motivation
The need to consider questions of completeness can be illustrated by considering the problem of product spaces.

Suppose that we have already constructed Lebesgue measure on the real line: denote this measure space by $$(\R, B, \lambda).$$ We now wish to construct some two-dimensional Lebesgue measure $$\lambda^2$$ on the plane $$\R^2$$ as a product measure. Naively, we would take the $\sigma$-algebra on $$\R^2$$ to be $$B \otimes B,$$ the smallest 𝜎-algebra containing all measurable "rectangles" $$A_1 \times A_2$$ for $$A_1, A_2 \in B.$$

While this approach does define a measure space, it has a flaw. Since every singleton set has one-dimensional Lebesgue measure zero, $$\lambda^2(\{0\} \times A) \leq \lambda(\{0\}) = 0$$ for subset $$A$$ of $$\R.$$ However, suppose that $$A$$ is a non-measurable subset of the real line, such as the Vitali set. Then the $$\lambda^2$$-measure of $$\{0\} \times A$$ is not defined but $$\{0\} \times A \subseteq \{0\} \times \R,$$ and this larger set does have $$\lambda^2$$-measure zero. So this "two-dimensional Lebesgue measure" as just defined is not complete, and some kind of completion procedure is required.

Construction of a complete measure
Given a (possibly incomplete) measure space (X, Σ, μ), there is an extension (X, Σ0, μ0) of this measure space that is complete. The smallest such extension (i.e. the smallest σ-algebra Σ0) is called the completion of the measure space.

The completion can be constructed as follows:
 * let Z be the set of all the subsets of the zero-μ-measure subsets of X (intuitively, those elements of Z that are not already in Σ are the ones preventing completeness from holding true);
 * let Σ0 be the σ-algebra generated by Σ and Z (i.e. the smallest σ-algebra that contains every element of Σ and of Z);
 * μ has an extension μ0 to Σ0 (which is unique if μ is σ-finite), called the outer measure of μ, given by the infimum

 * $$\mu_{0} (C) := \inf \{ \mu (D) \mid C \subseteq D \in \Sigma_0 \}.$$

Then (X, Σ0, μ0) is a complete measure space, and is the completion of (X, Σ, μ).

In the above construction it can be shown that every member of Σ0 is of the form A ∪ B for some A ∈ Σ and some B ∈ Z, and

 * $$\mu_{0} (A \cup B) = \mu (A).$$

Examples

 * Borel measure as defined on the Borel σ-algebra generated by the open intervals of the real line is not complete, and so the above completion procedure must be used to define the complete Lebesgue measure. This is illustrated by the fact that the set of all Borel sets over the reals has the same cardinality as the reals. While the Cantor set is a Borel set, has measure zero, and its power set has cardinality strictly greater than that of the reals. Thus there is a subset of the Cantor set that is not contained in the Borel sets. Hence, the Borel measure is not complete.
 * n-dimensional Lebesgue measure is the completion of the n-fold product of the one-dimensional Lebesgue space with itself. It is also the completion of the Borel measure, as in the one-dimensional case.

Properties
Maharam's theorem states that every complete measure space is decomposable into measures on continua, and a finite or countable counting measure.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Complete measure


text:
Catania

Catania (,, ,  Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, and among the largest in Italy. It has important road and rail transport infrastructures, and hosts the main airport in Sicily (fifth-largest in Italy). The city is located on Sicily's east coast, facing the Ionian Sea at the base of the active volcano Mount Etna. It is the capital of the 58-municipality region known as the Metropolitan City of Catania, which is the seventh-largest metropolitan area in Italy. The population of the city proper is 311,584, while the population of the Metropolitan City of Catania is 1,107,702.

Catania was founded in the 8th century BC by Chalcidian Greeks in Magna Graecia. The city has weathered multiple geologic catastrophes: it was almost completely destroyed by a catastrophic earthquake in 1169. A major eruption and lava flow from nearby Mount Etna nearly swamped the city in 1669 and it suffered severe devastation from the 1693 Sicily earthquake.

During the 14th century, and into the Renaissance period, Catania was one of Italy's most important cultural, artistic and political centres. It was the site of Sicily's first university, founded in 1434. It has been the native or adopted home of some of Italy's most famous artists and writers, including the composers Vincenzo Bellini and Giovanni Pacini, and the writers Giovanni Verga, Luigi Capuana, Federico De Roberto and Nino Martoglio.

Catania today is the industrial, logistical, and commercial center of Sicily. Its airport, the Catania–Fontanarossa Airport, is the largest in Southern Italy. The central "old town" of Catania features exuberant late-baroque architecture, prompted after the 1693 earthquake, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Etymology
The ancient indigenous population of Sicily, the Sicels, named their villages after geographical attributes of their location. The Siculian word katane means "grater, flaying knife, skinning place" or a "crude tool apt to pare". Other translations of the name are "harsh lands", "uneven ground", "sharp stones", or "rugged or rough soil". The latter etymologies are easily justifiable since, for many centuries following an eruption, the city has always been rebuilt within its black-lava landscape.

Around 263 BC, the city was variously known as Catĭna and Catăna (Κατάνη ). The former has been primarily used for its supposed assonance with catina, the Latin feminization of the name catinus. Catinus has two meanings: "a gulf, a basin or a bay" and "a bowl, a vessel or a trough", thanks to the city's distinctive topography.

