Yakuza Leader Takes Sabbatical

[Mulboyne]

Yoshinori Watanabe
Japan Times: Gangland power vacuum leaves Kobe residents gasping
The Yamaguchi-gumi has been thrown into chaos and uncertainty following leader Yoshinori Watanabe's announcement late last month that he would "take a break" from his responsibilities...Journalist Katsuhiro Yamada, who has written a three-volume history of the gang, has described Watanabe as something of a bookish intellectual who prefers reading to fighting. Yamada said, "Watanabe is an avid reader of Chinese literature and reportedly has a strong interest in the performing arts." Watanabe was officially made the fifth don of the Yamaguchi-gumi on July 20, 1989, during an elaborate ceremony at Kobe's Minatogawa Shrine...The ceremony took place nearly four years after Watanabe's predecessor, Masahisa Takenaka, was assassinated.
...It is not an orderly, formal transfer of authority that worries police and residents, but violent street battles between rival gangs jostling for power in the absence of a strong leader -- the same kind of strife that killed Takenaka in 1985.
GangstersInc. Profile of Watanabe

[jingai]

Thanks for that post. I'll have to check out the biography of Watanabe. I hope another Jingi Naki Tatakai doesn't break out in Kobe. I actually have the video of Watanabe's 1989 accession, including the yakuza karaoke party afterwards. I swear the songs they were singing were from old ninkyo yakuza movies.

[Mulboyne]

I actually have the video of Watanabe's 1989 accession, including the yakuza karaoke party afterwards. I swear the songs they were singing were from old ninkyo yakuza movies.

Watanabe...enjoys karaoke. (His repertoire includes a Japanese ballad set to the music from The Godfather.)

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Yahoo: Boss of Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate to be replaced

The head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, a major Japanese crime syndicate, will retire and be succeeded by the group's No. 2 man, police sources said Wednesday. The replacement of Yoshinori Watanabe, 64, with Kenichi Shinoda, 63, will be reported to the group's extraordinary executive meeting in Kobe on Friday, the sources said. The change will be the first for the Yamaguchi-gumi in 16 years.

[Taro Toporific]

Kyodo via Yahoo: Boss of Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate to be replaced

The head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, a major Japanese crime syndicate, will retire and be succeeded by the group's No. 2 man, police sources said Wednesday. The replacement of Yoshinori Watanabe, 64, with Kenichi Shinoda, 63, will be reported to the group's extraordinary executive meeting in Kobe on Frida...

So the real question is: Was this an official crime syndicate press release or do the Japanese police handle all the corporate communications for the Yamaguchi-gumi?

[Greji]

Kyodo via Yahoo: Boss of Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate to be replaced

The head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, a major Japanese crime syndicate, will retire and be succeeded by the group's No. 2 man, police sources said Wednesday. The replacement of Yoshinori Watanabe, 64, with Kenichi Shinoda, 63, will be reported to the group's extraordinary executive meeting in Kobe on Frida...

So the real question is: Was this an official crime syndicate press release or do the Japanese police handle all the corporate communications for the Yamaguchi-gumi?

No, they just have the same press agent!

[dimwit]

So the real question is: Was this an official crime syndicate press release or do the Japanese police handle all the corporate communications for the Yamaguchi-gumi?

They don't seem to have an offical website do they? Which is surprising because you would think they would try to market themselves like the Hell's Angels.

[jingai]

This is actually something I tried to find at one point. From what I could tell no organized crime groups had home pages (maybe a result of the 1992 anti-organized crime law?)
The uyoku though are all over the net and have their own ultrarightist webrings.

Black Emperor (bosozoku) also has a page, though it's not about current group activities.

[dimwit]

This is actually something I tried to find at one point. From what I could tell no organized crime groups had home pages (maybe a result of the 1992 anti-organized crime law?)
The uyoku though are all over the net and have their own ultrarightist webrings.

Black Emperor (bosozoku) also has a page, though it's not about current group activities.

I can see tons of sells opportunities for Yamaguchi-gumi T-shirts, key chains, and my personal favorite -Yak dolls complete with full body tattoos and removable pinkies.

[Taro Toporific]

Kyodo via Yahoo: Boss of Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate to be replaced

...

So the real question is: Was this an official crime syndicate press release or do the Japanese police handle all the corporate communications for the Yamaguchi-gumi?

No, they just have the same press agent!

