Yama-Ichi War

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The Yama-Ichi War (Yama-Ichi Senso) was a yakuza conflict in the Kansai region of Japan in 1985, between the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Ichiwa-kai gangs.

The situation which led to the war began when Hiroshi Yamamoto, a top lieutenant in the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, broke from that gang along with 18 lieutenants and 10,000 other members to form his own organization, the Ichiwa-kai. The split stemmed from professional jealousy: Yamamoto had been seen as a contender for the role of kumicho, or supreme Godfather, in the Yamaguchi-gumi, and was unhappy when a rival, Masahisa Takenaka, was elected to the position by a council of eight top-ranking bosses.

On January 26, 1985, Yamamoto sent a team of hitmen to Takenaka's girlfriend's home in Suita. While waiting for an elevator, Takenaka was shot in the head and killed, sparking a bloody Kansai-wide conflict which came to be known as the Yama-Ichi War. The enraged Yamaguchi-gumi and its temporary leader Kazuo Nakanishi vowed to wipe out the Ichiwa-kai in revenge.

In the weeks that followed, 26 gangsters were killed and many more seriously wounded in an estimated 200 gun battles. At the time, local newspapers carried daily "scorecards" with the latest body counts of both sides.

The war continued for several years, and the Yamaguchi-gumi eventually prevailed. But it proved to be a Pyrrhic victory as many of the gang's members, including Masahisa Takenaka's high-ranking brother Masashi, were arrested in the ensuing police crackdowns. Realizing they were outnumbered and outgunned, many Ichiwa-kai members sought police protection. With the help of a neutral Tokyo gang, the Inagawa-kai, a peace accord was finally brokered under which the remaining Ichiwa-kai defectors were allowed to rejoin the Yamaguchi-gumi.

In 1989, Yoshinori Watanabe was elected as fifth kumicho of the Yamaguchi-gumi. Under Watanabe's leadership, the group went on to achieve unprecedented successes in the underworld.