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Fukuoka police: Kudo-kai membership dropped 30% over 5 years

Hiroshi Kimura of the Kudo-kai
Hiroshi Kimura of the Kudo-kai
FUKUOKA (TR) – Fukuoka Prefectural Police on Thursday cited intensified anti-organized crime laws as the reason for the substantial drop in membership for the Kudo-kai, whose ranks have fallen by 30 percent over the last five years, reports the Nishi Nippon Shimbun (Jan. 10).

At the end of last year, the Kudo-kai, whose headquarters is located in Kitakyushu, had 950 members and associate members, a decrease of 400 from that of 2008.

“Strengthening of anti-organized crime activities has increasingly forced senior and mid-level members into retirement,” said a police representative.

Over each of the past six years, the combined membership of the top-five gangs in Fukuoka — with the Kudo-kai being the largest — has dropped. At the end of 2013, the total was 1,750, the lowest figure since the enactment of the Anti-Organized Crime Law in 1992.