The 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 ter ...

organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived f ...

headquartered in

Kurume, Fukuoka is a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, the city has an estimated population of 303,579 and a population density of 1,320 persons per km². The total area is 229.96 km². On February 5, 2005, the town of Kitano (fr ...

, on the

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

island of

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 n ...

,"Boryokudan Situation in 2010"
April 2011, ''

National Police Agency National Police may refer to the national police forces of several countries: *Afghanistan: Afghan National Police *Haiti: Haitian National Police *Colombia: National Police of Colombia *Cuba: Cuban National Police *East Timor: National Police of ...

'' a designated yakuza syndicate, with approximately 760 members. As well as being known as a militant yakuza organization, the Dojin-kai has also been known as a ''de facto''

drug cartel A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the l ...

, as its activities have allegedly included large-scale

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalati ...

, specifically

methamphetamine Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamp ...

trafficking, which is traditionally shunned in the yakuza world. With its activities of drug trafficking, the Dojin-kai has allegedly been Japan's largest wholesale dealer in drugs since the late 20th century, after the disbanding of three other yakuza groups based in northern Kyushu;

Tagawa is a city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on November 3, 1943. As of October 1, 2018, the city has an estimated population of 48,241, with 24,537 households. Its total area is 54.52 km². Tagawa was historicall ...

-based Sadaoka-gumi, known as " apan'sMethlord in the Showa era" which was crushed by the Taishu-kai, Okawa-based Hamada-kai, and

Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,000, ...

-based

Yamano-kai The Third was a yakuza group based in Kumamoto, Kyushu, Japan.

History

The Dojin-kai was formed in 1971 from four old yakuza groups united by the first president, Isoji Koga (former

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'' ...

yakuza born 1934). Seijiro Matsuo, the Secretary General of the first-generation Dojin-kai, succeeded as the president in 1992."1993 Police White Paper Chapter 1 : The Actual Condition of the Boryokudan"
1993, ''

'' In the same year, 1992, the Dojin-kai was registered as a designated boryokudan group under the Organized Crime Countermeasures Law.

Gangland vendetta

Very much like other yakuza groups based in the northern Kyushu region such as the Taishu-kai and

Kudo-kai The is a yakuza group headquartered in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 220 active members.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 ...

syndicate from the northern Kyushu area. Another notable one is a brief conflict that occurred in 1983, with the

Kanto Kantō (Japanese) Kanto is a simplified spelling of , a Japanese word, only omitting the diacritics. In Japan Kantō may refer to: *Kantō Plain *Kantō region *Kantō-kai, organized crime group *Kanto (Pokémon), a geographical region in the ' ...

-based large yakuza syndicate Sumiyoshi Union, in which a majority of Dojin members moved to Tokyo and had been hiding out around Tokyo with the plan of slaying all of the Union's 76 senior bosses until the Union made a conceding offer of peaceful resolution (''teuchi''). The Dojin-kai is noted for having been isolated in the yakuza world in an uncanny way, in contrast to most other yakuza organizations which usually have at least one ally ('' sakazuki''-shared "brother" organization). In one notable anecdote, during the time of the ''Yama-Michi War'', there were several offers of help from other organizations but the Dojin-kai reportedly rejected all of them. The Dojin-kai is a member of an anti- Yamaguchi fraternal federation, the Yonsha-kai, formed with three other northern-Kyushu based independent yakuza syndicates, the

Kudo-kai The is a yakuza group headquartered in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 220 active members.Taishu-kai and Kumamoto-kai, however even the Kudo-kai, the principal member, is said to have avoided getting deeply involved in the Dojin-kai. The Dojin-kai again started a blatantly vicious conflict with its splinter group,

Kyushu Seido-kai The was a yakuza organization based in Fukuoka Prefecture on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 380 active members.

, in 2006.

War with the Seido-kai

When the long-time boss Seijiro Matsuo suddenly announced his resignation in May 2006, a war broke out between the headquarters and a splinter group in Omuta who, naming themselves the "

Kyushu Seido-kai The was a yakuza organization based in Fukuoka Prefecture on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 380 active members.

," allegedly aligned themselves with the

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 ...