Japan's largest underworld gang appoints new head
August 27, 2005, MSN-Mainichi
Japan's largest underworld gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi, formally appointed a new head Saturday, a media report said, marking the first change in power for the group in 16 years.
Kenichi Shinoda, 63, the former No. 2, took over in a ceremony held at the gang's headquarters in the western Japanese city of Kobe, the Kyodo News agency reported citing an unnamed source familiar with the syndicate. Police were unable to confirm the report.
Shinoda -- known as Shinobu Tsukasa in the underworld -- takes over from Yoshinori Watanabe, 64, who stepped down last month....more...

[Mulboyne]

MDN: Authorities fear expansion of Japan's largest crime group as it adds affiliate
Police believe Japan's largest underworld syndicate has formed an alliance with a major crime gang in Tokyo, significantly increasing its activities in Japan's main city, media reports said Thursday. The nearly 40,000-member Yamaguchi-gumi, which just named a new boss last month, has reportedly joined forces with the Tokyo-based Kokusui-kai, which has about 1,000 members. The Yamaguchi-gumi is based in Kobe and is involved in the illegal drug trade, prostitution, gambling and real estate and stock market scams...more...

[Greji]

MDN: Authorities fear expansion of Japan's largest crime group as it adds affiliate

It's interesting to observe that they can't even report on organized crime without blowing their own horn by showing they are on top of that area also!

Japanese gangsters -- commonly called the yakuza -- are among the world's wealthiest, bringing in billions of dollars a year from extortion, gambling, the sex industry, guns, drugs, and real estate and construction kickback schemes. They are also involved in stock market manipulation and Internet pornography.

Commonly called yakuza? What a revelation!

[dj-nosehair]

...extortion, gambling, the sex industry, guns, drugs, and real estate and construction kickback schemes. They are also involved in stock market manipulation and Internet pornography.

soundz like my kinda fing.

[dimwit]

It's interesting to observe that they can't even report on organized crime without blowing their own horn by showing they are on top of that area also!

Repeat after me 'JAPAN IS NUMBER ONE!'

[homesweethome]

MDN: Authorities fear expansion of Japan's largest crime group as it adds affiliate

It's interesting to observe that they can't even report on organized crime without blowing their own horn by showing they are on top of that area also!

Yeah, they are on top of it because they are it. They fear it because it is themselves. I thought everybody knew the Chimpira were always trained and recruited from the ranks of the J-police rookies, at least that is the way it works around here.

They make perfect recruits in their shiny uniforms carrying the Yamato banner.

[amdg]

"Initially, Watanabe's designated successor was Masaru Takumi, the No. 2 man in the gang. But Takumi was gunned down in August 1997 at a Kobe hotel by members of Nakano-kai, a rival gang, in an attack that also killed a bystander." - JT

It ain't no joke. Walking home drunk one night about 1.30am in a deserted shotengai, a black benz pulled in front of me and a punch-permed poser got out and leveled a pistol at me and fired. It's a testament to how drunk I was that I just kept on walking. I don't think he even noticed me, because he just ran past me down the shotengai without even looking at me. He was shooting at someone way off behind me.



I just kept on walking.
As Pickard says about the Borg - "they won't attack us until they consider us a threat"

[dj-nosehair]

"Initially, Watanabe's designated successor was Masaru Takumi, the No. 2 man in the gang. But Takumi was gunned down in August 1997 at a Kobe hotel by members of Nakano-kai, a rival gang, in an attack that also killed a bystander." - JT

It ain't no joke. Walking home drunk one night about 1.30am in a deserted shotengai, a black benz pulled in front of me and a punch-permed poser got out and leveled a pistol at me and fired. It's a testament to how drunk I was that I just kept on walking. I don't think he even noticed me, because he just ran past me down the shotengai without even looking at me. He was shooting at someone way off behind me.

damn, you iz a proper well 'ard geezer. you would do well daan murda mile in clapham.

[Taro Toporific]

"I Walking home drunk one night about 1.30am in a deserted shotengai, a black benz pulled in front of me and a punch-permed poser got out and leveled a pistol at me and fired. It's a testament to how drunk I was that I just kept on walking. ...
As Pickard says about the Borg - "they won't attack us until they consider us a threat"

Damn, I thought I was the only FG with a good story about walking into a Japanese drive-by shooting.
Back in the Bubble Days, 1989....
I rounded a corner at a pachiko parlor and walked into the haze from a full-clip burst of a silenced Mac-10. The chimpira hard emptied a full-clip, 30 rounds into the windows of the brand-new "rival" pachiko parlor. His eyes were closed---very spray and pray. There in Komagome Toshima-ku, obviously the new pachinko guys had not made accomodations with the other pachiko parlors in the area.

