TOKYO (TR) – Earlier this month, the Kyushu Seido-kai organized crime group informed law enforcement that it was ending a long-running feud with a rival gang and disbanding operations, reports the Sankei Shimbun (June 18).
On June 11, senior members of the Kyushu Seido-kai visited the Kurume Police Station in Fukuoka Prefecture to announce the conclusion of their seven-year dispute with the Dojin-kai organized crime group, whose members were also present. The Kyushu Seido-kai representatives said that the gang was disbanding to resolve problems the dispute had caused.
The Kyushu Seido-kai began in 2006 as an offshoot of the Dojin-kai following the resignation of longtime Dojin-kai boss Seijiro Matsuo. In Fukuoka, Saga, and Kumamoto prefectures, the gangs had a engaged 47 in violent incidents that have resulted in 14 deaths.
In November 2007, Fumio Imada, a Dojin-kai member, was arrested for the shooting death of a male patient in a hospital room in Saga Prefecture. The previous occupant of the room was a member of the Kyushu Seido-kai.
The feud has been intensifying in the last year. The Dojin-kai is believed to have been behind multiple murders of Kyushu Seido-kai gangsters: An explosion killed one boss and his brother inside a car in Omuta in April 2011, and, that same month, a member was stabbed to death in Ogi, Saga Prefecture.
Last year, the Kyushu Seido-kai was believed to have been involved in a pair of grenade attacks on the Dojin-kai compound. In September, a building in Tsubukuimamachi owned by the former wife of an upper member of the Kyushu Seido-kai was hit by a Molotov cocktail.
On December 27 of last year, the public safety commissions of four prefectures in Kyushu will re-categorized both organized crime groups as “combative” to assist in restricting their activities.