TOKYO (TR) – The release of Japan’s most powerful mafia boss from prison was a highly orchestrated underworld event, complete with a heavily fortified motorcade, massive police presence — and one completely oblivious commuter who decided to road-rage against the syndicate.
As told by veteran underworld journalist Tomohiko Suzuki to Shukan Post (July 24-31), the surreal scene unfolded on April 9, 2011, when Shinobu Tsukasa, the sixth-generation head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, was released from Fuchu Prison after serving a 64-month sentence for firearms violations.
Suzuki, on assignment for the weekly tabloid Shukan Jitsuwa, documented the tense morning. Tasked with tailing the kingpin, Suzuki arrived outside the prison gates before dawn riding a vintage 1980 Honda motorcycle — a bike gifted to him by a yakuza boss who later killed himself with a gunshot to the head.
Heavily guarded convoy
The atmosphere outside the prison was incredibly tense, coming just weeks after the devastating March 11 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster. Nearly 100 police officers guarded the perimeter, pushing back a massive scrum of reporters and black syndicate cars.
At 5:50 a.m., Tsukasa emerged in a black Toyota Alphard with heavily tinted windows, accompanied by top executives of the Kodo-kai, the Yamaguchi-gumi’s militant core faction.
As the convoy hit the Chuo Expressway, the yakuza executed a textbook anti-assassination formation. Consisting of two Alphards, two Toyota Centuries, and shadowed by unmarked police vehicles, the syndicate boxed in the boss’s vehicle.
By taking the far-left lane and surrounding Tsukasa’s car from the front, rear, and right flank, the gang ensured any rival hitman attempting to pull alongside would be immediately crushed against the guardrail.
However, despite their fearsome reputation, the Yamaguchi-gumi convoy strictly adhered to the legal speed limit. This proved too slow for the morning rush hour.
Heavily guarded convoy
According to Suzuki, a middle-aged man in work clothes driving a commercial van with a Sodegaura license plate began aggressively tailgating the yakuza motorcade. Completely unaware that he was harassing a heavily guarded convoy carrying the supreme leader of Japan’s largest crime syndicate, the agitated civilian repeatedly rode their bumpers in a display of road rage.
“I pulled my bike up next to the driver’s side,” Suzuki recalled of the oblivious man. “If possible, I wanted to tell him and see his reaction: ‘The person you are tailgating is the don of the Yamaguchi-gumi!'”
The bizarre morning highlighted the complex relationship between the yakuza the media, and law enforcement. Police had reportedly tipped off the press regarding the syndicate’s Shinkansen bullet train reservations to keep reporters away from Shinagawa Station.
Following the highway pursuit, Suzuki even received a complaining phone call from a Tokyo Metropolitan Police detective — a known yakuza sympathizer — who chastised the journalist for riding his motorcycle too close to the mob boss’s car.
