Latest news with #KobeYamaguchi-gumi
25-04-2025
Established Organized Crime Syndicates Continue to Age and Decline in Japan
A National Police Agency report on organized crime in 2024 showed that the number of members and associate members of designated organized crime groups ( bōryokudan ) fell by 1,600 from the previous year to 18,800. This is the twentieth consecutive year that yakuza numbers have decreased and marks a new record low. Membership of syndicates dropped by 500 to 9,900, falling below 10,000 for the first time. There were more than 80,000 organized crime gang members in Japan as of 2009, but numbers have plummeted in subsequent years. Factors in the decline include the increasing age of members and the spreading enactment of organized crime ( bōryokudan ) exclusion ordinances by local authorities across the country that have restricted economic and other association between gangs and ordinary citizens. The membership numbers of the main syndicates as of the end of 2024 are as follows. 2024 Membership of Major Gangs in Japan Yamaguchi-gumi Members: 3,300 (-200) Associate Members: 3,600 (-200) Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi Members: 120 (-20) Associate Members: 200 (-60) Kizuna-kai Members: 60 (unchanged) Associate Members: 80 (-30) Ikeda-gumi Members: 60 (unchanged) Associate Members: 90 (unchanged) Sumiyoshi-kai Members: 2,100 (-100) Associate Members: 1,100 (-200) Inagawa-kai Members: 1,600 (-100) Associate Members: 1,100 (-100)） Created by based on data from the National Police Agency. Numbers in parentheses indicate the year-on-year change. In August 2015, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi splintered from the Yamaguchi-gumi, and since 2019, a turf war between the two gangs has seen a series of firearm homicides. A number of prefectural public safety commissions have also identified ongoing rivalry between the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, Ikeda-gumi, and Kizuna-kai, but there was only one related incident in 2024. During 2023, the police arrested 8,249 crime gang members and associate members, in a 1,361 year-on-year decrease. The largest number of arrests, at 1,707, was for violations of the Stimulants Control Act. This was followed by 1,103 people arrested for fraud, 1,071 for assault, 713 for theft, 464 for violation of the Cannabis Control Law, and 389 for assault. There were 79 people arrested for murder, up 23 year on year. While the power of established crime gangs is diminishing, new groups are drawing headlines for recruiting through social media or other online spaces for specialized fraud or organized robberies and thefts. These groups are known as tokuryū for their anonymous ( tokumei ) and fluid ( ryūdō ) nature, as they quickly form and disband. In 2024, 5,203 people connected with tokuryū groups were arrested, with around half being apprehended for fraud. (Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: Police investigators raid offices of the Inagawa-kai crime group in Ōta, Gunma, on March 4, 2025. © Jiji.)
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Yahoo
Japan's biggest Yakuza crime group pledges to end decade-long gang war
Japan's largest yakuza crime syndicate has pledged to end its longstanding war with a rival faction and refrain from causing 'trouble,' authorities said, as the mafia-like groups contend with falling membership and increased police crackdowns. Three senior members of the Yamaguchi-gumi visited the Hyogo Prefectural police headquarters on Monday and delivered a letter to officers pledging to 'end all internal fighting' and to 'never cause any trouble,' police told CNN. The Yamaguchi-gumi, one of the world's largest and wealthiest crime gangs, has been embroiled in a bloody feud with splinter groups since 2015, when more than a dozen factions broke away to form the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. Since then, intensifying violence between the two warring crime organizations has seen rival gangsters gunned down or stabbed in dozens of incidents, according to police. The armed conflict, often erupting on public streets in cities across central and western Japan, has put pressure on authorities to toughen restrictions on the gangs. 'Yakuza' is a blanket term for Japan's organized crime groups, which sit in a gray area in the country. Though they are not outlawed, the groups are regulated and monitored by authorities. In 2020, police formally designated the Yamaguchi-gumi and its splinter group as gangs at war - giving officers the ability to increase surveillance, restrict their activities, including prohibiting the use of their offices and ability to raise funds. 'Their conflicts have become serious and unpredictable,' the National Police Agency said in 2021. In the past five years, police have also put several other gangs under close surveillance. It is unclear whether the rival splinter group, Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, has responded to the ceasefire pledge. Police said they would be 'closely monitoring the movements of both groups' as the declaration to end the turf war may be one-sided. Membership to yakuza groups across Japan has been in decline over recent decades. In 2024, the number of members of organized crime syndicates stood at 18,800, hitting a record low and falling below 20,000 for the first time, according to police data. Those official figures show the number of active members of the Yamaguchi-gumi gang have almost halved since 2014 - falling from 6,000 then to just 3,300 at the end of last year. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi had around 120 members last year. As yakuza membership falls, however, Japanese authorities are contending with a new criminal phenomenon: the 'tokuryu.' These anonymous gangs are not affiliated with a yakuza family, operating individually or in ad hoc groups. About 10,000 members of tokuryu gangs were investigated last year, with police linking them to violent robberies in Tokyo, and fraud schemes involving romance scams and investments on social media.
