The YAKUZA gang that CONQUERED Japan - History of the Yamaguchi-gumi

foreign is a competitive field and just like in any other competitive environment there are occasionally groups and characters that just stand out even among their countless competitors the American Mafia alone has had multiple bosses who fell into this category Lucky Luciano John Gotti and Al Capone being only a few examples in Colombia you have Pablo Escobar maybe the most famous of them all Japan's Yakuza gangs lacked such a standout character or group sure the history of organized crime in Japan goes back more than 400 years but rarely was there ever a group or person that represented the nation's crime as a whole it wasn't until after the second world war that one particular Yakuza gang Rose to the top and stood Head and Shoulders Above the Rest while the names yamaguchigumi and taoka kazuo are certainly not household names beyond the Japanese border there are many reasons as for why this should be the case from clinging onto membership numbers in the low double digits to becoming the biggest crime organization in Japan this video will cover it all over the course of seven chapters in chapter 1 we will take a look at how the yamaguchigumi was established in Chapter 2 taoka kazuo becomes the gang's leader and transforms it into a force to be reckoned with in chapter 3. a classic East versus West rivalry turns violent in chapter 4. before tauka leaves behind some big shoes to fill in chapter 5. in chapter 6 things really get out of hand thanks to the bloodiest gang war in Japanese history finally in chapter 7 we will take a look at the evolution of the yamaguchigami and the Yakuza from the 1990s until today this is the story of the yamaguchigumi [Music] thank you foreign the founding of Japan's biggest ever gang takes us to the early 20th century and the russia-japanese war which ended in September of 1905. a 24 year old Soldier by the name of Yamaguchi harukichi was finally allowed to go back to his home country of Japan the port city of Kobe to be exact when he started work as a fisherman upon his return he quickly discovered that the chop simply wasn't for him and got a job as a dog worker instead the docs were of course a big focal point of business in the city of Kobe and still are to this day it didn't take much time for harukichi to rise through the ranks at his new job at the Port of Kobe he possessed the physical strength necessary for a dock worker but also shook his some incredible leadership and organizational skills while gaining recognition at his workplace harukichi also joined the oshimagumi in 1912. the oshimagami was one of the biggest Yakuza groups in Kobe at the time and was also involved in business at the Docks supplying the local shipyards with laborers as well as bodyguards just like at work he also made quite an impression on the members of the oshimagumi in 1915 just three years after joining he took around 50 of the gang's members and founded his own gang as their leader the gang was to bear his family name and was named yamaguchigumi or yamoguchi Association this might also be a good time to explain their cool looking logo the name Yamaguchi is written with the letters for Yama meaning mountain and kuchi which means entrance the Yamaguchi emblem takes the letter for mountain and warps it into the shape of a diamond this is also the reason why the gang's logo is often referred to as Yama Bishi or Mountain diamond pretty cool from the very beginning harukichi and his followers got into the same business that they were involved in at their previous game by supplying laborers to shipyards interestingly yamaguchikemi members also knew how to entertain the masses they were known in Kobe to be quite talented performers of rokyoku a type of narrative singing which was popular in early 20th century Japan it didn't take very long for the yamaguchigami to gain many new members and eventually even outgrow the group that it split from the oshimagumi despite the Manpower and popularity that he attained harukichi decided to hand over the Reigns of the yamaguchigumi only 10 years after its creation as a successor he chose his eldest son noboru who was only 23 years old at the time despite his young age he had already made a name for himself as a talented up-and-coming gang boss taking control of his own group before succeeding his father as the head of the yamaguchikumi noboru was able to further expand the family's poor business as well as their presence in Kobe's entertainment industry apparently he even had a hand in the sport of sumo wrestling despite his talents and achievements as boss of the yamaguchigumi the gang's future rise to the top would come from an unexpected place his younger brother's high school class foreign [Music] was born in 1913 in a prefecture called tokushima which is located on shikoku the smallest of Japan's four main islands a rough early life awaited him as soon as he was born with his father passing away immediately when he was six years