was 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 ...

, the president of the Fourth Aizukotetsu-kai. An

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, he rose to power as the head of the

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 ...

-based gang until his retirement in the 1990s. When he was a young man, his parents returned to

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

, leaving him to earn a living alone in Japan: "At that time," Takayama said in 1998, "I had no choice but to join the Japanese gangster world. This is because segregated people at that time had no way to survive in Japan." For a yakuza boss, he was a remarkably public figure, often granting interviews to Japanese and foreign reporters for articles in which he always came off as a gentleman. He even filed a lawsuit against the

Shiga is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,412,916 (1 October 2015) and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Pr ...

Prefectural Police for infringing on his rights to free expression.
See court testimony
. He viewed himself as an honorable outlaw, championing the weak and upholding the yakuza code of ninkyo (chivalry): "We did not regard ''ninkyo'' as a bad thing," he said. "Thus, we never killed anyone without reason. I strongly believed ''ninkyo'' must help the people. It was my job." In 1992 the Aizukotetsu-kai became one of the first yakuza syndicates named under Japan's new anti-violence group legislation, which gave police expanded powers to crack down on yakuza. Takayama campaigned publicly against the new laws, even writing a book on the subject, 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 ...

. Takayama eventually faced pressure from outside and from within his group to drop the suit, but he refused to compromise. According to

Manabu Miyazaki was a Japanese writer, social critic and public figure. He is the author of several best-selling books in Japan. His autobiography ''Toppamono'' sold 600,000 copies and has since been translated into English. In 1985, Miyazaki was named by th ...

, Takayama said at the time: "I can't accept what the government is doing. If I pull out now, I won't be able to die in peace. I'm not prepared to make any compromises, and I certainly don't intend to quit." But in September 1995 the Kyoto District Court threw out the lawsuit. Takayama retired as ''kaicho'' (Godfather) in 1997. He died in June 2003.

References

External links

Photo

{{DEFAULTSORT:Takayama, Tokutaro Yakuza members Japanese crime bosses Zainichi Korean people 1928 births 2003 deaths