, the Dojin-kai's rival and the largest yakuza syndicate in Japan. Seven people were killed during the beginning of the war. In one incident, a gangster walked into a hospital and shot an innocent man twice, mistaking him for a rival. In another, the Dojin-kai's headquarters was sprayed with an

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms d ...

assault rifle. More than five Dojin offices in Kurume and Fukuoka were attacked with bombs and firearms on May 21 of that year, and soon after that, on 24th, Seido-kai's Jinsei group headquarters office in Chikugo was totally destroyed, apparently by Dojin-kai's bombs. On June 13, 2007, Zenji Tsurumaru was killed. On June 19, Hidenori Irie was killed. On August 18, the leader of Dojin-kai, Yoshihisa Onaka was killed. On November 8, a civilian Hiroshi Miyamoto was killed by mistake while receiving treatment at a hospital. On November 12, Shigeki Koga was killed. On November 27, Yoshikazu Matsuo, one of the chairmen, and his driver were killed. Both groups announced a cease-fire on December 18 and on February 5, 2008, the war reportedly ended. The Fukuoka Prefectural Police discovered that the Seido-kai built a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

in July 2009 in Omuta to pay tribute to their casualties. The names inscribed on its surface not only included those of Seido-kai members but also included those of Dojin-kai members. This cenotaph, however, disappeared by early 2011. The Dojin-Seido war has been escalating since the late 2000s, especially in 2011, when they started using military machine guns and tossing grenades at each other. Many Seido members have escaped from Kyushu since the late 2000s, building an eight-story bulletproof building in Taito, Tokyo as their new base. The first Seido president, Chojiro Murakami, was arrested in

Ibaraki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefecture ...

. Kazuma Umeki, one of the top underbosses in the Seido-kai, was attacked with a 10-ton dump truck driven by a Dojin yakuza, and in April 2011, two Seido seniors were shot with a revolver in Imari by a Dojin hitman, and Sueharu Matsunaga, the head of the Seido's Matsunaga group, was killed with a bomb.

Activities

Sometimes informally and mockingly dubbed the "Dojin Pharmacy" (''Dōjin Yakkyoku''), the Dojin-kai's activities, just same as its splinter group Seido-kai's, allegedly largely consist of

Drug trafficking

In one notable case, as introduced in the "Drug Criminal Organization" section in the

's 1991 Police White Paper, a Fukuoka-based 20-member small Dojin-affiliate had managed a systematic trafficking ring, selling methamphetamine to various drug-dealing yakuza organizations throughout the country. This group had also smuggled methamphetamine from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

where it had a connection with a local Taiwanese drug ring. This group had used a small island located in

Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...

as a smuggling base, and for example in 1986, this group smuggled approximately of methamphetamine—estimated retail price of nearly US$1 billion—from Taiwan.

Relationship with authorities

The Dojin-kai has been known for its strong anti-authority, anti-police stance since the 20th century, however at the same time the Dojin-kai has allegedly developed some relationship with local authorities, and it has actually been uncovered, as, in the early 2000s, the Fukuoka Prefectural Police headquarters disclosed that its classified information had leaked out to the Dojin-kai via its branch police departments based in the Chikugo region including

Kurume is a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, the city has an estimated population of 303,579 and a population density of 1,320 persons per km². The total area is 229.96 km². On February 5, 2005, the town of Kitano (fr ...

Key persons

*Isoji Koga, the first president of the Dojin-kai ::Koga was born on November 6, 1934, in Ogori, Fukuoka. In his boyhood, he was a leading member of an all-Japan youth

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...

champion team. He worked as a

bank clerk ''The Bank Clerk'' is a 1919 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. The film is considered to be lost. Cast * Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle * Molly Malone See also * List of American films of 1919 * Fatty Arbuckle film ...

for about two years, and after resigning from the bank, he entered the underworld as a

probationer at the age of around 20.''Document Kyushu Yakuza Wars'', "Person, Isoji Koga" (pp.228–240), Masaki Yasuda, December 1990, Seinen-shokan After retirement in 1992, Koga died at a hospital in Kurume on May 22, 2009. He was 74 years old. He was considered a historic godfather of the Dojin-kai. *Seijiro Matsuo,"Fukuoka yakuza turf war erupts"
May 23, 2006, ''

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 b ...

'' the second president of the Dojin-kai. At that time during the ''Yama-Michi War'', Koga was in prison, and Matsuo took command of the Dojin-kai to fight with the

. Noted for his extraordinary facial resemblance to

Heriberto Lazcano Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano (25 December 1974 – 7 October 2012), commonly referred to by his aliases Z-3 and El Lazca, was a Mexican drug lord and the leader of Los Zetas drug cartel. He was one of the most-wanted Mexican drug lords. Lazcano ...

, the second-generation leader of the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel.

References

{{Designated Boryokudan Organizations established in 1971 1971 establishments in Japan Yakuza groups based in Kyushu