old he lost his mother as well due to a heart attack caused by overwork as a result young Kazu ended up in the care of his uncle and his aunt who resided in Kobe while his uncle was abusive and a heavy drinker his aunt simply didn't care about her nephew at all when he was only 14 he was sent to work on the docks of Kobe all while still attending High School it was at school that he became friends with yamoguchihideo the younger brother of yamaguchigumi leader noboru thanks to these connections to the gang both through his classmate and his work at the Docks tauke started associating with the yamaguchigumi for multiple years though he was nothing more than an errant boy having to slowly work his way up the hard way through the ranks of the Yakuza group on his way to becoming an actual sworn member of the gang he earned the nickname the bear earned through his incredibly violent nature during fights it was said that Talca enjoyed the act of gouging out his opponent's eyes a bit more than an average person would after running errands and gouging eyes out for nine years he finally became a true member of the yamaguchigumi however following this achievement he immediately received an eight-year prison sentence for fatally attacking the member of a rival gang while his prison sentence was supposed to end in 1945 he was released early in 1943 the relief that taluka must have felt when he was finally released from prison was hugely overshadowed by what happened outside of his jail cell during the previous five years though the founder of the yamaguchigami as well as his son and leader of the Gang both died while tauka was locked up of course Japan was deeply involved in World War II as well which saw the national budget poured into combat while the population was starving no exception was made for the Yakuza there were previous sources of income like Street Markets gambling and extortion were now a thing of the past while the political influence and connections that they were able to acquire were of no use anymore additionally their members would be drafted into the military in large numbers destroying many of the biggest pre-war gangs in the country the end of the war was followed by a difficult period of rebuilding under American occupation in the early days of this occupation pretty much the entire police force was dismantled leading to turmoil and disorder across Japan to replace the police tawaka formed his own group The Tao kagumi which was supposed to replace the police and keep this order in Kobe at a minimum while also bringing the growing black markets under their control quickly the tawakagumi made a name for itself in its Hometown which also caught the attention of the yamaguchigumi elders who were still looking for a successor to noboru in October of 1946 tauka earned the title of kumicho of the yamaguchigumi making him the boss of an organization which was nearly decimated during the war just like the government of Japan he had a tough rebuild ahead of him a rebuild that he would not only successfully pull off but one that was about to surpass any and all expectations [Music] when Talcott took over the yamaguchigumi the former glory of the gang had almost completely vanished tauka though turned out to be a mastermind in terms of organization as well as making do with what he had available to him what he had were around 25 members about half of what the gang started with back in 1915. thankfully for tahalka these 25 members were the most dedicated Bunch that one could hope for this passion was mixed in with the leader's ruthlessness which he knew how to balance with a sharp mind and sense for business the yamaguchigumi was now ready to rise to the top one of his first moves was setting up a construction business which employed the gang's members with many of Japan's biggest cities including Kobe left almost completely destroyed after the war finding jobs in construction was anything but difficult on top of that talca's men could get work done extremely efficiently even among the Japanese these loyal Yakuza members stood out as a particularly hard-working Bunch while construction certainly secured a steady flow of cash for the yamaguchigami tauka was already looking at additional sources of income gambling and extortion to be exact to get into these profitable but competitive businesses Talca was even ready to cooperate with another gang called ondakai the Honda Kai was the leading group of bakuto or gamblers in post-war Kobe and should have been a valuable Ally for the yamaguchigumi while tauka tried to keep up good relations with the Honda Kai he was simply too ambitious to consider another gang boss as his equal consequently a gang war ensued which sought haoka's yamaguchigami handle the yacht class to hanakai in terms of sheer violence taluka's men might have learned a thing or two from the bear as their leader was called in the past one has to wonder how many eyes were poked out during this gang war ultimately the Honda Kai was not only defeated