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Yamaguchi-gumi to be labeled ‘violent’ for 9th time

Big bosses: Kunio Inoue of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi (left) and Shinobu Tsukasa of the Yamaguchi-gumi
Big bosses: Kunio Inoue of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi (left) and Shinobu Tsukasa of the Yamaguchi-gumi

HYOGO (TR) – The Hyogo Prefectural Public Safety Commission on Monday announced plans to designate Japan’s largest organized crime group as “violent” for the ninth time, reports the Sankei Shimbun (June 13).

The commission said that the Yamaguchi-gumi will be designated as a boryokudan, or “violent organization,” designation on June 23, with the label extending for three years.

Led by Shinobu Tsukasa, the gang is currently embroiled in a turf war. Last year, 13 gangs defected from within the Yamaguchi-gumi to form the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, headed by Kunio Inoue, as a rival syndicate. Since then, a number of shooting and car-ramming incidents involving the two gangs have taken place across the nation.

Earlier this month, Okayama police arrested a 32-year-old member of the Kodo-kai, an affiliate gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi, in the shooting death of a Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi member in Okayama City on May 31.

On April 15, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi received the boryokudan designation. Under the designation, police are able to more easily make arrests of members of both gangs and restrict activities.

As of March 1, the Yamaguchi-gumi had approximately 5,700 regular members while membership for the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi stood at 2,700, making it Japan’s third largest criminal syndicate.