CNN
11-04-2025
- CNN
Japan's biggest Yakuza crime group pledges to end decade-long gang war
Japan's largest yakuza crime syndicate has pledged to end its longstanding war with a rival faction and refrain from causing 'trouble,' authorities said, as the mafia-like groups contend with falling membership and increased police crackdowns. Three senior members of the Yamaguchi-gumi visited the Hyogo Prefectural police headquarters on Monday and delivered a letter to officers pledging to 'end all internal fighting' and to 'never cause any trouble,' police told CNN. The Yamaguchi-gumi, one of the world's largest and wealthiest crime gangs, has been embroiled in a bloody feud with splinter groups since 2015, when more than a dozen factions broke away to form the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. Since then, intensifying violence between the two warring crime organizations has seen rival gangsters gunned down or stabbed in dozens of incidents, according to police. The armed conflict, often erupting on public streets in cities across central and western Japan, has put pressure on authorities to toughen restrictions on the gangs. 'Yakuza' is a blanket term for Japan's organized crime groups, which sit in a gray area in the country. Though they are not outlawed, the groups are regulated and monitored by authorities. In 2020, police formally designated the Yamaguchi-gumi and its splinter group as gangs at war - giving officers the ability to increase surveillance, restrict their activities, including prohibiting the use of their offices and ability to raise funds. 'Their conflicts have become serious and unpredictable,' the National Police Agency said in 2021. In the past five years, police have also put several other gangs under close surveillance. It is unclear whether the rival splinter group, Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, has responded to the ceasefire pledge. Police said they would be 'closely monitoring the movements of both groups' as the declaration to end the turf war may be one-sided. Membership to yakuza groups across Japan has been in decline over recent decades. In 2024, the number of members of organized crime syndicates stood at 18,800, hitting a record low and falling below 20,000 for the first time, according to police data. Those official figures show the number of active members of the Yamaguchi-gumi gang have almost halved since 2014 - falling from 6,000 then to just 3,300 at the end of last year. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi had around 120 members last year. As yakuza membership falls, however, Japanese authorities are contending with a new criminal phenomenon: the 'tokuryu.' These anonymous gangs are not affiliated with a yakuza family, operating individually or in ad hoc groups. About 10,000 members of tokuryu gangs were investigated last year, with police linking them to violent robberies in Tokyo, and fraud schemes involving romance scams and investments on social media.
CNN
11-04-2025
- CNN
Japan's biggest Yakuza crime group pledges to end decade-long gang war
Japan's largest yakuza crime syndicate has pledged to end its longstanding war with a rival faction and refrain from causing 'trouble,' authorities said, as the mafia-like groups contend with falling membership and increased police crackdowns. Three senior members of the Yamaguchi-gumi visited the Hyogo Prefectural police headquarters on Monday and delivered a letter to officers pledging to 'end all internal fighting' and to 'never cause any trouble,' police told CNN. The Yamaguchi-gumi, one of the world's largest and wealthiest crime gangs, has been embroiled in a bloody feud with splinter groups since 2015, when more than a dozen factions broke away to form the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. Since then, intensifying violence between the two warring crime organizations has seen rival gangsters gunned down or stabbed in dozens of incidents, according to police. The armed conflict, often erupting on public streets in cities across central and western Japan, has put pressure on authorities to toughen restrictions on the gangs. 'Yakuza' is a blanket term for Japan's organized crime groups, which sit in a gray area in the country. Though they are not outlawed, the groups are regulated and monitored by authorities. In 2020, police formally designated the Yamaguchi-gumi and its splinter group as gangs at war - giving officers the ability to increase surveillance, restrict their activities, including prohibiting the use of their offices and ability to raise funds. 'Their conflicts have become serious and unpredictable,' the National Police Agency said in 2021. In the past five years, police have also put several other gangs under close surveillance. It is unclear whether the rival splinter group, Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, has responded to the ceasefire pledge. Police said they would be 'closely monitoring the movements of both groups' as the declaration to end the turf war may be one-sided. Membership to yakuza groups across Japan has been in decline over recent decades. In 2024, the number of members of organized crime syndicates stood at 18,800, hitting a record low and falling below 20,000 for the first time, according to police data. Those official figures show the number of active members of the Yamaguchi-gumi gang have almost halved since 2014 - falling from 6,000 then to just 3,300 at the end of last year. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi had around 120 members last year. As yakuza membership falls, however, Japanese authorities are contending with a new criminal phenomenon: the 'tokuryu.' These anonymous gangs are not affiliated with a yakuza family, operating individually or in ad hoc groups. About 10,000 members of tokuryu gangs were investigated last year, with police linking them to violent robberies in Tokyo, and fraud schemes involving romance scams and investments on social media.
South China Morning Post
10-04-2025
- South China Morning Post
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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 'It got to the point where they had no power to push back,' he said.
