Five months after tough new ordinances cracking down on the activities of organized crime syndicates went into effect, it's not yet clear what impact, if any, they've had on gang activities.

"We are resigned to the new antigang regulations, but they have not interfered with our operations or caused us to incur losses," Hiroshi Kimura, the fifth-generation head of Kyushu's largest syndicate, the Kitakyushu City-based Kudokai, remarked to Flash (Mar. 6) in an interview. Kimura nonetheless believes the law unfairly stigmatizes innocent people, such as family members of gangs, and may foster "discriminatory treatment."

Kimura also vociferously denied allegations of his organization's involvement in a bust in Fukuoka City last July, when police confiscated a number of military weapons, including an Israeli-made assault rifle.