Around 900, when Catania was part of the emirate of Sicily, it was known in Arabic as Balad al-fīl (بلد الفيل) and Madīnat al-fīl (مدينة الفيل), respectively meaning "the Village (or Country) of the Elephant" and "the City of the Elephant". The Elephant likely referred to the ancient lava sculpture, now placed over the fountain in Piazza Duomo. The sculpture is most likely a prehistoric sculpture that was reforged during the Byzantine Era, prized as a protective talisman against enemies, both human, natural or geologic. Another Arab toponym was Qaṭāniyyah (قطانية), allegedly from the Arabic word for the "leguminous plants". Pulses like lentils, beans, peas, broad beans, and lupins were chiefly cultivated in the plains around the city well before the arrival of Aghlabids. Afterwards, many Arabic agronomists developed these crops and the citrus orchards in the area around the city. The toponym Wādī Mūsá (وادي موسى), or "the Valley of Moses" (from the Arabic name of the Simeto River), was rarely used.

Geography
As observed by Strabo, the location of Catania at the foot of Mount Etna has been both a curse and a blessing. On the one hand, violent outbursts of the volcano throughout history have destroyed large parts of the city, while on the other hand the volcanic ashes yield fertile soil, especially suited for the growth of vines. (Strab. vi. p. 269)

Two subterranean rivers run under the city; the Amenano, which surfaces at one single point south of Piazza Duomo, and the Longane (or Lognina).

Climate
Catania experiences a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa). The city has hot summers, one of the hottest in the whole country of Italy. Temperatures of 40 °C are surpassed almost every year a couple of times.

Winters are mild, with significant nighttime cooling. Precipitation is concentrated from October to March, leaving late spring and summer virtually dry. The city receives around 500 mm of rain per year, although the amount can vary greatly from year to year, from over 1,200 mm to under 250 mm.

During winter nights, lows can occasionally reach below freezing. Highs under 10 °C may happen during winter. Snow, due to the presence of Etna that protects the city from the northern winds, is an uncommon occurrence, but occasional snow flurries have been seen over the recent years, especially in the hilly districts. More recently, light snowfalls occurred on 9 February 2015, 6 January 2017 and 5 January 2019, but the last heavy snowfall dates back to 17 December 1988.

Demographics
In January 2015, there were 315,601 people residing in Catania, of whom 47.2% were male and 52.8% were female. Minors (people under age 18) totalled 20.50 percent of the population compared to pensioners who number 18.87 percent. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06 percent (minors) and 19.94 percent (pensioners).The average age of Catania residents is 41 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Catania declined by 3.35 percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.85 percent. The reason for this population decline in the comune di Catania is mainly due to a large segment of the population leaving the city centre to go to live in the uptown residential areas of the comuni of the Metropolitan area. As a result of this, while the population in the comune di Catania declines, the population of the hinterland comuni increases making the overall population of the Metropolitan area increase.

The current birth rate of Catania is 10.07 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births. , 98.03% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant groups come from Sub-Saharan Africa: 0.69%, South Asia: 0.46%, and from other European countries (particularly from Ukraine and Poland): 0.33%. There is currently a small community of Samaritans from Israel.

Foundation
Around 729 BC, the ancient village of Katane was occupied by Chalcidian Greek settlers from nearby Naxos along the coast. It became the Chalcidian colony of Katánē under a leader named Euarchos (Euarchus) and the native population was rapidly Hellenised.

Thucydides states that it came into existence slightly later than Leontini (modern Lentini), which he claims was five years after Syracuse, or 730 BC.

The settlement's acropolis was on the hill of Monte Vergine, a defensible hill immediately west of the current city centre. The port of Catania appears to have been much frequented in ancient time and was the chief place of export for the corn of the rich neighbouring plains.

Greek Catania
Catania was associated with the ancient legend of Amphinomos and Anapias, who, on occasion of a great eruption of Etna, abandoned all their property and carried off their aged parents on their shoulders. The stream of lava itself was said to have parted, and flowed aside so as not to harm them. Statues were erected to their honour, and the place of their burial was known as the Campus Piorum; the Catanaeans even introduced the figures of the youths on their coins, and the legend became a favorite subject of allusion and declamation among the Latin poets, of whom the younger Lucilius and Claudian have dwelt upon it at considerable length.

The Greek polis of Catania appears to have been a local center of learning. The philosopher and legislator Charondas (late 6th c. BC), born in Catania, putatively wrote program of laws used here and in other Chalcidic cities, both in Sicily and through Magna Graecia. suggesting a link between Catania and other cities during this time. The poets Ibycus and Stesichorus (c. 630–555 BC) lived in Catania. The latter putatively was buried in a magnificent sepulchre outside one of the gates, therefore named Porta Stesichoreia. Xenophanes (c. 570-475 BC), one of the founders of the Eleatic school of philosophy, also spent the latter years of his life in the city. The first introduction of dancing to accompany the flute was also ascribed to Andron, a citizen of Catania.

Catania appears to have remained independent until the conquest by the despot Hieron of Syracuse; in 476 BC, he expelled all the original inhabitants of Catania and replaced them with his subjects from the town of Leontini – said to have numbered no less than 10,000, consisting partly of Syracusans and Peloponnesians. Hieron changed the city's name to Αἴτνη (Aítnē, Aetna or Ætna, after the nearby Mount Etna, and proclaimed himself the Oekist or founder of the new city. For this he was celebrated by Pindar, and after his death he received heroic honours from the citizens of his new colony.

