Big Boss Falls on Sword in Tokyo Yakuza Wars
Bone on Mar 25 2007 at 12:00 am | Filed under: Japan: News and Media
This is a follow up story to our earlier coverage of the Yakuza turf wars in Nishiazabu, Central Tokyo (we advise to read the first article for context before going on).
Next Wednesday will mark 49 days since Ryoichi Sugiura (杉浦良一), a director of the Sumiyoshi-kai (住吉会), a Tokyo Yakuza gang, was shot and killed around morning tea time on the sidewalk of the busy Roppongi Street in central Tokyo. In the Japanese Buddhist tradition, the soul of a dead man spends 49 days after the day of death uneasily straddling this life and the next, before a ceremony on the 49th day releases the soul. For the last couple of weeks, the streets of Roppongi have been eerily quiet, but the flowers at the scene of the crime are refreshed almost daily, with new messages from Sugihara’s Yakuza comrades added daily. (See pictures)
The shooting was carried out on 5 February, with a spate of threatened retaliations culminating in some random shots fired, and strategic bullet holes in doors. However it appears that commonsense has prevailed and that a truce was agreed between the warring Sumiyoshi-kai and Yamaguchi-gumi (山口組) gangs, although the details of this truce have not been made public.
The Yakuza have been known to rigidly follow a “blood balance sheet” system, similar to the “eye for an eye” teachings in the West. The most mysterious event since the shooting was the apparent suicide of the Kazuyoshi Kudo (工藤和義会長), the 70 year old Chairman of the Kokusai-kai (国粋会), who was also a Chief Advisor (山口組最高顧問) to the Yamaguchi-gumi.
The Kokusai-kai have historically controlled all of the Roppongi and Nishi-Azabu areas, and in past years forged a friendly relationship with the Sumiyoshi-kai, and had effectively lent this area to the Sumiyoshi-kai to control. 
However, in September 2005, in an unexpected development, the Kokusai-kai was absorbed by the Yamaguchi-gumi, the Sumiyoshi-kai’s biggest competition. No doubt a great success for the Yamaguchi-gumi, but it this strategic mistake effectively saw the 70 year old Kudo tieing the knot to his own noose.
This issue of ownership of the area between Yamaguchi-gumi and Sumiyoshi-kai, and the shifting alliance of the Kokusai-kai was the catalyst to the current tensions. Kudo not only betrayed the its old ally at the Sumiyoshi-kai, but then to prove its new allegiance ordered the hit one of its most crucial members, Sugiura, who was in charge of negotiations between the two gangs. Rumour has it that Sugiura was a talented emissary, who was seriously challenging the Yamaguchi control. The subset of the Sumiyoshi-kai which had controlled the region is known as the Kobayashi-kai (小林会), and it was as Sugiura was on route to meet the Chairman of this group, that he was gunned down.
Through these actions, Kudo not only showed a lack of honour to his old allegiances, but also created a major incident for both parties, leaving not only a mess on one of the busiest streets in Tokyo and a diplomatic stand-off, but also left the faces and locations of many members from both sides splattered across the TV and newspapers through Japan. This undoubtedly upset both sides over and above the Sumiyoshi-kai’s burning desire for retaliation to even up the score.
A number of intense days of negotiations followed, during which other Yakuza gangs nationwide were reported to have been having their own emergency meetings to discuss how to deal with the possible fallout. The result of negotiations was that Kudo ended up falling on his sword, 
committing an honourable suicide, thus taking personal responsibility for the incident, as well as the Yamaguchi-gumi sacrificing him to show a gesture of apology to the Sumiyoshi-kai for the trouble Kudo caused. A truce was subsequently announced through the Tokyo police.
Although the police have been focusing their investigations on the Kokusai-kai’s offices, ranging from central Tokyo to Nagano prefecture, Sugiura’s killers have not been caught.
Note: Stippy has had an overwhelming response to our original article on the potential Yakuza Wars, thank you to everyone who has commented and emailed us. We are still gathering more information, so if you have any news which we don’t, let us know in a comment!
Other stippy.com articles possibly of interest:
13 Responses to “Big Boss Falls on Sword in Tokyo Yakuza Wars”
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Wow - great story
The Yakuza are very boring. There are street corners in Phoenix with more action than this whole story.
MS13 and the Bloods are hacking off people’s arms for maybe having talked to the cops, and the Russian mob can make high level politicians disappear with no investigation. Instead we’re reading about a crew whose edgiest racket might be busting in to shareholder meetings and yelling (see sokaiya). My friend worked at a business in Tokyo that had a little disagreement with the Yakuza, and you know what they did? They sent some young punk to go sit in the reception room and smoke all day and refuse to leave. Ooooh, scary!
Yeah, Japan must be an awful place, having such shoddy gang life and all. Stupid, boring Yakuza.
There is some hardcore gang life in Japan. The Triads are getting established, and the Yakuza can’t do too much about it because the Triads are genuine gangsters whereas the Yakuza are pussies. The Triads actually shoot people and don’t mind getting killed, that sort of thing.
So, wait, who’s winning again?
So a dirty criminal offs himself, and calls it an “honourable suicide”. Maybe the rest of these jokers should also start shaming themselves for their actions (you know, against non-yakuza) and draw their conclusions.
live by the sword, die by the sword
It’s kind of refreshing to hear a story like this. Yakuza supposedly are remnants of the samurai class, but I hear that they have been losing their traditions and codes of honor, turning into punks that just want to make money and get girls.
It’s not too often that people commit suicide (for honor) in Japan these days, so for some strange reason his act was a bit moving to me. I’m sure that he’s a dying breed among today’s yakuza though… no dajare intended
While I think you’ve got a point kkrev, I think it’s actually that aspect of the Yakuza that earns them “respect” (unlike the rest of the world were gangsters earn little more than “fear”.) They are famous for leaving innocent bystanders alone and getting along with their stuff. I kinda like that.
I think Kuri’s right about them being a dying breed…I’m sure this guy didn’t have much of a choice though. He probably had an ultimatum of “Kill yourself or get shot like a dog in the street.”
Wow, so I guess Yakuza will have to put up with not being as “cool” as the triads, MS13, and the Bloods huh? I’m sure that how “cool” they are is of chief concern. By the way, when did a body count become a barometer of “coolness”? The Yakuza and all other gangs have one goal, to make money. If they could make more money by killing (even in the long run) I have no doubt the Yakuza would be killing.
The world has changed, and you neglect to mention that the Yakuza’s choice to betray killing as a method of making money has resulted in them still being around without serious police problems. The less impact you have on the common man, and the less waves you make with your illegal actions, the better your chances of being around for a long time. The bloods and MS13 haven’t been around for as long as the Yakuza, but believe me, they’ll be shut down like Gotti if they make enough trouble. They will either figure this out, or they will be gone.
The triads are common criminals. People idolize common criminals? If you ask me, all of these groups are filled with idiots, but at least the Yakuza’s guys are somewhat smart to adapt to civilized culture.
TELL ME PLZZZ I NEED TO KNOW If there…still around how u people talk is like your watching a tv show and telling storys…But i really want to know is where they are at…Town, road to house, next mmmm yea are they still alive i mean the gang
Putang ina.. gago ka talaga.. Ric is the only one who knows what hes talking about, Yakuza are a true mafia, they are not a pack of murderers, they are businessmen. You reckon MS 13 and the rest are ‘cooler’ huh? Well tell me, whos reigned the longest, whos the largest, whos the most powerful criminal organisation huh?