it was also absorbed by the yamaguchigumi but hauka didn't stop there his next targets came from Osaka Japan's second biggest city and close neighbor of the city of Kobe the mayokai a Korean gang as well as the miyamotokai were both defeated and allowed Tahoka to step foot into Osaka for the first time osakai is well known for being home to some of Japan's most extroverted and fun people naturally it didn't take long for Show Business to become a big thing again in Osaka only a few years after World War II kauka saw the potential money in this rise of the entertainment industry and created a talent agency this agency was actually able to get involved with some of Japan's most high-profile entertainers of the 1950s among them were singer misura hibari the singing comedian enamoto Kennedy and the musician Tabata yoshio even with all this Glitz and glamor becoming a part of his life he didn't forget about his roots as a dock worker further expanding his business at the kobadox the city had one of the countries and one of the world's busiest ports by the mid-1960s taoka was able to control a whopping 80 percent of all the cargo that was handled at Kobe's shipyards he owned around 14 companies in Kobe which made around 17 million dollars in 1965 alone tauka also tried his best to get his gang members to educate themselves about business he was quoted as telling them that from now on Yakuza must read economic newspapers and to pay attention to the stock markets speaking about his gang the yamaguchukumi their expansion happened at a rapid Pace as well by 1964 343 smaller Yakuza families were part of the yamaguchigumi totaling around 10 000 kobun or lower class gangsters under the control of tauka kazuo at this point there was no denying it taoka had made it not only as a gang boss who commanded enough men to start a small army he had also proven to be a Savvy businessman who can compete with the best of them such Financial power and influence unavoidably caught the attention of Japanese government officials as well konoichiro at the time minister of transportation and future Deputy Prime Minister gave Taco's company's political backing meanwhile taoka also became friends with the tiger of Tokyo Tanaka Sagan who was a businessman himself and gave taluka additional Financial backing obviously Tao kante yamaguchigami did not only make friends as they became more powerful soon resistance from Japan's capital would come their way [Music] the Kansai region in the west of Japan which contains Osaka Kyoto and Kobe historically always had a bit of a rivalry with the Eastern region of Kantor where Tokyo and its surrounding areas are located this rivalry is usually a lighthearted one like you'll find it in many other countries as well joking about the other Region's attitude dialect food or sports team has been a common theme between the east and west of Japan but with the Yakuza this rivalry would take on a farm that was quite a bit more serious and dangerous in 1963 political Mastermind and Yakuza collaborator Kodama yossil envisioned an alliance of gangs all across Asia an ambitious plan that didn't quite work out the way that Kodama would have liked very quickly he realized that involving gangs from the whole continent of Asia would be too much to handle even for the most powerful man in Japan he then settled for an all-japan alliance which he held talks over with Tau khakazul obviously and all Japan gang Alliance needed the country's biggest gang on its side however tauka declined the offer maybe he saw nothing to gain from it or maybe he remembered his failed alliance with the Honda Kai a few decades earlier as a response Kodama would bring together the most powerful Yakuza gangs of Tokyo and Yokohama the kantokai was born up until this point the Kanto region while certainly being an incredibly busy area when it comes to organized crime did not have a single Yakuza gang that could come even close to rivaling the Kansai Region's yamaguchigumi Clans who joined the kantukai included among a few others the inagawakai the biggest gang in all of Tokyo at the time the up-and-coming sumiyoshikai as well as the tozekai led by their Korean boss Machi hisayuki naturally gangs in Tokyo and Yokohama who thought about the future of the territory were afraid of tauke and his men moving into their Turf with numbers far beyond what the Kanto gangs could offer by themselves an alliance made sense for the Yakuza clans of Eastern Japan with their combined numbers of over 13 000 men they could easily keep taluka out of the Kanto region or so they thought tauka as a show of power or maybe for his own Amusement kept on sending a few of his men into Yokohama which occasionally resulted in arm battles like the so-called Grand Palace incident Kodama the founder of the kantokai was actually not interested in these Yakuza Clan Wars at all his goal now was to calm down taluka which he tried to achieve by setting up an alliance between a yamaguchigumi and the tozaikai believe it or not but