A few years after the death of Hieron and the expulsion of Thrasybulus of Syracuse, the Syracusans combined with Ducetius, king of the Sicels, to expel the newly settled inhabitants of Catania, who went on to settle in the fortress of Inessa (to which they gave the name Aetna). The old Chalcidic citizens returned to the city in 461 BC.

The period that followed appears to have been one of great prosperity for Catania, as well as for the Sicilian cities in general.

In 415 BC, Catania became involved with the expedition to Sicily pursued by the Athenians to punish Syracuse. Initially the Catanaeans refused to allow the Athenians into their city, but after the latter had forced an entrance, the Athenian leader Alcibiades made a famous speech in front of the assembly. Catania became an ally, and the headquarters of the Athenian army for the first year of the expedition, and a base of their subsequent operations against Syracuse. After the defeat of the Athenians, Catania was again threatened by Syracuse. In 403 BC, Dionysius I of Syracuse plundered the city, sold its citizens as slaves, and repopulated the town with Campanian mercenaries. However, the Carthaginians would take possession of Catania under Himilco and Mago, after the nearby great naval Battle of Catana (397 BC) where they defeated Leptines of Syracuse, and in 396 BC forcing the local Campanian mercenaries to relocate to Aetna.

Calippus, the assassin of Dion of Syracuse, held Catania for a time (Plut. Dion. 58); and when Timoleon landed in Sicily in 344 BC Catania was subject to the despot Mamercus who at first joined the Corinthian leader, but afterwards abandoned this allegiance for that of the Carthaginians. As a consequence he was attacked and expelled by Timoleon in 338 BC.

Catania was now restored to a fragile independence; changing sides during the wars starting in 311 BC of Agathocles of Syracuse with the Carthaginians. When Pyrrhus landed in Sicily in 278 BC, Catania was the first to open its gates to him, and welcomed him with great splendor.

Roman rule

During the First Punic War, Catania was one of the first cities of Sicily to submit to the Roman Republic after their first successes in 263 BC when it was taken by Valerius Messalla. A sundial was part of the booty which was placed in the Comitium in Rome. Since then the city became a civitas decumana i.e. was subject to the payment of a tenth of its agricultural income as a tax to Rome. The conqueror of Syracuse, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, built a gymnasium here.

It appears to have continued afterwards to maintain its friendly relations with Rome and though it did not enjoy the advantages of a confederate city (foederata civitas), like its neighbours Tauromenium (modern Taormina) and Messana (modern Messina), it rose to a position of great prosperity under the Roman rule.

Around 135 BC during the First Servile War, it was conquered by rebel slaves.

One of the most serious eruptions of Mount Etna happened in 121 BC, when a great part of Catania was overwhelmed by streams of lava, and the hot ashes fell in such quantities in the city itself, as to break in the roofs of the houses. Catana was in consequence exempted, for 10 years, from its usual contributions to the Roman state. The greater part of the broad tract of plain to the southwest of Catana (now called the Piana di Catania, a district of great fertility), appears to have belonged, in ancient times, to Leontini or Centuripa (modern Centuripe), but that portion of it between Catana itself and the mouth of the Symaethus was annexed to Catana and must have furnished abundant supplies of grain.

Cicero repeatedly mentions it as, in his time, a wealthy and flourishing city; it retained its ancient municipal institutions, its chief magistrate bearing the title of Proagorus; and appears to have been one of the principal ports of Sicily for the export of corn.

In the Sicilian revolt from 44 BC Sextus Pompeius selected Sicily as his base and Catania gave in to Sextus' revolt and joined his forces. Sextus amassed a formidable army and a large fleet of warships at his base at Messana, with many slaves joining from the villas of patricians. After the victory of Augustus in 36 BC much of the vast farmland in Sicily was either ruined or left empty, and much of this land was taken and distributed to members of the legions which had fought there. Catania suffered severely from the ravages but was afterwards one of the cities raised to the status of colony by Augustus which restored its prosperity through the settlement of veterans, so that in Strabo's time it was one of the few cities in the island that was flourishing.

Another revolt led by the gladiator Selurus in 35 BC created mayhem for a while.

The Roman aqueduct of Catania was the longest in Roman Sicily at 24 km, starting from the springs of Santa Maria di Licodia.

It retained its colonial rank, as well as its prosperity, throughout the period of the Roman Empire; so that in the 4th century Ausonius in his Ordo Nobilium Urbium, notices Catania and Syracuse alone among the cities of Sicily.

Middle Ages
Catania was sacked by the Vandals of Gaiseric in 440–441. After a period under the Ostrogoths, it was reconquered in 535 by the Eastern Roman Empire, under which (aside from a short period in 550–555) it remained until the 9th century. It was the seat of the Byzantine governor of the island.

Catania was under an Islamic emirate for two centuries, after which it fell to the Normans of Roger I of Sicily. Subsequently, the city was ruled by a bishop-count (1072). In 1194–1197 the city was sacked by German soldiers during after the conquest of the island by emperor Henry VI. In 1232 it rebelled to the former's son, Frederick II, who later built a massive castle, Castello Ursino and also made Catania a royal city, ending the dominance of the bishops.

Catania was one of the main centers of the Sicilian Vespers revolt (1282) against the House of Anjou and was the seat of the coronation of the new Aragonese king of Sicily, Peter I. The city remained a key Sicilian port during the War of the Sicilian Vespers. After a civil revolt in 1299, the city was captured by an Angevin army, which occupied the city until the Angevins evacuated their holdings on Sicily in 1302.

