The (sometimes written Aizu-Kotetsukai or Aizu Kotetsu-kai) is a

yakuza , 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 ...

organization in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

based in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

. Its name comes from the

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 princip ...

region, "Kotetsu", a type of

Japanese sword A is one of several types of traditionally made swords from Japan. Bronze swords were made as early as the Yayoi period (1000 BC – 300 AD), though most people generally refer to the curved blades made from the Heian period (794 – 1185) to the ...

, 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 , also known as , are members of Transnational crime, transnational organized crime, organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . ...

legislation, which gave police expanded powers to crack down on yakuza. Its chairman at the time,

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 l ...

, campaigned publicly against the new laws, and the group launched a lawsuit challenging their

constitutionality Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...

. 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 formed an alliance 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 dockworkers in Kobe before World War II. It is one of the largest criminal organizations i ...

, Japan's largest yakuza clan now led by

Kenichi Shinoda , also known as , is a Japanese Yakuza, 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.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. Takayama has been consider ...

References

1868 establishments in Japan Yakuza groups {{crime-org-stub