The contents of the “mysterious membership list” of a prestigious gang leaked to related parties. | FRIDAY DIGITAL

The contents of the “mysterious membership list” of a prestigious gang leaked to related parties.

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Yoshinori Oda is the chairman of Kizumikai. As a well-known gang, not only rival organizations but also investigative authorities are paying attention to its movements.

This summer marks the 10th anniversary of the “split war” that broke out when Japan’s largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchigumi VI, split off from the breakaway Kobe Yamaguchigumi. Under such circumstances, certain documents are attracting attention in the neighborhood. In mid-April, a “mysterious membership list” of Ikeda-gumi and Kizuna-kai, prestigious gangs that further broke away from Kobe Yamaguchigumi, was leaked to both police authorities and the gang industry.

The membership list includes the names and ages of the top executives of Ikeda-gumi and Kizumikai, as well as the names of the secondary organizations to which they belong. In the remarks column, there are also descriptions such as “arrested and detained” and “out of touch,” which appear to be memos regarding the current situation. The authenticity of this list is not certain. However, the latest information on detention is included, and there is speculation in the community as to the reason for the leak, the purpose of creation, and the source of the information.

What exactly is written in the “mysterious membership list” that is attracting the attention of those involved?

Part of the leaked list. In the column for Wakao Maeya, who caused the “Starbucks shooting” in January of this year, it says “arrested and detained. Other notations such as “Severe dementia” can also be seen.

First, for the Ikeda-gumi, which has its main base in Okayama Prefecture, “arrested and detained” is written in the remarks column for “Yuichiro Maeya,” the organization’s number two young leader. Maeya was wanted for murder in January of this year for shooting a man inside a Starbucks Coffee store in Shikokuchuo, Ehime Prefecture. The incident was the subject of much criticism because it occurred in the presence of many ordinary customers, and Maeya was arrested in March of this year for this incident. For this reason, the membership list is based on the facts.

Three other members, a prefect and a position holder, are listed as “inactive,” and another position holder is listed as “sick or hospitalized. Another secretary to the head of the clan and other executives are listed as having “severe dementia (in accordance with the notation in the membership list)” and other medical conditions, as well as “not heard from” and “plans to leave the organization”. The section also goes out of its way to mention that one of the executives “has reported his withdrawal to the Okayama Prefectural Police (he has debts from other organizations and is being collected). (He has debts from other organizations and is being collected.

Part of the Kizuna-kai membership list leaked at the same time. Here, too, the column for Kanazawa Wakagashira, who was arrested in February, states that he is “under detention. Other descriptions of his living conditions can also be seen.

In the Kizumikai’s membership list, Shigeki Kanazawa, a young head, is listed as “under detention. Kanazawa was wanted for shooting a man in Nagano Prefecture in September ’20, and was arrested for attempted murder in February ’24 after fleeing. There is no mistake about the facts on this point either. Kanazawa had been on the run for about three and a half years and was arrested while hiding in an apartment in Sendai City. Kanazawa had been based in Nagano Prefecture and had been living as a fugitive in the faraway Tohoku region.

Other remarks in the Kizuna-kai include “often walks around Kobe,” “inactive due to advanced age,” and “serving time in prison. Some of the entries also describe his actual living conditions, such as “living off the rent income from the apartment he owns with his parents.

A long-time senior executive of a designated crime syndicate, who has been involved in the organization for many years, emphasized that he had never seen such a list in his own experience and stated, “For example, we have a list of members who have been in prison for a long time in preparation for a war.

In preparation for a war, for example, we sometimes make a kind of list of organizations with which we might have a fight. In such cases, I would make a memo of the names, addresses, and main places of business of the executives of the organization, as well as the names, addresses, and places of work of the women (with whom I am dating), so that I would be able to move in case of an emergency. Even if a fight breaks out, it is ostensibly forbidden to barge into the woman’s home, but it is just a precaution.

The “mysterious membership list” circulating around a well-known gang may be a premonition of the intensification of a divisive war that is now in its 10th year (honorifics omitted in the text; some names are given as aliases).

In the paid version of “FRIDAY GOLD,” the actual photo of the mysterious membership list that circulated in the neighborhood is published in full. It also reports in detail on the cause of the leak and the purpose of its creation.

Click here for the actual photo of the mysterious list of members that circulated in the neighborhood.

  • Interview and text by Masahiro Ojima

    Nonfiction writer. After working for the Sankei Shimbun newspaper as a reporter for the National Police Agency, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department, the Judicial Press Club, and the National Tax Agency Press Club, he became a freelance writer. His recent book is "How We Live: Money, Women, and Quitting Time of the Modern Yakuza" (Kodansha + Alpha Shinsho).

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