Kodama actually got the stubborn taluka to agree to this alliance with the tokyo-based gang from then on it was agreed that no more than 10 yamaguchigumi members were allowed at a time in Yokohama but we are talking about tauka kazuo here of course which means that he very quickly found a way around this agreement remember Tanaka segan the tiger of Tokyo with his help tauka devised a plan to invade Yokohama once again which involved the creation of the league for The Stomping out of drug traff this group which contained countless yamaguchigumi gang members was supposed to publicly fight a war on drugs on the streets of both the Kansai and Kanto regions this included of course the city of Yokohama taoka even released a public statement regarding the rampant drug use among his own gang members it was simply agonizing to see them when they were out of drugs their wives had an awful time and tried to have their husbands recuperate by impressing them in the house but half of them died and half of them became invalid in addition to telling this truly heart-wrenching story to the media he also got the Kansai Housewives Association to join his cause by protesting on the streets along with his men despite talking's best efforts to make the whole thing as believable as possible everyone knew what was really going on including the police and the general public despite that there wasn't much that Kodama in the kantukai could do at this point as a result tensions between the Kansai and Kanto gangs peaked when a member of the tozaikai shot an almost fatally wounded Tanaka Sagan The Mastermind behind the drug protests the assailant's motivation was of course revenge for his boss machihisayuki who probably suffered the most from having the yamaguchigami in his territory despite the assassination attempt Tanaka survived and left the hospital only four months later Machi actually apologized for his underlying's behavior by bringing Tanaka 2 million yen in cash while chopping off his fingertip and giving it to Tao kakazuo for those of you who are unfamiliar with the practice of yuvitsume cutting off your fingertip and handing it to another gangster is pretty much the highest form of apologizing among Yakuza you only do this when you really really messed something up tensions with the inagawakai the biggest Kanto gang of them all also remained high but only until their boss was sent to jail for three years because he ran an illegal Casino taoka had to take advantage of this somehow obviously he told his men in prison that they should make the inagaba bosses stay as pleasant as they possibly can in turn the inagawa boss would be in tahalka's death when inagawa left prison in 1969 his crew was almost completely decimated with around three quarters of his men arrested while the remaining quarter was incredibly disorganized maybe because he was in taoka's debt or maybe because he simply realized that fighting was now especially pointless he decided to form an alliance with the yamaguchigumi in 1972 with Kodama yoshio as a mediator the alliance between Japan's most influential Yakuza Clans at the time became a reality it was celebrated with the centuries-old Yakuza tradition of sharing sake cups as an initiation ritual sake was poured into unglazed ceremonial cups and drunk the two then wrapped the cups in special paper and put them into their kimono they then clasped each other's hands the go-between held their clasped hands and announced the sake cup ritual on even terms is now over with the yamaguchigumi and the inagawak Hai joining forces there were now only four prefectures in all of Japan that were completely free of this Alliance for a while things were looking good for the yamaguchigumi but they would soon face one of the more complicated periods in their history [Music] July 1978 location birami nightclub in Kyoto Japan's historic capital a man dressed in a white shirt rises from his seat and walks towards a table near the club stage where tauka kazuo and five bodyguards are seated he pulls out a 38 caliber pistol and shoots the yamaguchigumi boss in the neck taokai is rushed to the hospital escorted by police the Assassin was narumi kiyoshi member of the matsudagumi a rival gang from the Kansai region a few years earlier narumi's boss passed away while fighting a gang war against the yamaguchigumi naromi's motive was as is too often the case Revenge however his seemingly Invincible Target survived the attack the Assassin himself was found dead a few weeks later in the mountains near Kobe as a result a gang war ensued which took the lives of at least five more matsudagumi members while tawaka weathered another storm there was no doubt that his Reign at the top was nearing its end while his might was still as sharp as ever his body was slowly failing him even before the assassination attempt inside the yamaguchigumi questions about hawaka's succession were raised especially with the existence of a big age Gap inside the game with almost no middle aged members around it