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Aizukotetsu-kai
The (sometimes written Aizu-Kotetsukai or Aizu Kotetsu-kai) is a yakuza organization in Japan based in Kyoto. Its name comes from the Aizu region, "Kotetsu", a type of Japanese sword, and the suffix "-kai", or society. In 1992 the Aizukotetsu-kai became one of the first yakuza syndicates named under Japan's new anti- boryokudan legislation, which gave police expanded powers to crack down on yakuza. Its chairman at the time, Tokutaro Takayama, campaigned publicly against the new laws, and the group launched a lawsuit challenging their constitutionality. In September 1995 the Kyoto District Court threw out the lawsuit. At its peak in 1993 the group had 1,600 active members. In October 2005, the group allied with the Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi is Japan's largest ''yakuza'' organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for longshoreman, dockworkers in Kobe before World War II. It is one of the largest organize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokutaro Takayama
was a yakuza, the president of the Fourth Aizukotetsu-kai. An ethnic Korean, he rose to power as the head of the Kyoto-based gang until his retirement in the 1990s. When he was a young man, his parents returned to Korea, leaving him to earn a living alone in Japan: "At that time," Takayama said in 1998, "I had no choice but to join the Japanese gangster world. This is because segregated people at that time had no way to survive in Japan." For a yakuza boss, he was a remarkably public figure, often granting interviews to Japanese and foreign reporters for articles in which he always came off as a gentleman. He even filed a lawsuit against the Shiga Prefectural Police for infringing on his rights to free expression.See court testimony. He viewed himself as an honorable outlaw, championing the weak and upholding the yakuza code of ninkyo (chivalry): "We did not regard ''ninkyo'' as a bad thing," he said. "Thus, we never killed anyone without reason. I strongly believed ''nin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boryokudan
, also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yakuza'' is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization. The yakuza are known for their strict codes of conduct, their organized fiefdom nature, and several unconventional ritual practices such as ''yubitsume'', or amputation of the left little finger. Members are often portrayed as males with heavily tattooed bodies and wearing ''fundoshi'', sometimes with a kimono or, in more recent years, a Western-style "sharp" suit covering them. At their height, the yakuza maintained a large presence in the Japanese media, and they also operated internationally. In 1963, the number of yakuza members and quasi-members reached a peak of 184,100. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yamaguchi-gumi
is Japan's largest ''yakuza'' organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for longshoreman, dockworkers in Kobe before World War II. It is one of the largest organized crime, criminal organizations in the world. According to the National Police Agency (Japan), National Police Agency, it had 3,300 active members at the end of 2024. The Yamaguchi-gumi are among the world's wealthiest gangsters, bringing in billions of dollars a year from extortion, gambling, prostitution in Japan, prostitution, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, mortgage fraud, real estate and bid rigging, construction kickback schemes. They are also involved in securities fraud, stock market manipulation and Internet pornography. The Yamaguchi-gumi has its headquarters in Kobe, but it operates all across Japan and has overseas operations. Its current ''kumichō'' (Boss), Kenichi Shinoda, Shinobu Tsukasa, has declared an expansionist polic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mon (crest)
, also called , , and , are Japanese emblems used to decorate and identify an individual, a family, or (more recently) an institution, municipality or business entity. While is an encompassing term that may refer to any such device, and refer specifically to emblems that are used to identify a family. An authoritative reference compiles Japan's 241 general categories of based on structural resemblance (a single may belong to multiple categories), with 5,116 distinct individual . However, it is well acknowledged that there are a number of lost or obscure . Among , the officially used by the family is called . Over time, new have been created, such as , which is unofficially created by an individual, and , which is created by a woman after marriage by modifying part of her original family's , so that by 2023 there will be a total of 20,000 to 25,000 . The devices are similar to the badges and coats of arms in European heraldic tradition, which likewise are used to identi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it the List of cities in Japan, ninth-most populous city in Japan. More than half (56.8%) of Kyoto Prefecture's population resides in the city. The city is the cultural anchor of the substantially larger Greater Kyoto, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 3.8 million people. It is also part of the even larger Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area, along with Osaka and Kobe. Kyoto is one of the