The Italian mafia is evolving to operate more like the Japanese Yakuza do. The Yaks are so "infiltrated" into Japanese business and civil service that the Japanese just consider them a part of ordinary life. Only recently have law enforcement and some businesses been cracking down on the Yakuza presence.

I was under the impression the Italian mafia is very mainstream too.

As an Italian entrepreneur in Milan I must say: absolutely not! We are ensnared with inefficiencies often requiring ‘networking’, nepotism and clientelism, but the reek of the Mafia is nauseating and avoided at all costs. It's about, of course, but nobody I know or know of ‘accepts’ it.

Is it more acceptable in certain regions? I guess Milan is a pretty important city, so I can't see the Mafia being tolerated. But what about for small shops in villages etc.?

Milan: North Mafia: South

That's definitely an oversemplification of a complex problem, as anyone can understand. There is mafia also in the North of Italy, just a quick lookup to the news will do.

Really, Italy is a young and complex countries with regional differences that are almost ununderstandable to foreign people. There are many "mafias", more or less violent, more or less connected with the economic and political powers, it's not simple and it's not dicothomic, there is a very big grey area.