![]() ![]() Until recently Japan's crime syndicates, which are not illegal, operated with relative impunity. When Shinoda was sworn in as the Yamaguchi-gumi's sixth don in July 2005, he vowed to expand the 95-year-old organisation's influence beyond its traditional Kobe base. He has, however, denied involvement in the extortion case, according to Japanese media.Īlthough he was not present at meetings with the alleged extortion victim, police believe they can build a case against him using a law that holds gang leaders responsible for crimes committed by their juniors. Takayama, 63, did not resist arrest during a dawn police raid involving 140 officers at a Kodo-kai base in the western city of Kobe. His antagonism towards the police has angered some in the organisation. ![]() "He has been running the organisation with an iron fist, and other factions will see his arrest as an opportunity. "If Takayama is successfully prosecuted it will be devastating for the Yamaguchi-gumi, and could even spark a war for control of the organisation," said Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: an American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan. Shinoda began a six-year prison sentence in December 2005 for violating gun control laws and entrusted the running of the Yamaguchi-gumi to Takayama, who is also head of the organisation's biggest and most violent faction, the Kodo-kai. The national police agency declared war on the Yamaguchi-gumi in September in an attempt to rein it in before the release of its leader, Kenichi Shinoda, from prison next spring.
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