was hard to find someone to Mentor the youngest members which resulted in certain values and traditions losing their significance in the minds of the yamaguchikumi youth one of the biggest Unwritten rules among Yakuza is that gang wars are never to be fought in public these battles increasingly took place out on the open streets though endangering the Japanese citizens who grew tired of their safety being at risk more often than ever before the police shared the same opinion as the public and decided to act for 80 Days the police fought a war against the Yakuza by mobilizing a total of 1100 police officers who arrested 2 000 gang members among them 518 high-ranking ones no exceptions were made for the Mighty yamaguchigumi the gang's second highest ranking member Yamamoto Kenichi was arrested and chailed for three and a half years tauka tried to remedy the situation by making peace with rival gangs and even calling for an official yamaguchigumi press conference to be held the situation did calm down but it wasn't long before the violence returned probably due to health reasons tawaka decided to stay under the radar while his gang unsuccessfully attempted to expand its territory into Japan's northernmost Island Hokkaido nonetheless the yamaguchikumi held onto its power without much trouble as they entered the 1980s in July of 1981 Tahoka suffered one final heart attack before passing away at the age of 68. over the span of 38 years he saved the yamaguchigumi from near Extinction and turned them into the biggest and most feared organization in Japan he was also the first Yakuza boss who understood how to profit from Japan's post-war economic Miracle when he passed away the yamaguchigumi was making around 460 million dollars per year not only that the gang's presence could be felt everywhere construction Street stalls gambling bars clubs cabarets everywhere you went in Japan during the early 1980s the yamaguchigami was probably somehow involved with it the gangs foray into narcotic stealing started in the late 70s set up a gigantic source of Revenue that is still essential to its existence to this day the yamaguchigumi was at least in Japan a household name by the time that taoka kazuo met his demise who knows what organized crime in Japan would look like these days if it wasn't for his influence at first only a private funeral was planned for the yamaguchigumi boss with the police warning the clan against organizing a big public ceremony the higher-ups of the group and his family did not listen only three months later 1300 Yakuza members from 200 different gangs arrived in Kobe to mourn the death of their boss however not only members of Japan's underworld were present but also a few Japanese Superstars one of these famous attendees singer tabatai yoshio said from the late 1950s to the late 70s what Entertainer in Japan was not helped by tauka another example was famous actor takakura Ken who even portrayed Tao kakazuo in a Yakuza movie at one point after a funeral the elephant in the room had to be addressed who will follow in taoka's footsteps tauka's right-hand man Yamamoto was supposed to be a successor but he was in jail at the time and died from Liberal cirrhosis shortly after his release this led to a very surprising Choice until an actual successor was found tulka's wife humiko would take over as a sort of interim gang boss the biggest gang in the country was now under the control of a woman sumiko was a smart leader and well respected by many influential members but due to the field of organized crime being primarily dominated by stubborn men she had a hard time in leading the yamaguchigumi these difficulties in finding a successor in combination with other problems that the yamaguchigami was already facing for years led the police to arrest many of the gang's leaders while rival gangs took the opportunity and attempted to fight back their territory despite all of these internal changes and problems that the gang had to face the yamaguchigumi managed to actually grow in numbers instead of dropping down the food chain between taoka's death in 1981 and 1983 their membership numbers would climb to a staggering 13 300 members this Army of gangsters wanted a true successor to tauka one that would be elected by the syndicate's 104 family bosses a group of eight Elite members was chosen to assist fumiko in leading the yamaguchigumi until the decision was made out of these eight members two ended up in a final stretch to becoming the new kumicho the new boss of the yamaguchigumi candidate number one was Yamato Hiroshi a relative of kazuo's right-hand man who I mentioned earlier Yamamoto had been a member of the gang for decades and was a very loyal and respected person inside the organization the second candidate was takenaka masahisa a long time friend of the late taoka kazuo and his family he was known to be a very aggressive and yet popular figure among members and was also humiko's personal favorite to win the election when the election came to an