Yamaguchi-gumi

Yamaguchi-gumi (Japanese: 山口組) is Japan's largest and most famous yakuza organization.

It is widely believed to be the largest criminal organization in the world. Estimates put the number of active members at just over 39,000, with thousands more having strong associations. It is, by far, the largest of the boryokudan groups, and its membership encompasses roughly 45% of the 87,000 yakuza in the Japanese underworld.

The Yamaguchi-gumi are among the world's wealthiest gangsters, bringing in billions of dollars a year from extortion, gambling, the sex industry, guns, drugs, and real estate and construction kickback schemes. They are also involved in stock market manipulation and Internet pornography.

The Yamaguchi-gumi has its headquarters in Kobe, Japan, but it operates all across Japan, and also has overseas operations in Asia and the United States. Despite more than a decade of police crackdowns, their numbers have been growing. And its current kumicho (Godfather), Kenichi Shinoda, has declared an expansionist policy -- even making inroads into Tokyo, traditionally not Yamaguchi turf.

Leadership

*1st (1915-1925) Kumicho: Harukichi Yamaguchi
*2nd (1925-1942) Kumicho: Noboru Yamaguchi - son of Harukichi Yamaguchi
*3rd (1946-1981) Kumicho: Kazuo Taoka

After the death of Taoka, the heir apparent was serving a sentence in prison. He, however, died of liver failure shortly afterwards. Kumiko Taoka, Kazuo Taoka's wife, stepped forward to fill the leadership void until a new kumicho could be selected.

Finally, in '84, the elders chose Masahisa Takenaka to be the 4th kumicho of Yamaguchi-gumi. One of the other contenders, Hiroshi Yamamoto, broke away from Yamaguchi-gumi with more than 10,000 of its members to form the Ichiwa-kai. A bitter rivalry existed between the two groups, which was exacerbated by Ichiwa-kai's 1985 assassination of Masahisa.

*4th (1984-1985) Kumicho: Masahisa Takenaka
*5th (1989-2005) Kumicho: Yoshinori Watanabe
*6th (2005-) Kumicho: Kenichi Shinoda AKA Shinobu Tsukasa