Not a scratch on me---the Pickard-Borg Effect seems to cover all of Japan.

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Besieged underworld regroups
...In its biggest shakeup in 16 years, the Yamaguchi-gumi named a new boss last month with a flurry of vows made over sake behind the walls of its headquarters in the port city of Kobe. Soon after, police reported another big move by the 40,000-strong gang -- it absorbed a large syndicate in Tokyo, traditionally one of its weaker markets...more...

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Tokyo's turf
Breaking the unwritten code that governs organized crime groups in Japan is an invitation for trouble. So when the Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation's largest crime syndicate, started plotting an eastbound move into Tokyo following a "bloodless coup" this summer, reverberations were felt across the underworld. The fear now is that a gang war could be looming..."Clashes are inevitable. They will happen sooner or later," was the somber assessment of the leader of a group affiliated with the Inagawa-kai, a major mob group based in Tokyo...more...

[Mulboyne]

MDN: Feared Yamaguchi-gumi group joins hands with smaller gang
KOBE -- The Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest gang group, has concluded a tie-up deal with another powerful crime syndicate, the Aizu Kotetsu-kai, during talks between their leaders here, police said. Police are wary of the move, viewing it as an attempt by the Yamaguchi-gumi to expand its organization even though the Kyoto-based Aizu Kotetsu-kai will not be an affiliate. The Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi has tried to enlarge its organization after its leader changed in July this year. It annexed the Tokyo-based Kokusui-kai in September. (Mainichi

[Captain Japan]

Weekend Beat: `Thoroughbred yakuza' survives suspicion, shootout
Asahi

Relaxing in a restaurant overlooking the Imperial Palace, Manabu Miyazaki looks every bit the gentleman in a navy blue suit and a Gucci tie. He says he loves ice-cream, especially vanilla and strawberry. It's a strain to match this dapper 59-year-old ice-cream lover with his shady, eat-or-be-eaten life.

A freelance yakuza, Miyazaki has often found himself on the wrong side of the law, but it was the infamous Glico-Morinaga extortion case that made him famous.

The incident began with the abduction by three men of the president of Ezaki Glico, a major candy maker, in March 1984. The president escaped 65 hours later. Over the next 17 months, the perpetrators blackmailed other companies, demanding millions of yen. Poisoned items, including those made by Morinaga & Co, were found in several places in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Kyoto.

Early in 1985, an artist's sketch of one of the possible culprits was splashed across newspapers and shown repeatedly on TV. There were few people in Japan that didn't see the sketch of the the "fox-eyed man," so dubbed because of a decided slant to the suspect's eyes.

The image bore a striking resemblance to Miyazaki. The physical description was also a close match.

"Everyone thought it was me except for me and my mother. She said I wasn't that ugly!" Miyazaki recalls, laughing....more...

[Mulboyne]

Weekend Beat: `Thoroughbred yakuza' survives suspicion, shootout
Asahi

Relaxing in a restaurant overlooking the Imperial Palace, Manabu Miyazaki looks every bit the gentleman in a navy blue suit and a Gucci tie...

Good Day Books:

On Sunday, 11 December 2005, Manabu Miyazaki, author of Toppamono: My Life in Japan's Underworld, will reprise his underworld career as a:"Thoroughbred Yakuza."

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Boss of Japan's biggest yakuza gang bound for prison
The head of Japan's largest underworld crime syndicate will soon be imprisoned after the country's top court rejected his appeal in a gun control violation case Thursday, a court official said. The Supreme Court ruling finalizes a six-year prison sentence on Kenichi Shinoda, 63, for conspiring with a bodyguard found to be in illegal possession of a gun in 1997, according to court spokesman Shigeru Ota. Shinoda, who took the helm of the 40,000-strong Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate earlier this year, has already served 13 years in prison in the 1970s for stabbing another gangster to death...more...