In the 14th century it gained importance as it was chosen by the Aragonese as a Parliament and Royal seat. Here, in 1347, it was signed the treaty of peace that ended the long War of the Vesper between Aragonese and Angevines. Catania lost its capital role when, in the early 15th century, Sicily was turned into a member of the Crown of Aragon, and kept its autonomy and original privileges specially during the period from 1282 to 1410.

In 1434 King Alfonso V founded here the Siciliae Studium Generale, the oldest university in the island.

Early modern times
With the unification of Castile and Aragon (early 16th century ), Sicily became part of the Spanish Empire. It rebelled against the foreign government in 1516 and 1647.

In 1669 the city's surroundings suffered great material damage from the 1669 Etna eruption. The city itself was largely saved by its walls that diverted most of the lava into the port. Afterwards, in 1693 the city was nearly completely destroyed by a heavy 1693 Sicily earthquake and its aftershocks. The city was then rebuilt in the Baroque architecture that nowadays characterizes it.

Unified Italy
Catania was one of the vanguards of the movement for Sicilian autonomy in the early 19th century.

In 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi's expedition of the Thousand conquered Sicily for Piedmont from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Since the following year Catania was part of the newly unified Italy, whose history it shares since then.

The first half of the twentieth century was a cycle of repeated destruction and rebuilding for the city of Catania.

During the years 1923 and 1928, Catania endured two major eruptions of Mt. Etna. The 1923 eruption lasted twenty-nine days, from June 6 until June 29. A large lava flow occurred in the 1928 event and was the first to destroy a population center in over two hundred years.

At the onset of World War 1, Italy was part of a defensive alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary referred to as the Triple Alliance. After one year, Italy joined the Allied forces. Many promises made to secure Italy’s help during the war were not kept resulting in stability issues throughout the country leading to the adoption of fascist ideations. As the second World War began, the new regime opted to support Adolf Hitler, resulting in Catania and all the surrounding areas on Sicily being destroyed by Allied bombing.

During World War II, Catania was heavily bombed by the Allied air forces, owing to the presence of two of the main Axis airfields in Sicily (Gerbini and Fontanarossa) and for its strategically important port and marshalling yard. Altogether, the city suffered eighty-seven air raids. The heaviest took place in the spring and summer of 1943, before and during the Allied invasion of Sicily; they caused heavy damage to the city (among others, twenty-eight churches and most historic palaces suffered damage), killed 750 inhabitants and prompted most of the population to flee to the countryside. After heavy fighting across eastern Sicily, Catania was eventually captured by the British 8th Army on 5 August 1943.

After the conflict, and the constitution of the Italian Republic (1946), Catania attempted to catch up with the economic and social development of Italy's richer northern regions. The problems faced in Catania were emblematic of those faced by other towns in the Mezzogiorno, namely a heavy gap in industrial development and infrastructures, and the threat of the mafia. This notwithstanding, during the 1960s (and partly during the 1990s) Catania enjoyed development and a period of economic, social, and cultural success. In the first decade of the 21st century, Catania's economic and social development somewhat faltered and the city is again facing economic and social stagnation. This was aggravated by the economic crisis left by the Forza Italia administration of mayor Scapagnini in 2008.

Metropolitan City
The Metropolitan City of Catania was established in 2015 and replaced the former Province of Catania. It includes the city proper and 57 comuni (municipalities). The population of the Metropolitan City is 1,107,702.

Metropolitan area
The Metropolitan area of Catania includes the comune of Catania (311,584 inhabitants ) and 26 surrounding comuni forming an urban belt (498,650 inhabitants ). The total population of the Metropolitan area of Catania is therefore 810,234. The comuni of the Metropolitan area are:

 * Aci Bonaccorsi
 * Aci Castello
 * Aci Catena
 * Aci Sant'Antonio
 * Acireale
 * Belpasso
 * Biancavilla
 * Camporotondo Etneo
 * Catania
 * Gravina di Catania
 * Mascalucia
 * Misterbianco
 * Motta Sant'Anastasia
 * Nicolosi
 * Paternò
 * Pedara
 * Ragalna
 * San Giovanni la Punta
 * San Gregorio di Catania
 * San Pietro Clarenza
 * Sant'Agata li Battiati
 * Santa Maria di Licodia
 * Santa Venerina
 * Trecastagni
 * Tremestieri Etneo
 * Valverde
 * Viagrande
 * Zafferana Etnea

These comuni form a system with the centre of Catania sharing its economical and social life and creating an organic urban texture.

City proper
The city of Catania proper (comune di Catania) is divided in six administrative areas called circoscrizioni. The current administrative setup was established in 2013, modifying previous setups dating back to 1971, 1978 and 1995.

The six areas are:

1. Centro storico

2. Picanello-Ognina/Barriera-Canalicchio

3. Borgo-Sanzio

4. San Giovanni Galermo-Trappeto-Cibali

5. Monte Po-Nesima/San Leone-Rapisardi

6. San Giorgio-Librino/San Giuseppe La Rena-Zia Lisa-Villaggio Sant'Agata

Main sights
The symbol of the city is u Liotru, or the Fontana dell'Elefante, assembled in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. It portrays an ancient lavic stone elephant and is topped by an Egyptian obelisk from Syene. Legend has it that Vaccarini's original elephant was neuter, which the men of Catania took as an insult to their virility. To appease them, Vaccarini appropriately appended elephantine testicles to the original statue.

