The , meaning "Pine Needle Society," 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 based in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

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 ...

. The Matsuba-kai is a designated yakuza group with an estimated 360 active members as of 2020."Matsuba-kai"
20 February 2008, ''Matsue Joho Center'' The Matsuba-kai is a member of a yakuza fraternal federation named the Kantō Hatsuka-kai, along with four other Kantō-based yakuza syndicates, the

Sumiyoshi-kai The , sometimes referred to as the , is the second-largest yakuza group in Japan with an estimated 4,000 members. Outline Their territories mainly consist of upscale districts such as Kabukichō and Ginza. Shops operating in these territories ...

, the

Inagawa-kai The is the third largest of Japan's yakuza groups, with approximately 3,100 members. It is based in the Kantō region, and was one of the first yakuza organizations to begin operating overseas. History The Inagawa-kai was founded in Atami, Shiz ...

, the

Toa-kai The is a yakuza syndicate based in Tokyo with a predominantly Zainichi Korean membership. Originally named the , with its historic leader Hisayuki Machii, the Toa-kai was deeply involved in the history of Tokyo's South Korean community and Japan ...

, and the

Soai-kai The is a yakuza organization based in Chiba, Japan. The Soai-kai is a designated yakuza group with an estimated 120 active members. History The Soai-kai was formed in 1945 by Toramatsu Takahashi, then a member of a Yokohama-based bakuto group ...

History

The precursor to the Matsuba-kai was the , a yakuza gang founded in

Sumida, Tokyo is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Sumida City. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 257,300, and a population density of 18,690 persons per km ...

in 1936 by a

bakuto ''Bakuto'' (博徒) were itinerant gamblers active in Japan from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. They were one of two forerunners (the other being ''tekiya'', or peddlers) to modern Japanese organized crime syndicates called ''yakuza'' ...

named Masaru Sekine. In 1946 the were involved in the 1946

Shibuya incident The was a violent confrontation which occurred in between rival gangs near the Shibuya Station in Tokyo, Japan. The years after World War II saw Japan as a defeated nation and the Japanese people had to improvise in many aspects of daily life ...

where they fought for control of the local black markets. The Sekine-gumi rapidly expanded, but in 1947 many members were arrested by GHQ for firearms possession, resulting in the group being forced into disbanding. The remnants of the gang came together with the remnants of another gang, the Fujita-gumi, to found a new organization called the "Matsuba-kai" in March 1953. In April 1960, Matsuba-kai thugs ransacked the Tokyo headquarters of the ''Mainichi Shimbun'' newspaper in revenge for unfavorable coverage. In late 1960 and early, members of the Matsuba-kai mounted protests outside the offices of the literary magazine ''Chūō Kōron'' in protest of magazine's publication of

Shichirō Fukazawa was a Japanese author and guitarist whose 1960 short story ''Fūryū mutan'' ("Tale of an Elegant Dream") caused a nationwide uproar and led to an attempt by an ultranationalist to assassinate the president of the magazine that published it. B ...

's short story "The Tale of an Elegant Dream” (''Fūryū mutan''), which described the beheading of the Imperial family with a guillotine. In the 1980s when the gang was caught smuggling 12 kilos of

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

into

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The Matsuba-kai was registered as a designated yakuza group under the Organized Crime Countermeasures Law in 1994. In the early 2000s the Matsuba-kai was involved in a violent feud with the rival

Kyokuto-kai The is a yakuza organization based in Tokyo, Japan.

, which led to a number of shootings."Midday shooting in Shinjuku hotel leaves gangster dead, cop injured"
20 March 2001, ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' In early 2005, it was revealed that the

Urayasu 260px, old Urayasu is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 170,533 in 81,136 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Urayasu is best known as the home of the Tokyo ...

-based cleaning company contracted to

Tokyo Disney Resort The (local nickname ''TDR'') is a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just east of Tokyo. The resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company under a licence from The Walt Disney Company, who constru ...

was run by a member of the Matsuba-kai, Saburō Shiga.

References

{{Designated Boryokudan Organizations established in 1936 1936 establishments in Japan Yakuza groups