[Mulboyne]

Weekend Beat: `Thoroughbred yakuza' survives suspicion, shootout
Asahi

A good part of Manabu Miyazaki's book, "Toppamono", is in English here

[Mulboyne]

One of the main reasons the Yamaguchi-gumi anexed the Kokusui Kai (see above) was the gang's desire to get more heavily involved with the Tokyo real estate market. This Asahi editorial illustrates some of the tactics one of their other affiliates has been using:

EDITORIAL/ Yakuza syndicates

Tokyo police on Monday arrested the head of a gang affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation's biggest crime syndicate, in an investigation over the alleged illegal transfer of property rights to a 12-story building near busy JR Shinjuku Station. A total of 10 people were arrested, including Tadamasa Goto, leader of the Goto-gumi gang. The building in question is located in a prime commercial district adjacent to the head office of East Japan Railway Co. Property prices in many downtown areas of major cities have been bouncing back for some time as economic recovery continues. Goto and the others apparently tried to cash in on the upturn and make a handsome profit by selling the building.

Goto-gumi, headquartered in Shizuoka Prefecture, built up its ties with the Yamaguchi-gumi by helping the Kobe-based crime conglomerate to expand its operations into the Tokyo area. With many subordinate groups around the nation and around 700 members, Goto-gumi is now one of the Yamaguchi-gumi's leading affiliates. Goto-gumi is known for its propensity to violence and gang warfare. In 1992, senior members of the group attacked and seriously injured Juzo Itami, a film director who made a satirical movie about dealing with yakuza extortion techniques.

Another face of this crime syndicate, though, is that of a business-oriented gang aggressively pursuing profits in legitimate businesses. Although it has long been rumored to be involved in a variety of crimes, the group had eluded law-enforcement until Monday's police raid. Hopefully, the investigation into the building case will reveal the entire picture of the group's criminal structure and operations and end its infiltration into the business world.

The building in question attracted the attention of Metropolitan Police Department investigators in March, when an adviser to the property management company that partly owns it was stabbed to death on a street. The investigation should also uncover the facts related to this murder. Among those arrested was Susumu Nishioka, president of Ryowa Life Create Co., a real estate firm listed on the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company is the largest marketer of studio apartments for investment in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Nishioka has denied any wrongdoing. If the top executive of a listed company is actually implicated in a yakuza crime, the potential repercussions on society could be huge. The company should fully cooperate with the investigation to help disclose the truth. According to a survey by the National Police Agency, crime syndicates operating nationwide had a total membership of 43,000 at the end of last year, down 1,000 from a year earlier. But there were roughly the same number of associate members, and their ranks have grown steadily. These quasi-members use their ties with gangs for various unlawful activities and provide financial support to the crime organizations. They are also called yakuza-related-persons. Little is known, though, about these associates and their actual activities, even to police.

Gangs often prey on law-abiding citizens and companies by approaching them in the disguise of a legitimate business. The victims get involved in their unlawful operations before they realize the true identities of the people they are dealing with. In order to avoid falling prey to such tricks, people should be very careful in selecting business partners. We urge everyone to remain on their guard against shady businesses. During the asset-inflated economy of the late 1980s, many crime organizations raked in massive profits from property-related crimes like land sharking and extorting properties from owners. Now that the economy is emerging from its deflationary downturn, a lot of caution is needed to prevent a replay of the proliferation of land crimes in the bubble era. There must be many other cases where crime organizations are feasting on rising land prices through illegal schemes. Police should keep close watch on their activities and use all the legal means available to crack down on such crimes. The most effective way to keep yakuza groups from enjoying illegal ways to gain money is persistent police investigation into individual cases.

If Nishioka of Ryowa Life Create (above) is involved in illegal activities alongside the yakuza then that seems far more scandalous than anything Horie is alleged to have done. This hasn't gone unnoticed in the stock market where his company's stock price has so far dropped around 35% since the investigation began. The fall-out is unlikely to match the Livedoor circus, however.

See also: Japan Times: Police raid mob office, real estate agent in building probe

[Mulboyne]

Fairly lengthy article on the Yamaguchi-gumi from SeattlePI.com:

Former gangster details Yamaguchi-gumi

Shinji Ishihara's story, as he tells it, starts with a murder. It was the summer of 1970. Though the Yamaguchi-gumi was easily the biggest gangster syndicate in Japan, with tens of thousands of members, it was still trying to crack the huge Tokyo market for vice, which was tightly controlled by smaller but deeply entrenched gangs. Ishihara was one of the first Yamaguchi-gumi bosses to try to break their monopoly. With several underlings, he rented a small apartment near a popular red-light district and started a series of scams aimed at cheating the competition out of its profits. "We'd target other gangs," he recalled, "mainly because they had money and they weren't going to run off and complain to the police." Often, he would deliberately arrange a violent confrontation with a local gang that would lead to a negotiated truce, and then an alliance. If that didn't work, he had an array of other options that usually had a common result - money in his pocket...One August night, Ishihara drove up to a club where he heard a rival gang - the Kokusui-kai, or Japan Purity League - was running a high-stakes card game. He waited with two fellow gangsters until one of the rivals came outside. Ishihara signaled for him to get in their car, but he panicked and fled. Ishihara chased him down, they fought, and Ishihara slashed his thigh with a short samurai sword. With a major vein cut clean through, the gangster quickly bled to death...more...

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Gunrunning discovery sparks gang-war fears

Recently discovered gunrunning by an Inagawa-kai crime syndicate affiliate was likely linked to its plans to hit leaders of the Yamaguchi-gumi gang, believed to be planning an incursion onto Inagawa-kai turf, it has been learned. According to police sources, the Kanto region-based criminal organization had been smuggling weapons, including explosives, into Yokohama Port in preparation for an attack on leaders of the Kokusui-kai, a yakuza gang linked to Kansai-based Yamaguchi-gumi. The gang had even performed tests in which explosives were detonated by remote control. The Metropolitan Police Department, which believes the two rival yakuza syndicates have been antagonizing each other, will question Tadashi Matsuda, leader of Matsuda-gumi, a gang affiliated with Inagawa-kai. Matsuda was arrested Monday on suspicion of violating the Firearms and Swords Control Law by smuggling weapons into the country from the Philippines and Russia in December.

So far, 10 people, including Matsuda, have been arrested over the gunrunning. Sources said that suspicion of an impending gang war arose after the police questioned those arrested. According to the MPD, the gang planned to attack Kokusui-kai leaders by attaching explosives beneath their cars and detonating them by remote control. The group had already built blasting caps and explosives using gunpowder from fireworks, and were testing the devices to see if they could actually be exploded remotely. Upon further investigation, the police discovered dry battery cells and the lead wire thought to have been used for the detonator. The weapons and explosives were smuggled into Yokohama Port in December aboard a Philippines-registered cargo vessel. Included in the haul were firearms--including 11 handguns--and six kilograms of explosives usually used for blasting tunnels. The MPD believes the explosives were to be used to make remotely detonated car bombs. Kokusui-kai, based in Taito Ward, Tokyo, was an independent crime syndicate until September, when internal disputes led to it joining forces with the Yamaguchi-gumi. Many Kanto-based gangs see this move as providing an opportunity for Yamaguchi-gumi to gain a foothold in Tokyo, and the MPD is reportedly on a heightened state of alert.

[Mulboyne]

The Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest gang group, has concluded a tie-up deal with another powerful crime syndicate, the Aizu Kotetsu-kai...

Mainichi: Gang boss gunned down in Kanagawa

A gang boss died after he was found lying on a street here with a bullet wound to the head, say police...Police have identified the victim as 40-year-old Takao Nishikawa, a high-ranking member of a group affiliated with the Aizu Kotetsu-kai gang...more...

[Mulboyne]

The Japan Times interviews Manabu Miyazaki who also gets a few mentions above:

Outsider looking in

...Why do you think it is that, in a modern society such as Japan's, a yakuza group involved in such things as prostitution, drug-dealing and human trafficking is legally allowed to openly set up offices, put their name plates on the wall outside and register those offices with the government?

Strictly speaking, they don't register themselves with the government; it's that the government acknowledges them as yakuza. In Japanese law, there is nothing that says the yakuza themselves are illegal, so it's perfectly OK for them to have their offices. Another point is that prostitution, drug-dealing and violence exist all around the world, not just in Japan. Such activities are indeed illegal, but if you ask me who's the world's biggest inflicter of violence, I would say it's the United States. Without question. The (U.S.) government is in fact the biggest gangster group. That's why they are engaged in acts of torture at Abu Ghraib prison (in Iraq) and confinement (at the Guatanamo Bay detention center in Cuba). Compared to the level of atrocities committed in these places, acts committed by Japanese gangs probably rate only about one 100-millionth.

I don't believe that the world has a certain level of peace and human rights running through societies. I'll give you three examples of countries in history in which the yakuza have been eradicated: Germany under Hitler, Cambodia under the Pol Pot dictatorship and North Korea...more...