Yakuza, also known as gokudō, are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media call them bōryokudan, while the yakuza call themselves ninkyō dantai. The English equivalent for the term yakuza is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization.
Yoshio Kodama was a Japanese right-wing ultranationalist, Imperial Japanese Navy rear admiral and a prominent figure in the rise of organized crime in Japan. The most famous kuromaku, or behind-the-scenes power broker, of the 20th century, he was active in Japan's political arena and criminal underworld from the 1930s to the 1970s, and became enormously wealthy through his involvement in smuggling operations.
The Kantō-kai (関東会) was a Japanese underworld organization formed by Yoshio Kodama in 1964, and named for the Kantō region from which it drew most of its membership. Kodama envisioned the Kantō-kai as a secret national police force, with the aim of forwarding the far right-wing views he and other organized criminals often held.
The Inagawa-kai (稲川会) is the third largest of Japan's yakuza groups, with approximately 1,700 members. It is based in the Kantō region, and was one of the first yakuza organizations to begin operating overseas.
Hisayuki Machii, born Jeong Geon-yeong was a Korean Japanese yakuza boss. He was nicknamed the "Ginza Tiger", and was the founder of one of Japan's most notorious yakuza gangs, the Tosei-Kai.
Kenichi Shinoda, also known as Shinobu Tsukasa, is a Japanese yakuza and the sixth and current kumicho of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization.
The Kudo-kai is a yakuza group headquartered in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 200 active members. The Kudo-kai has been a purely independent syndicate ever since its foundation, and has caused numerous conflicts with the Yamaguchi-gumi.
The Taishu-kai is a yakuza organization based in Fukuoka Prefecture on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 70 active members.
The Dojin-kai is a yakuza organization headquartered in Kurume, Fukuoka, on the Kyushu island of Japan, a designated yakuza syndicate, with approximately 320 members. As well as being known as a militant yakuza organization, the Dojin-kai has also been known as a de facto drug cartel, as its activities have allegedly included large-scale drug trafficking, specifically methamphetamine trafficking, which is traditionally shunned in the yakuza world.
The Kodo-kai is a yakuza criminal organization based in Nagoya, Japan. It is a secondary organization of the Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate in Japan. With an estimated membership of 4,000, it is the second-largest Yamaguchi affiliate after the Yamaken-gumi, and operates in at least 18 prefectures.
The Fourth Yamaken-gumi is a yakuza gang based in Kobe, Japan. It was the largest affiliate, followed by the Nagoya-based Kodo-kai, of the largest known yakuza syndicate in Japan, the Yamaguchi-gumi until 2015.
The Kyosei-kai is a yakuza group based in Hiroshima, Japan.
The Shinwa-kai (親和会) is a yakuza group based in Takamatsu, Kagawa on Shikoku, Japan. It has an estimated 30 active members.
The Kyokuryu-kai is a yakuza criminal organization based on the Okinawa island of Japan, with an estimated membership of 210–270.
The Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai is a yakuza criminal organization based on the Okinawa island of Japan. A designated yakuza group with an estimated 300 active members, the Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai is the largest yakuza organization in Okinawa Prefecture.
The Kyushu Seido-kai was a yakuza organization based in Fukuoka Prefecture on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 150 active members. Headquartered in the southern Fukuoka region of Omuta, the Kyushu Seido-kai maintains its offices in five other prefectures including Tokyo.
The Fukuhaku-kai (福博会) is a yakuza organization based in Fukuoka on the Kyushu island of Japan. The Fukuhaku-kai is a designated yakuza group with an estimated membership of 70.
The Oda-gumi (織田組) is a yakuza organization founded in 1958 by Hideomi "Joji" Oda in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. Oda-gumi would join the powerful Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate as a subsidiary organization under third generation kumicho Kazuo Taoka in 1964, with Oda serving as the Yamaguchi-gumi saiko-komon under Taoka with the right to maintain his own family.
