The Yamaken-gumi provided the manpower while the Ikeda-gumi had the financial resources to prop up the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. The moves by the Yamaken-gumi and the Ikeda-gumi do not bode well for the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. Police are warily watching out for a possible merger with another group that split from the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi in April 2017. The apparent wealth of Ikeda-gumi is one reason behind its exit, despite its boss being a supreme adviser of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. In late July, the gang sent “messages” to other gangs announcing its departure from the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. With Nakata absent, gangs affiliated with the Yamaken-gumi have split into those wanting to remain in it and those who want out.Īnother gang affiliated with the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi that has also bolted is the Ikeda-gumi, headquartered in Okayama city. One reason for the lack of solidarity is that Yamaken-gumi boss Hiroji Nakata, 61, is in prison on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the shooting of members of a gang affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi. The Yamaken-gumi is a core element of the Kobe Yamaguchi-guchi, accounting for about half its 1,500 or so gang members.īut from July, bosses of affiliated gangs have been meeting periodically, and some of the gangs have shown signs of wanting to leave the Yamaken-gumi. The main cause of the current trouble within the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi is the Yamaken-gumi, to which Kunio Inoue, 72, boss of Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, once belonged, according to investigative sources.
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Police are carefully watching the gang's moves in the event of another war breaking out between elements of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi that mirror the series of armed encounters between it and the Yamaguchi-gumi over the past five years. The cause of the conflict is familiar: infighting over money the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi demands in tribute, compounded by the current lack of gang bosses. “The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi could end up just breaking up if it loses its power and money,” one investigative source said. The internal turmoil in the splinter group, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, could lead to its implosion, some suggest. Those that left are now fighting each other as well as their former gang. The gang war that erupted five years ago when a group of members bolted from the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate over its practice of demanding a large cut of their earnings has deepened.