The Sicilian name u Liotru is a phonetic change of Heliodorus, a nobleman who, after trying without success to become bishop of the city, became a sorcerer and was therefore condemned to the stake. Legend has it that Heliodorus himself was the sculptor of the lava elephant and that he used to magically ride it in his fantastic travels from Catania to Constantinople. Another legend has it that Heliodorus was able to transform himself into an elephant.

The presence of an elephant in the history of Catania is surely connected to both zooarcheology and popular creeds. In fact, the prehistoric fauna of Sicily from the Upper Paleolithic, included dwarf elephants. Paleontologist Othenio Abel suggested that the presence of dwarf elephants in Sicily may be the origin of the legend of the Cyclops. Ancient Greeks, after finding the skulls of dwarf elephants, about twice the size of a human skull, with a large central nasal cavity (mistaken for a large single eye socket) supposed that they were skulls of giants with a single eye.

The Catanian Museum of Mineralogy, Paleontology and Vulcanology holds the integral unburied skeleton of an Elephas falconeri in an excellent state of conservation. The first inhabitants of Etna molded such lavic artifacts to idolize the mythical proboscidian.

Classical buildings
The city has been buried by lava a total of seventeen times in recorded history, and in layers under the present-day city are the Roman city that preceded it, and the Greek city before that. Many of the ancient monuments of the Roman city have been destroyed by these numerous incidents. Currently, different ancient remains can be seen and visited in the city centre, as part of an archaeological park (Parco Archeologico Greco-Romano di Catania).

Ancient edifices include:

 * Greek-Roman Theatre of Catania and Odeon (2nd to 3rd century CE)
 * Amphitheatre of Catania
 * Greek Acropolis of Montevergine
 * Roman Forum
 * Christian basilicas, hypogea, burial monuments, and catacombs
 * Thermae
 * Achillean Baths
 * Terme dell'Indirizzo
 * Terme di Santa Maria Odigitria
 * Terme della Rotonda
 * Baths of the Four Quoins
 * Terme di Palazzo Asmundo
 * Terme di Casa Gagliano
 * Terme della Chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate

Baroque and historical churches
The Baroque city centre of Catania is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 * Catania Cathedral (1070–1093, rebuilt after 1693 earthquake) built atop Terme Achilliana
 * Sant'Agata, Badia di (1620), church and monastery
 * Sant'Agata la Vetere (254) church
 * Sant'Agata al Borgo, built 1669, destroyed 1693, rebuilt 1709). The "Borough" (il Borgo) is an inner district of Catania.
 * Sant'Agata al Carcere or Santo Carcere (1760). Church built above jail (carcere) where Ste Agatha was allegedly imprisoned during her martyrdom.
 * Sant'Agata on the Lavic Runnels
 * Sant'Anna church
 * San Antonio Abate
 * San Benedetto (1704–1713) church and adjacent Badìa Grande e Piccola del Chiostro delle Monache Benedettine
 * San Biagio, church formerly called Sant'Agata alla Fornace (1098, rebuilt 1700)
 * Basilica della Collegiata, Sicilian Baroque façade by Stefano Ittar
 * San Camillo ai Crociferi, church
 * Santa Caterina al Rinazzo church
 * Santa Chiara (1563) church, and former convent of Poor Clares
 * San Domenico or Santa Maria la Grande (1224), church and convent
 * Sant'Euplio, ruins of church
 * San Filippo Neri
 * San Francesco d'Assisi all'Immacolata (1329), Franciscan church with tomb of its founding patron, Queen Eleanor of Sicily
 * San Francesco Borgia church and adjacent former Jesuit college
 * San Francesco di Paola
 * San Gaetano alle Grotte (260) church
 * San Gaetano alla Marina
 * San Giovanni Battista, in the suburb of San Giovanni di Galermo
 * San Giuliano church and convent
 * San Giuseppe al Duomo church
 * San Giuseppe al Transito church
 * Madonna del Carmine (1729) Basilica church and sanctuary
 * Santa Maria di Gesu church (1465, restored in 1706)
 * Santa Maria della Guardia church
 * Santa Maria dell'Indirizzo (1730) church
 * Santa Maria della Mercede church
 * Santa Maria della Mercede church
 * Santa Maria di Ogninella
 * Santa Maria della Purità or della Visitazione (1775), church and conservatory
 * Santa Maria della Providenza al Borgo, church
 * Santa Maria della Rotonda
 * Santa Maria del Soccorso or Santa Maria della Palma church
 * Santa Maria dell'Aiuto parish church and sanctuary
 * Santa Maria dell'Itria or Odigitria, church
 * Santa Marta
 * San Martino dei Bianchi church
 * San Michele the Lesser
 * San Michele Arcangelo ai Minoriti (Franciscan) church, a second Minoritelli church is nearby
 * San Nicolò l'Arena (1687), unfinished basilica church and extensive Benedictine Monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena (1558)
 * San Nicolas al Borgo
 * San Placido (1769) church
 * Madonna delle Grazie Chapel
 * Santa Rita in Sant'Agostino church
 * San Sebastiano (1313)
 * Santa Teresa, Carmelitan church and convent
 * Santissima Trinità, church
 * Santa Ursula
 * Chiesa delle Verginelle di Sant'Agata
 * San Vincenzo de' Paoli, church
 * Santissimo Sacramento al Borgo church
 * Chapel of the Blind's Housing (Ospizio dei Ciechi)
 * Santissimo Sacramento al Duomo, church
 * Church of the Holy Child
 * Our Lady of Providence
 * San Berillo in Santa Maria degli Ammalati, church
 * Our Lady of the Poor
 * Little Saviour's Byzantine chapel
 * Church of the Santissimo Sacramento Ritrovato (1796)
 * Sanctuary of Our Lady of Ognina (1308). Ognina is the maritime quarter and the main fishing port in Catania. Many bareboats and sailing vessels gather here all year round. In its close vicinity is a cylindrical tower known as Saint Mary's Tower (Torre Santa Maria), which was restructured in the 16th century to prevent the frequent plundering by the Saracen pirates. The church is the result of the gradual modification of the Greek Temple Athena Longatis or Parthenos Longatis that existed on the steep reef. This cult was imported from a Boeotian region of Greece called Longas from where the first Hellenic settlers of this borough probably came. After the earthquake of 1693 it was rebuilt in the same place, but with a different orientation.
 * Our Lady of Montserrat (1755)
 * Saint Mary of La Salette
 * Our Lady of Concordia
 * Our Lady of Consolation
 * Santissimo Crocifisso Maiorana church
 * Crucifix of Miracles
 * Crucifix of Good Death
 * Our Lady of La Mecca
 * Most Holy Redeemer
 * Divina Maternità church
 * Chapel of Mary Auxiliatrix
 * Chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus church
 * Sacro Cuore al Fortino (1898) church
 * Saints George and Denis
 * Sacred Heart Church of the Capuchins
 * Saint Christopher
 * Saints Cosmas and Damian
 * Saint Vitus
 * Santi Angeli Custodi church
 * Santissimo Salvatore church