end takenaka came out on top quite handily which was something that his opponent Yamamoto could simply not accept [Music] losing the election frustrated Yamamoto so much that he decided to leave the yamaguchigumi to create his own gang under the name ichiwakai not only did the yamaguchigumi now have a new arrival to worry about the ichiwakai also took around half of its members with it and instantly created one of the top three biggest gangs in Japan once again the yamaguchigumi was faced with a complex problem that needed a solution thankfully takenaka their new boss came up with a great idea all departed members would be pardoned should they regret their decision and decide to go back to the yamaguchigumi in addition retirement payments were also introduced for every member something that senior Yakuza members could usually only dream of takinaka's plan seemingly worked as intended with droves of x yamaguchigumi members returning to their former Clan the ichiwakai shrunk to a size of around 2800 men still a massive gang but one that paled in comparison to the one that it decided to split away from Yamamoto the ichiwakai leader had to take action he could not stand the thought of being defeated by takenaka yet again on January 26 1985 four black cars pulled up in front of an apartment complex in Osaka's suitea City in front of the building's elevator stood takenakra along with two of his highest ranking Affiliated gang bosses the men exited their cars and fired at takenaka and his associates one of them died immediately while the other was brought to the hospital and also passed away a few hours later takanaka as well was rushed to the hospital where yamaguchigumi members were also present and offered blood donations however even after a nine hour long surgery takinako succumbed to his wounds and passed away with one Fell Swoop the top men of the yamugu jugumi were taken out at the deadliest gang war in Japanese history the yamaichi war had begun Furious yamaguchigumi soon elected a temporary leader nakamiji kazuo who wasted no time in declaring war on the ichiwakai in the span of one year a total of 200 armed attacks were recorded to have taken place between the two gangs the yamaguchigumi that same year got involved in a gigantic arm stealing Scandal which would be reported even by American news outlets while becoming one of the biggest stories of the year in Japan the gang was caught red-handed in Hawaii where they attempted to buy a crazy amount of weapons including rocket launchers from what they thought were arms dealers but were actually American undercover agents the investigation saw the yamaguchigumi with two of their highest ranking members sent to prison in the U.S while also costing them a ton of money and of course respect surprisingly even though a videotape of the deal being agreed was shown in court the Yamaguchi bosses were found not guilty the jury suspected entrapment but the Yakuza also told the court that there had been a big cultural misunderstanding of the Japanese language and that they had only been in Hawaii to hire Michael Jackson for a gig no I did not make that last part up despite all of the turmoil going on inside of the yamaguchigumi the ichiwakai was slowly but surely losing the war in Osaka the violence though seemed to never find an end until one incident disgusted even the ruthless yamaguchigumi one of their ex-members who joined the ichiwakai was found brutally killed near a cliff which was also known as Banzai Cliff here in 1944 hundreds of civilians and soldiers including women and children jumped from the cliff and to their deaths in order to avoid being captured by American soldiers the yamaguchigumi had enough and called for peace between them and the ichiwakai the war was over but for the 38 people who lost their lives during the yamaichi war it was unfortunately too late the yamaguchigumi remained as strong as ever while the ichiwakai shrunk him to something that merely resembled a small gang by 1989. that same year after four years of temporary leadership by nakanishi the yamaguchigumi elected their true fifth generation boss Watanabe yoshinori with a new leader at the top their membership grew to 20 000 as they headed into the 90s foreign [Music] decades there was a sort of Unwritten agreement between the Yakuza and the Japanese government and law enforcement the Yakuza were basically allowed to operate their businesses and have their gang wars among each other as long as the public is not involved in any of it however the 1980s were a turning point regarding this agreement with the recent gang wars being brought into the public more than ever before and violence reaching a noticeable peak in 1991 Japan finally addressed the Yakuza problem with the so-called crime countermeasures act with this new law Yakuza gangs could now officially be designated as boriokudan or violent groups if certain criteria were met oreokudan are subjected to certain legal measures and penalties which are aimed mostly at illegal