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Yakuza groups in Kyushu to be reclassified to facilitate arrests

Yakuza groups in Kyushu to be reclassified to facilitate arrests
Hiroshi Kimura of the Kudo-kai
TOKYO (TR) – Later this month, the public safety commissions of five prefectures in Kyushu will re-categorize three organized crime groups to assist in restricting their activities, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Dec. 20).

On December 27, the commissions in Fukuoka and Yamaguchi prefectures will deem the Kudo-kai as a “dangerous” group. The Dojin-kai and Kyushu-Seido-kai will be marked as “combative” in Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Saga, and Fukuoka prefectures. The designations are a part of a revision to the Anti-Organized Crime Law initiated in October.

The goal is to further control the yakuza groups as such labels will allow law enforcement to arrest gang members without the issuing of a cease and desist order if illegal demands are made towards ordinary citizens.

The Kudo-kai will be labeled “dangerous” for a one-year period. The extortion of a citizen by a gang member will be met with an immediate arrest. The group is suspected to have been involved in a number of attacks upon citizens in the Kita Kyushu area of Fukuoka over the past year.

Likewise, the “combative” designation, which extends for three months, is in force to prevent yakuza groups that from posing harm to citizens who have attempted to eradicate them.

In a separate initiative, Fukuoka prefectural police announced last week the banning of organized crime groups from certain business districts in the prefecture beginning next year.