Other

 * Ursino Castle, built by emperor Frederick II in the 13th century.
 * Elephants' Palace (or "Palace of the Elephants"), designed by Vaccarini, houses the municipality offices.
 * University Central Palace, designed by the Battaglia family, is an offices seat and main library of the Catania University.
 * Biscari Palace
 * Tezzano Palace
 * The Medieval Gothic-Catalan Arch of the Friars' Saint John the Baptist (San Giovanni de' Fleres)
 * Porta Garibaldi, triumphal arch, originally Porta Ferdinandea erected in 1768 to celebrate the wedding of King Ferdinand I and Marie Caroline of Austria.
 * Porta del Fortino ("Redoubt Gate")
 * Bellini Theater
 * Sangiorgi Theater
 * Palazzo Rosa ("Pink Palace")
 * Negozio Frigeri, or Palazzina Frigeri ("Frigeri Shop", or "Frigeri Little Palace")
 * The House of the War Mutilateds (Casa del Mutilato) built in Fascist-style architecture.
 * Catania War Cemetery, a Commonwealth Graveyard located in the southern country hamlet of Bicocca.
 * Palazzo delle Poste ("Post Office Palace")
 * Bellini Garden, or Villa Bellini
 * Catania Botanical Garden
 * Pacini Garden, or Villa Pacini
 * Gioeni Park
 * Clementi Building
 * Garage Musumeci
 * Four sculpture reliefs' street lights, situated in the University Square ("Piazza dell'Università"), depicting legendary characters and events: Peix Nicolau; Amphinomus and Anapias; Gammazita; and the young knight Uzeta.

Economy
Catania is the first economic and industrial hub of Sicily. The city is famous for its mainly petrochemical industry, and the extraction of sulphur. In the year 2000, according to Census, Catania was the 14th richest city in Italy, with a GDP of US$6.6 billion (€6.304 billion), which was 0.54% of the Italian GDP, a GDP per capita of US$21,000 (€20,100) and an average GDP per employee of US$69,000 (€66,100).

In the late-19th century and early-20th century, Catania began to be heavily industrialised, with its several factories and chimneys, often being referred to as Southern Italy's "Manchester". The economy of Catania suffered heavily from the bad effects of World War I, and was marked by an economic crisis and recession that culminated in the 1920s. Since then, the city lost its industrial and entrepreneurial importance. In the 1930s, Catania remained a small fishing town with derelict and disused industries. However, after the destruction of World War II, Catania's economy began to re-grow in the late-1950s and early-1960s. The city's economic growth was so rapid and dynamic that it was often nicknamed the "Milan of the South", or in Italian "Milano del Sud". This rapid economic growth prompted a great number of Sicilians living in the more rural areas, or smaller towns such as Enna, Ragusa and Caltanissetta, to move to the city to seek new jobs.

Today, Catania, despite several problems, has one of the most dynamic economies in the whole of Southern Italy. It still has a strong industrial and agricultural sector, and a fast-growing tourist industry, with many international visitors coming to visit the city's main sights and the nearby Etna volcano. It contains the headquarters or important offices of companies such as STMicroelectronics, and also several chemical and pharmaceutical businesses. There have been several new business developments to further boost Catania's economy, including the construction of Etnapolis, a big shopping mall designed by Massimiliano Fuksas, the same architect who designed the FieraMilano industrial fair in Milan, or the Etna Valley, where several high-tech offices are located.

Tourism is a fast-growing industry in Catania. Lately, the administration and private companies have made several investments in the hospitality industry in order to make tourism a competitive sector in the Metropolitan City. Etnaland, a large amusement and water park located in Belpasso, is in the metropolitan area of Catania, 12 km from the city center. It is the largest of its kind in Southern Italy and attracts thousands of tourists, not only from Sicily, but also from the rest of Italy. According to Tripadvisor (2018) it is the third-largest water park in Europe.

