Japan's Yamaguchi-gumi declares end to 10-year yakuza feud in Kobe, as gang numbers decline
Japan 's largest organised crime syndicate has declared a unilateral end to a bloody internal feud that spanned a decade and left at least 90 dead, a move experts say underscores the steady decline of the once-feared yakuza underworld.
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Senior members of the Yamaguchi-gumi on Monday took the highly unusual step of visiting police in Hyogo prefecture to announce the end of hostilities with its splinter factions, and requested the lifting of their 'designated violent conflict group' classification, which had restricted their operations since 2015.
The rare visit marked a symbolic end to the gang war triggered by a major split within the Yamaguchi-gumi, which has long been headquartered in Kobe and remains the country's largest crime syndicate.
Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan and a noted expert on Japan's underworld, said the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi – the main breakaway faction – had been 'decimated' by infighting and a wave of defections from disillusioned gangsters.
'This has been coming for some time as the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi lost ground and the fight became very one-sided,' Adelstein told This Week in Asia.
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'It got to the point where they had no power to push back,' he said.
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