Photo/Illutration This building in Osaka’s Chuo Ward previously housed Takumi-gumi’s main office. (The Asahi Shimbun)

OSAKA--The Takumi-gumi crime syndicate’s sale of its headquarters here in April was seen as another nail in the coffin of the once-influential yakuza gang.

But investigators say a conundrum has arisen.

The forced closures of the main offices of Takumi-gumi and other gangs have driven them further underground, making yakuza activity more difficult to monitor or even locate.

“The operations of crime syndicates are becoming less visible,” a senior investigator said.

“In addition, compact groups with no head offices have increased in number. If we spend so much time trying to locate their new offices, we could be too late in taking countermeasures against these gangster groups.”

Police said they have yet to recognize any new base of operations for Takumi-gumi.

Other yakuza groups based in the Kansai region have also moved out of their main offices, including Kizuna-kai in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi in Kobe.

In the Sennichimae quarter of Osaka’s Nanba district, one remaining sign of gangster operations are letters saying “Takumi” on a wall of a four-story building that faces a narrow alley in a tourist-busy restaurant area.

Investigative sources said a sales agreement for the gang’s headquarters was signed in early April, and the price of more than 300 million yen ($2.2 million) was paid by the end of the month.

Takumi-gumi, under the umbrella of Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s biggest crime syndicate, expanded its influence through real estate and stock transactions during the asset-inflated economic growth period of the 1980s and 1990s.

Takumi-gumi was among the biggest gangster groups in the Kansai region along with Kobe-based Yamaken-gumi, from which Yamaguchi-gumi’s leader came from.

At its peak, Takumi-gumi had about 1,000 members, and its inaugural don, Masaru Takumi, rose to second-in-command in Yamaguchi-gumi.

But membership figures for Takumi-gumi have dropped to only several dozen.

“Despite its name recognition, Takumi-gumi is only a shadow of its former self,” a senior investigator said.

Gang members had been prohibited from using the main office in Osaka since 2020 under the anti-organized crime law and other legal measures.

One investigator said, however, that it would have been better if Takumi-gumi’s office had not been sold.

“Imposing a hefty fixed asset tax on an office that is banned from use is a better way to weaken an organization,” he said.

Other gangs have similarly been affected by the legal restrictions on their activities.

Kudo-kai, a crime syndicate designated as posing a “particular risk,” sold its former head office site in Kita-Kyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, in 2019.

In another case, the location of a gang’s new office has been a subject of debate.

Some police officers believe Kizuna-kai, which sold its Amagasaki office in 2021, relocated to the city of Osaka. The group had previously used an Osaka office of another group under its umbrella.

But other officers say there has rarely been substantial activity at that Osaka office, and the Kobe home of Kizuna-kai’s leader likely functions as the gang’s new headquarters.

The gang leader’s home is located near a school. If the home is being used as a yakuza office, it could violate a prefectural ordinance that bans operations of gang offices in school neighborhoods.

No conclusion has been reached on the matter, the sources said.

Related News