The seaport of Catania is linked to the road-rail distribution hub of Bologna. In September 2020 Mercitalia Logistics opened the first full railway route to link the city to Northern Italy. It replaced an older mixed maritime-railway line.

Education
Established in 1434, the University of Catania is the oldest university in Sicily. Its academic nicknames are: Siculorum Gymnasium and Siciliae Studium Generale. It hosts 12 faculties and over 62,000 students; and offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

Catania hosts the Scuola superiore di Catania, linked to the University of Catania, aimed at excellence in education; they offer undergraduate and postgraduate programs for teachers.

Catania is home to the prestigious Istituto Musicale Vincenzo Bellini an advanced institute of musical studies (Conservatory) and the Accademia di Belle Arti an advanced institute of artistic studies. Both institutions offer programs of university level for musical and artistic education.

Culture
Opera composer Vincenzo Bellini was born in Palazzo Gravina-Cruyllas in the city center, the palace now houses a museum about him. The Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini, which opened in 1890, presents a variety of works through a season, which run from December to May, including the works of its namesake.

Giovanni Verga was born in Catania in 1840. He became the greatest writer of Verismo, an Italian literary movement akin to Naturalism. His novels portray life among the lower levels of Sicilian society, such as fishermen and stonemasons, and were written in a mixture of both literary language and the local dialect. Francesco Longo Mancini was a painter known for his paintings of nudes, who was born in Catania in 1880.

The city's patron saint is Saint Agatha, who is celebrated with religious pageantry, the Festival of Saint Agatha, on 5 February every year.

The city is the base of the newspaper La Sicilia and of the TV channel Antenna Sicilia, also known as the Sicilia Channel. Several other local television channels and free-press magazines have their headquarters in Catania.

Catania hosts Etna Comics, a successful comic book convention.

The city is home to the Catania Jazz Festival, which typically runs for several winter months with concerts in different locations. In the late 1980s and during the 1990s Catania had an energetic and unique popular music scene. Indie pop and indie rock bands, local radio stations, and dynamic independent music record labels sprung up as a result. As a result, in those years the city experienced a vital and effervescent cultural period. Artists like Carmen Consoli and Mario Venuti, and internationally known indie rock bands like Uzeda came out of this cultural milieu.

Sports

Catania is home to many sports clubs covering a wide range of disciplines. The most famous club is the Catania FC football team, followed by approximately half a million supporters. Another club standing out from the rest is AS Orizzonte Catania, which is the leading women's water polo club in Italy, with 24 National Championship titles (15 in a row from 1992 to 2006), and also in Europe, with 8 European Champions Cup titles.

Catania is the most successful city in team sports in the entire south of Italy (including Sicily and Sardinia), leading (as of June 2024) with 75 National Championships titles, ahead of Naples and of Bari.

As for individual sports, 56 athletes from Catania have won world titles, 54 have won European titles and 139 have won national titles.

In the Olympic Games, over the years, Italian athletes from Catania have won a total of 7 gold medals, 8 silver medals, and 4 bronze medals.

National Championships Titles Teams (as of June 2024)

Champion Cups Titles Teams (as of June 2024)

Main Sports Facilities

Catania holds the Catania-Etna car competition, organized by the Automobile Club d'Italia. The competition dates back to 1923 and has been taking place on a regular basis (with some gaps) from 1947. Suspended in 2010 due to a serious accident, the 46th edition is planned for the end of June 2021.

From 1960 to 2011 Catania held the International event named Trofeo Sant'Agata, a road running competition which took place in the streets of the city center, every year on 3 February (the day the Festival of Saint Agatha begins).

The city also hosted a series of International Sports Events:
 * 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens qualifying, and the associated Etna Cup, which was won by the host Sicily team.
 * 1994 UCI Road World Championships (together with Palermo and Agrigento).
 * 1997 Summer Universiade (together with Palermo and Messina).
 * 2003 Military World Games
 * 2011 Men's EuroHockey Championship III.
 * 2011 World Fencing Championships (Italy came out of this competition as the top winning nation with 11 medals, one won by the local fencer Paolo Pizzo).
 * 2024 World Company Sports Games.

Food and cuisine
Food is an important part of Catania's culture and way of life. Local cuisine emphasizes several traits of Sicilian cuisine, whilst developing some of its own character.

Street food is one of the best ways to experience traditional dishes. Arancini are perhaps the city's most iconic: they are stuffed rice balls coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried; in Catania, they are shaped like a cone to remind of Mount Etna. Typical specialties from the city include cipollina (puff pastry with onion, tomato, and prosciutto filling), bolognese (a small pizza topped with tomato, mozzarella, prosciutto, and boiled egg, and covered in puff pastry), crispelle (deep fried dough balls with ricotta or anchovies filling).

During street fairs and religious festivals, street stalls sell calia e simenza (toasted chickpeas and pumpkin seeds). Typical from old street markets are sangeli (cooked pork blood), quarumi (pork tripe), zuzzu (pork jelly), mauru (edible seaweed), and raw seafood. Horse meat is very traditional and is sold in shops called arrusti e mancia ("roast it and eat it"), which roast the meat in streetside barbecues.

Apart from street food, typical dishes from Catania are: pasta alla Norma (pasta with fried aubergine, tomato sauce and ricotta salata cheese), named after the namesake opera by Vincenzo Bellini; pasta cco niuru (pasta in cuttlefish ink), maccu (fava beans purée), bastaddi affucati or brocculi affucati (stewed cauliflower or broccoli), caponata (sautéed vegetables) and scacciata (a pie filled with tuma cheese) which is traditional during Christmastime.