oldest municipalities in Japan, having been chosen in 794 as the new seat of Japan's imperial court by Emperor Kanmu. The original city, named Heian-kyō, was arranged in accordance with traditional Chinese feng shui following the model of the ancient Chinese capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang. The emperors of Japan ruled fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands—Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu—and List of islands of Japan, thousands of smaller islands, covering . Japan has a population of over 123 million as of 2025, making it the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh-most populous country. The capital of Japan and List of cities in Japan, its largest city is Tokyo; the Greater Tokyo Area is the List of largest cities, largest metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37 million inhabitants as of 2024. Japan is divided into 47 Prefectures of Japan, administrative prefectures and List of regions of Japan, eight traditional regions. About three-quarters of Geography of Japan, the countr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aizu
is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The principal city of the area is Aizuwakamatsu. It was part of Mutsu Province; the area once was part of Iwase Province created during the reign of Empress Genshō.Meyners d'Estrey, Guillaume Henry Jean (1884). ; excerpt, '' Genshō crée sept provinces : Idzumi, Noto, Atoa, Iwaki, Iwase, Suwa et Sado en empiétant sur celles de Kawachi, Echizen, Etchū, Kazusa, Mutsu and Shinano'' The ''Yōrō Ritsuryo'' established the Iwase Province in 718 through the division of the Michinoku Province ( Mutsu Province). It was composed of five districts of Shirakawa (白河), Iwase (石背), Aizu (会津), Asaka (安積) and Shinobu (信夫). The area encompassed by the province reverted to Mutsu some time between 722 and 724. During the Edo p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Sword
A is one of several types of traditionally made swords from Japan. Bronze swords were made as early as the Yayoi period (1,000 BC – 300 AD), though most people generally refer to the curved blades made from the Heian period (794–1185) to the present day when speaking of "Japanese swords". There are many types of Japanese swords that differ by size, shape, field of application, and method of manufacture. Some of the more commonly known types of Japanese swords are the ''uchigatana'', ''tachi'', ''ōdachi'', ''wakizashi'', and ''tantō''. Etymology The word ''katana'' was used in ancient Japan and is still used today, whereas the old usage of the word ''nihontō'' is found in the poem the Song of ''Nihontō'', by the Song dynasty poet Ouyang Xiu. The word ''nihontō'' became more common in Japan in the late Tokugawa shogunate. Due to importation of Western swords, the word ''nihontō'' was adopted to distinguish it from the . ''Meibutsu'' (noted swords) is a special designat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitution Of Japan
The Constitution of Japan is the supreme law of Japan. Written primarily by American civilian officials during the occupation of Japan after World War II, it was adopted on 3 November 1946 and came into effect on 3 May 1947, succeeding the Meiji Constitution of 1889. The constitution consists of a preamble and 103 articles grouped into 11 chapters. It is based on the principles of popular sovereignty, with the Emperor of Japan as the symbol of the state; pacifism and the renunciation of war; and Individual and group rights, individual rights. Upon the surrender of Japan at the end of the war in 1945, Japan was occupied and U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, directed Prime Minister Kijūrō Shidehara to draft a new constitution. Shidehara created a committee of Japanese scholars for the task, but MacArthur reversed course in February 1946 and presented a draft created under his own supervision, which was reviewed and modified by the schol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenichi Shinoda
, also known as , is a Japanese yakuza and the sixth and current ''kumicho'' (supreme kingpin, or chairman) of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization. Career Shinoda was born in Ōita, Kyushu."Pre-Notification For Upcoming Designation Of Transnational Organized Criminal Elements : Identifying Information : Yakuza : Entry 1 : Yamaguchi-gumi : Person 1 : Kenichはさi Shinoda" '''' After graduating from Oita Prefectural Fisheries High School (currently ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiyoshi Takayama
is a yakuza best known as the second-in-command (''wakagashira'') of the 6th-generation Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate in Japan, and the president of its ruling affiliate, Kodo-kai, based in Nagoya. He stepped down as ''wakagashira'' in 2025 and assumed the position of ''sōdanyaku'' (advisor). Takayama has been considered the key person in the entire history of the Kodo-kai and behind the sixth Yamaguchi-gumi, being kept under close surveillance by the National Police Agency. The National Police Agency once distributed a report on its operations against the Yamaguchi-gumi to every police department across the country, which had a special section devoted to him and even made reference to his personality."The "Top Oper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
