A century after its founding, the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest and most notorious crime syndicate, appears to have expelled 13 of its approximately 70 affiliated gang leaders Tuesday, creating local fears of related gang violence.
The move, according to police and media reports, has been in the works for some time and is the result of a power struggle between affiliated gangs, located mostly in the Kansai region, and the Nagoya-based gang Kodo-kai, from which the sixth don of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Kenichi Shinoda, and the No. 2, Kiyoshi Takayama, hail.
Of 13 gang leaders believed to have been kicked out, five were reportedly dissociated (zetsuen) with the Yamaguchi-gumi, and another eight excommunicated (hamon). They reportedly include the head of the Yamaguchi-gumi's largest affiliated gang, the Kobe-based Yamaken-gumi, which boasts an estimated 2,000 core members, as well as the head of the Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture-based Masaki-gumi. Fukui-based anti-nuclear activists believe the Masaki-gumi was once one of the wealthier affiliates due to its connections to local nuclear power plants.
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