<p><span class="strongInContent">With the &#8220;Yamaguchigumi split war&#8221; entering its 10th year in August, what is happening in the world of chivalry today? Nonfiction writer Masahiro Ojima, author of &#8220;The True Story of the Yamaguchigumi Split&#8221; and other books, looks back on the incidents that occurred in 2012.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_406413" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-406413" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="9b739a46"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/a25ff399410e0fb8733251aabb0d8539-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-406413" class="wp-caption-text"> Shinobu Tsukasa (center), head of the Yamaguchigumi VI. As the &#8220;split war&#8221; enters its 10th year, what is happening on the front lines?</figcaption></figure>
<p> This summer marks the 10th year of the ongoing &#8220;rivalry&#8221; between the VI Yamaguchigumi, Japan&#8217;s largest crime syndicate, which split in August 2003, and the breakaway Kobe Yamaguchigumi. The composition of the Yamaguchigumi VI has become more complicated, as the police authorities have identified that it is also in a state of rivalry and warfare with the Ikeda-gumi and the Kizuna-kai, which further broke away from the Kobe Yamaguchigumi.</p>
<p> The events that symbolized the year 2012 were the arrest of Shigeki Kanazawa, a young head of the Kizumikai, a rival gang to Yamaguchigumi VI, and the acquittal of Koji Nakata, head of the prestigious Yamaguchigumi affiliated Yakuza clan, the Sankenkai. We will look back on this year centering on these two events surrounding Yamaguchigumi VI and predict the year 2013, which will mark the 11th year of the split next summer.</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Behind the Scenes&#8221; of the Arrest of Wakao Kanazawa of the Kizuna-kai</span></h3>
<p> Wakao Kanazawa was a feared &#8220;hitman&#8221; who killed Yamaguchigumi VI leaders in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture. No doubt, the most relieved party over his arrest is the Yamaguchigumi VI side. A senior police official said of the arrest, &#8220;We were able to arrest Kanazawa,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The police authorities&#8217; investigative officials were a bit backward-looking about the arrest, saying, &#8220;It may have been a fluke that we were able to arrest Kanazawa.</span></p>
<p> The police authorities&#8217; investigative officer commented somewhat retroactively on the arrest, saying, &#8220;It may have been a lucky break that we were able to arrest Kanazawa. The arrest of Kanazawa, who had been on the run for about three years and four months, came as a &#8220;byproduct&#8221; of the arrest at an apartment in Sendai City where he was hiding out. In January of this year, a man claiming to be &#8220;Satoshi Kirishima&#8221; appeared in the news, and his wanted list was widely reported, attracting attention to Wakao Kanazawa, who was pictured next to him.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The police throughout the country designate November every year as the month for intensifying investigations of wanted suspects. We have been visiting hotels and inns and asking for information about suspicious customers, but for more than three years we have not been able to obtain any information about Kanazawa. We should have conducted a more aggressive investigation.</span></p>
<p> Since the precedent of life imprisonment in even one murder case by a gang is well-established, it is expected that a harsh judicial decision awaits the young Kanazawa leader who has caused two murders and one other attempted murder. This was a major event in the weakening of another Yamaguchigumi VI rival organization.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Yamaguchigumi VI returns with a well-known executive"></div>
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<figure id="attachment_406450" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-406450" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d8595349"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/7cf2b38ed7afc03217ae031beff01877-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-406450" class="wp-caption-text">Seiji Takayama, assistant head of Yamaguchigumi VI (center). In addition to his home organization, the Kodokai, this October, a well-known gang leader who leads a martial yakuza group returned to Yamaguchigumi VI.</figcaption></figure>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> The head of the martial yakuza group &#8220;Sanken-gumi&#8221; has returned.</span></h3>