Catania is also famous for its pasticceria (pastries and cakes). Pastries vary according to season and to seasonal events: during the Festival of Saint Agatha, patron saint of the city, there are the cassatelle (small cassatas) and olivette (olive shaped almond paste). In Easter, there are aceddi ccu l'ovu (boiled eggs covered in biscuit). In summer there is granita. During the Festa dei morti (traditional celebrations in All Souls' Day) there are biscuits called ossa di mortu, rame di Napoli and nsuddi.

Drink kiosks are everywhere in town and serve soft drinks. Traditional soft drinks are made by mixing fruit syrups with soda and other flavors such as anisette.

Local products include blood oranges, pistachios from Bronte, extra-virgin olive oil, cactus fruit, cherries, grapes from Mazzarrone, strawberries from Maletto, mushrooms, honey and wine.

Transport
Catania has a commercial seaport (Catania seaport), an international airport (Catania Fontanarossa), several railway stations (Catania Centrale is the main one) and it is the main node of the Sicilian motorway system.

The motorways serving Catania are the A18 Messina-Catania and the A19 Palermo-Catania; and the prosecution of the A18 going from Catania to Syracuse and to Gela.

The Circumetnea is a narrow-gauge railway that runs for 110 km from Catania around the base of Mount Etna. It attains an elevation of 976 m above sea level before descending to rejoin the coast at Giarre-Riposto to the north.

In the late 1990s, the first line of an underground railway (Metropolitana di Catania) was built. The underground service started in 1999 and it is currently active on a route of 8.8 km, from the station Nesima (west of town), passing through the stations of San Nullo, Cibali, Milo, Borgo, Giuffrida, Italia, Galatea, Giovanni XXIII, to Stesicoro. The last two stations, bringing Catania's underground into the city centre, opened on 20 December 2016. The line is planned to be extended from the satellite city of Paternò to Fontanarossa Airport.

Catania public transport statistics
The average amount of time people spend commuting on public transit in Catania on a weekday is 56 min. 13% of public transit riders ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 23 min, while 46% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 4.7 km, while 3% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.

Notable residents

 * Aaron ben Gershon abu al-Rabi, 15th century rabbi
 * Oriana Bandiera (born 1971), economist and academic
 * Pippo Baudo (born 1936), TV presenter
 * Franco Battiato (1945–2021), singer-songwriter, composer and filmmaker
 * Gianni Bella (born 1947), singer-songwriter
 * Marcella Bella (born 1952), singer
 * Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835), composer
 * Ornella Bertorotta (born 1967), politician
 * Alfredo Bonanno (born 1937), anarchist
 * Vitaliano Brancati (1907–1954), writer
 * Giuseppa Bolognara Calcagno (1826–1884), freedom fighter of the Risorgimento
 * Luigi Capuana (1839–1915), writer
 * Charondas (6th c. BC), jurist
 * Carmen Consoli (born 1974), singer-songwriter
 * Angelo d'Arrigo (1961–2006), aviator
 * Federico De Roberto (1861–1927), writer
 * Tea Falco (born 1986), actress
 * Giuseppe Fava (1925–1984), journalist, writer and playwright
 * Turi Ferro (1921–2001), actor
 * Rosario Fiorello (1960), comedian, singer, radio and TV presenter
 * Libero Grassi (1924–1991), businessman
 * Leo Gullotta (born 1946), actor
 * Andrea Lo Cicero (born 1976), rugby footballer
 * Miriam Leone (born 1985), Miss Italia 2008
 * Ettore Majorana (1905–?), physicist
 * Nino Martoglio (1870–1921), writer
 * Massimo Maugeri (born 1968), writer and journalist
 * Angelo Musco (1872–1937), actor
 * Tuccio Musumeci (born 1934), actor
 * Giovanni Pacini (1796–1867), composer
 * Luca Parmitano (born 1976), astronaut
 * Ercole Patti (1903–1976), writer and journalist
 * Goliarda Sapienza (1924–1996), writer
 * Giuseppe Sciuti (1834–1911), painter
 * Piermaria Siciliano (born 1974), swimmer
 * Stefania Spampinato (born 1982), actress
 * Stesichorus (c. 630 – 555 BC), poet
 * Giovanni Verga (1840–1922), writer
 * Manlio Vinciguerra (born 1976), scientist

Consulates
The following countries have a consulate in Catania: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, Senegal, Spain, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

Twin towns – sister cities
Catania is twinned with:

 * 🇫🇷 Grenoble, France, since 1961
 * 🇺🇸 Phoenix, United States, since 2001
 * 🇨🇦 Ottawa, Canada, since 2002
 * 🇵🇱 Oświęcim County, Poland, since 2010
 * 🇬🇧 Oxford, England, UK, since 2012
 * 🇸🇲 Borgo Maggiore, San Marino, since 2015
 * 🇷🇺 Kaliningrad, Russia, since 2017
 * 🇪🇬 Alexandria, Egypt, since 2019

Influence on the planning of Adelaide, Australia
The site of what was to become the major Australian city of Adelaide was surveyed and laid out by Colonel William Light, the first Surveyor-General of South Australia. In 1823, Light had fondly written of Catania: "The two principal streets cross each other at right angles in the square in the direction of north and south and east and west. They are wide and spacious and about a mile [1.6 km] long". This became the basis for his plan of Adelaide.

title: Catania