While the head of the Tsukasa Shinobu clan was holding a meeting with his relatives and friendship groups… The inside story of how a senior member of the Yamaguchigumi VI descended on “the outskirts of Chiba Prefecture”.

It was on July 17 that a quiet residential area in Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture, suddenly became noisy.

The Soai-kai, a designated crime syndicate headquartered in Ichihara City. A little after 9:30 in the morning, police vehicles arrived at the headquarters one after another. At a little after 10:30 a.m., led by Soaikai Chairman Noboru Shiizuka, the gang members in black suits appeared in front of the headquarters building under the blazing sun and lined up in a row. As tensions rise, the investigators all get out of their cars at the same time and increase their vigilance. The first to alight is Masayoshi Usuba, assistant head of Yamaguchigumi VI and president of the Hirai Family XI. What in the world is a senior member of the Yamaguchigumi VI doing?

It was Chairman Shiizuka’s birthday. The Soai-kai is a relative organization of the Yamaguchigumi VI. Mr. Usuuba visited to celebrate the birthday as a representative of the association. The Soai-kai has built a good relationship with the Yamaguchigumi, as exemplified by the fact that the head of the Soai-kai, Shinobu Tsukasa, attended the succession ceremony for the change of chairman in 2004 as a guardian of the heir.

For the birthday celebration, it is customary to send out an executive from the Yamaguchigumi VI, and head Tsukasa also sends congratulatory flowers. This year, too, the head of the Tsukasa clan sent a congratulatory orchid.

Other top leaders of secondary organizations of the Yamaguchigumi VI also showed up at the headquarters of the Soai-kai. Chairman Mitsuo Sato of the Ochiai Kanamachi Rengo, Shigemasa Hamada of the Hamao Gumi II, Toshio Takeshima of the Ryochi Gumi II, and others also celebrated Chairman Shiizuka’s birthday.

In August of this year, it will be nine years since the split with the Kobe Yamaguchigumi began. The goal of the Yamaguchigumi VI has not changed, which is the end of the split war. While Kobe Yamaguchigumi has been producing defectors one after another, Yamaguchigumi VI has been very tough: from July 1 to 3, members of the executive committee, including head Tsukasa and young Seiji Takayama, held a series of meetings with the heads of 10 organizations that are relatives and friends of theirs.

Of course, President Shiizuka and four top executives from Soaikai also visited. The meeting must have been a productive one, as President Tsukasa was seen smiling after the meeting as he walked out to see them off. First, they will make the inside of the organization solid, and after that, they may finally launch into the battle for the top position.

Various speculations are being mixed up before the August milestone.