Yazuka leader’s death sparks bloody feud

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 43

Yazuka leader’s death sparks bloody feud

NZPA-Reuter Kobe The bloody feud between Japan’s biggest underworld gang and a breakaway group is unlikely to end until the powerful Yamagu-chi-Gumi takes revenge on the rebels by killing their chief, according to a senior Japanese police official in Kobe.

In the three months since the breakaway Ichiwakai gang shot dead the Yamaguchi boss, Takehisa Takenaka, and two aides, 12 gangsters from the two groups have been killed and 17 injured in a wave of shootings that shows no sign of slackening. “Will they fight on until they are exhausted or will the Yamaguchi-Gumi be satisfied with the balance sheet of blood if they kill (Ichiwakai boss) Hiroshi Yamamoto ?” asks Police Inspector Minoru Tomizawa.

Mr Tomizawa, head of the Hyogo Prefecture Police Gangster Section, admitted that the police could not stop the rising tide of violence, though they are trying to limit it by guarding the gangs’ offices and the homes of likely targets. What is most worrying is that the sheer incompetence of the hitmen is endangering innocent citizens, says Tomizawa.

“They are not used to handling guns, they go out afraid of being killed or captured and sometimes they miss their target and hit neighbouring houses,” he said.

Only hours after the in-

terview a bystander was injured in a car park shootout in Kobe in which one gangster was killed and three injured. Traditionally yakuza, or gangsters, prefer to settle accounts with the sword and consider the use of guns cowardly. But they have had to move with the times and take up guns. Mr Tomizawa said yakuza had been improving their markmanship at shooting ranges for tourists in Hawaii and Manila.

In Japan, where possession of guns is illegal, practice is more difficult. “They practise on the motorway, aiming at traffic signs from speeding cars,” he said. Such methods sound amateurish. But the row over the Yamaguchi-Gumi leadership that sparked Japan’s biggest gangland conflict since early post-war days has brought out the loyalty, greed and ruthless ambition of the yakuza subculture.

The codes of loyalty and obedience which in romantic theory bound yakuza to their leaders and colleagues in bygone days were and still are enforced through violence and fear, said Mr Tomizawa. Ceremonies such as the “sakazuki goto” (exchange of sake cups) link the “oyabun,” the boss or father of the gang, with his “ko-bun,” or children, and make equals into brothers.

Disobedience or failure was still punished by chopping off a little finger. Junior

gang members confessed to crimes committed by their leaders and emerged from prison to a hero’s welcome and promotion, Mr Tomizawa said.

Some members were reluctant to risk a 10 or 15 year jail sentence for murder and set out to commit minor offences, expecting to be caught, so that they would not be available as hitmen, he said.

But with the YamaguchiGumi’s 11,000 members pitted against the 2800 of the Ichiwakai gang, there is no shortage of gunmen. “They will continue to kill each other until they think the score is settled,” Mr Tomizawa said.

Away from hotspots such as Kobe, it’s business as usual. Like many conglomerates, the gangs are moving overseas to secure supplies as well as training. “We believe their main purposes are to establish rings and channels to smuggle guns, stimulant drugs and women for prostitution,” Mr Tomizawa said. A visit to the YamaguchiGumi headquarters, a few kilometres from the docks where the gang was founded in 1915, gives a clue to the peculiar acceptance of the yakuza in Japanese society. The two-storey brick building sits in a quiet street lined with lawyers’ offices only a stone’s throw from the district Law Courts — a gesture of bravado and a challenge to the forces of law and order.

Three tough young men in dark blue jeans and shirts

lounge on folding chairs on the pavement, facing two policemen in full riot gear stationed across the street.

Through affiliates and branches across Japan, the gang runs illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion, and drugs rackets. Kazuo Nakanishi, acting leader of the gang, may be planning his next move in the vicious struggle for power and survival.

But his head office, with the Yamaguchi diamond emblem above the entrance, looks as quiet as a suburban bank.