<p> This fall, a major news story broke in the gang industry. In October, the Kobe District Court acquitted Koji Nakata, the leader of Yamaguchi Gumi VI&#8217;s Yamaken Gumi, of attempted murder and other charges. Nakata was indicted for firing a pistol at a member of the Yamaguchigumi VI&#8217;s Kodokai in Kobe City in August 2007, seriously wounding him and amputating his arm.</p>
<p> One might wonder why a shooting incident occurred between two members of the same Yamaguchigumi VI, but at the time of the incident in &#8217;19, the Yamakengumi led by its leader Nakata was the core organization under the Kobe Yamaguchigumi umbrella. The shooting incident was believed to be a retaliation for a series of attacks on executives of organizations affiliated with the Kobe Yamaguchigumi.</p>
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<p> Yamaguchigumi is a prestigious organization that has produced Yamaguchigumi leaders in the past. Known as a martial faction, it has played a central role in the &#8220;Yamaguchigumi split war. The arrest of the head of such a well-known yakuza group, a designated gang leader said, &#8220;The head of the Yamaguchigumi has been hit by a hit himself,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> It was shocking that the head of the Yamaken clan was arrested for causing the incident himself as a hitman. Yamaken is a brand name in the yakuza industry. At one time they were said to have several thousand members. There should have been plenty of people who would have gone into fights. At the time, I wondered what the hell was going on.</span></p>
<p> He recalls.</p>
<p> The Kobe Yamaguchigumi had momentum for a while after its formation, but then the aforementioned Kizuna-kai (at that time, the ninkyodoran Yamaguchigumi) left in 2005 due to internal financial troubles and disorder of leadership. Yamaken-gumi also &#8220;returned&#8221; to Yamaguchigumi VI in 2009.</p>
<p> This meant that Yamakengumi had been fully restored to the Yamaguchigumi VI camp. It has been confirmed that the Nakata clan leader was immediately engaged in diplomacy, for example, having barbeque with Sumiyoshi-kai executives in Tokyo in early November, and meeting with famous organizations in the Kanto region in late November.</p>
<p> The prosecutors, however, have not been silent. They have already appealed the case and the hearing has moved to the second round. Akira Maruta, who presided over the first trial, has a history of acquittals in gang-related cases in the past, but that case resulted in a reversal of the conviction in the second trial, and the Rokumei are closely watching the trial.</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent">Unstoppable Decrease of Kobe Yamaguchigumi</span></h3>
<p> Since the split, Yamaguchigumi VI has caused the overwhelming majority of conflicts, while Kobe Yamaguchigumi&#8217;s gap in power has widened, partly due to the successive departures of core organizations such as Yamaguchigumi. At the end of 2003, when the split occurred, Yamaguchigumi VI had approximately 6,000 members, while Kobe Yamaguchigumi had approximately 2,800 members, a ratio of approximately 2 to 1.</p>
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<p> However, at the end of 2011, the latest data available, the Kobe Yamaguchigumi had approximately 150 members while the Yamaguchigumi VI had approximately 3,500, a difference that has widened more than 25-fold. This trend is expected to continue in 2013, and some senior police officials are of the opinion that <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;the number of members of Kobe (Yamaguchigumi) at the end of 2012 may have decreased to two digits</span>.</p>
<p> Nevertheless, the rivalry has not ended: In December, a man was stabbed to death in Ibaraki Prefecture. Because the man was a former Yamaguchigumi leader, the story was breaking news in the gang circles, and police authorities were temporarily on edge. Although the incident was later confirmed to have nothing to do with the rivalry and there was a sense of relief, the police authorities are keeping a close watch on the situation.</p>
<p> There is no guarantee that reprisals will not begin again for some reason, and vigilance will continue.</p>
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 Masahiro Ojima

 Takero Shigumura

 This August, the ongoing "split war" between the Yamaguchigumi VI and the Kobe Yamaguchigumi entered its 10th year. What happened on the front line of the war in this milestone year? Nonfiction writer Masahiro Ojima takes a close look.

The arrest of a young head of a rival organization and the return of the head of a &#8220;martial yakuza&#8221;&#8230; What is happening at the forefront of the &#8220;Yamaguchigumi split war&#8221;, a milestone.

The arrest of a young head of a rival organization and the return of the head of a “martial yakuza”… What is happening at the forefront of the “Yamaguchigumi split war”, a milestone.

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