activities like the collection of protection fees as well as extortion two very important sources of income for the Yakuza groups additionally it was now illegal to charge money or request a severing of a finger in order to let a member leave the gang which is supposed to make quitting Life as a criminal easier for those who decided to do so these laws were certainly a step in the right direction for the first time in Japanese history the Yakuza who've been around for centuries at this point were officially recognized as something negative and problematic to society still these new laws brought with them countless critics who felt that the penalties were much too weak for example the yakuza's finances could still not be targeted directly and their assets were still pretty much Untouchable as well despite all of these flaws both the media and the police were quick to claim a victory over the organized crime groups of Japan there were countless headlines and reports made about droves of Yakuza members quitting and gangs disbanding in reality the impact of the new loss was not as significant as it seemed front companies were set up by the gangs which then simply employed defective members making their activities much harder to track them before in 1994 the total number of Yakuza members was at around eighty thousand about half of these members were estimated to be employed at these front companies and actually committed more crimes than those who were officially part of the clan as for the many ganks which were reported to have disbanded almost all of them were small insignificant crime families this also had the side effect of strengthening the bigger crime groups the top three being the yamaguchigumi the inagawa kai and the sumiyoshikai before the new laws came into effect they accounted for approximately 45 percent of all gang membership in the country now that number had jumped to an incredible 65 percent the big ganks were well prepared even before the new laws were implemented the yamaguchigumi for example handed out a handbook titled how to evade the law and send out faxes to Affiliated gangs telling them to prepare by setting up front companies by the time that the New Millennium was around the corner the number of Yakuza members did actually not go down more power was simply shifted to those who had already been at the top for years or even decades by the year 2000 the yamaguchigumi had reached a membership of around 34 000 and managed to stay afloat mainly thanks to its thriving construction business while trying to save its struggling economy throughout the 1990s Japan invested an astonishing 3.5 trillion dollars into public works projects an estimated one to five percent of that money went into Yakuza related construction businesses the yamaguchigumi hugely involved in construction surely raked in billions of these deals in 2005 Watanabe who acted as the boss of the yamaguchigumi for 16 years decided to retire and pass the torch to Tsukasa shinobu who became the yamaguchigumi's sixth and most recent boss compared to some of his predecessors Tsukasa is known to keep a fairly low profile or as low of a profile as you can keep as the boss of what is still Japan's biggest crime syndicate the total number of Yakuza is currently at around 24 000 8 000 of which belong to the yamaguchigumi just recently in 2015 a group of senior members inside the yamaguchigumi had a serious dispute with their boss questioning both his leadership and the overall organizational structure of the Gang consequently they took around 1 000 yamaguchigumi members and formed a new Clan under the name Kobe yamaguchigumi as of the making of this video their disputes remain unresolved the police however are keeping a close eye on the two rival gangs in hopes of avoiding violent outbreaks like the ones the Japanese citizens had to deal with too many times in the past the story of the yamaguchigumi has it all during their more than 100 year long history they watched their country transform in many ways politically and culturally the same could be said about the yamaguchigami itself under six generations of leadership they witnessed a meteoric rise to the top near Extinction a comeback story that turned him into Japan's most dominant criminals dangerous rivalries internal rebellions and lots of drama due to their secretive nature it's hard to gauge how much influence the Yakuza actually still have these days with a sharp decline in membership one can only wonder what the future holds not only for the yamaguchigumi but for organized crime in Japan in general what did you think about the yamaguchigumi's long but turbulent history let me know in the comments also if you enjoyed this video make sure to like And subscribe if you haven't already either way thank you so much for watching sayonara [Music]

Channel: ANIKI

Views: 567,510

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Id: 3nOu0r5NHEE

Length: 39min 52sec (2392 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 03 2023