The was a Japanese

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 ter ...

organization founded by

Tadamasa Goto ''The Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi Complete Databook 2008 Edition'' : "Tadamasa Goto" (p.137–138), February 1, 2005, Mediax, is a retired yakuza. The US Treasury department put him on a watch-list in December 2015 and he is still engaged in criminal ...

History

The gang was originally formed in

Fujinomiya is a city located in central Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 132,507 in 56,655 households, and a population density of 340 persons per km². The total area of the city is . History The city name comes from ...

, Shizuoka Prefecture, but moved its activities east in 1991 when it merged with a gang in

Hachiōji is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 561,344, and a population density of 3000 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Hachiōji is located in the ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. The Goto-gumi, as an affiliate of Japan's largest yakuza organization, the Kobe-based

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 ...

, was seen as a vanguard for Yamaguchi expansion into the Kantō region. The gang achieved notoriety the following year when five of its members assaulted and seriously injured Japanese filmmaker

Juzo Itami , born , was a Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director. He directed eleven films (one short and ten features), all of which he wrote himself. Early life Itami was born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi in Kyoto. The name Itami was passed on from his fath ...

. The attack was in retaliation for Itami's negative portrayal of the yakuza in his film '' Minbo no Onna''. On October 14, 2008 Goto was expelled from the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Goto-gumi was split into two parts, headed by Mr. Rachi and Mr. Tsukamoto, two of Goto's chief executives. At the time of the expulsion, the supreme godfather

Shinobu Tsukasa , 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 ...

, the head of the second

Kodo-kai The Kodo-kai ( ''Kōdō-kai'', ''Koh-doh-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, ...

. In April 2009 Tadamasa Goto publicly entered study for Buddhist priesthood. In 2011 a Japanese man believed to be connected to the Goto-gumi was killed in Thailand.

Activities

The Goto-gumi was active in various fields of business, such as the

financial industry Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, ...

real estate industry Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (201 ...

, construction industry, and in the political world."Overview of the Goto-gumi (from the authority researches)"
''Japan Subculture Research Center'' Also, the Goto-gumi had allegedly been very influential in the entertainment industry.

Foreign connections

The Goto-gumi had allegedly been connected to the

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

, and police reports indicated that the Goto-gumi had smuggled firearms from the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, where they had connections with some of the country's high-ranking military officers. Members, especially senior members often visited foreign countries to acquire shooting skills.

Goto's FBI scandal

In 2001 the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

's representative in Tokyo arranged for

, then the head of the Goto-gumi, to receive a

liver transplant Liver transplantation or hepatic transplantation is the replacement of a diseased liver with the healthy liver from another person (allograft). Liver transplantation is a treatment option for end-stage liver disease and acute liver failure, al ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in return for a $100,000 donation to the

UCLA Medical Center Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as ''UCLA Medical Center'', "RRMC" or "Ronald Reagan") is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United ...

in Los Angeles and information about Yamaguchi-gumi operations in the U.S. This was done without prior consultation of the Japanese National Police Agency. The journalist who uncovered the deal,

Jake Adelstein Joshua Lawrence “Jake” Adelstein (born March 28, 1969) is an American journalist, crime writer, and blogger who has spent most of his career in Japan. He is the author of '' Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan.'', w ...

, received threats from Goto and was given police protection in the US and in Japan.This Mob Is Big in Japan
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', 11 May 2008

References

{{Reflist 2008 disestablishments in Japan Yakuza groups Yamaguchi-gumi