Nakano-kai

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The Nakano-kai (中野会) was a notorious Osaka-based yakuza gang, founded by Taro Nakano in the years after World War 2.

Before 1997, the Nakano-kai had been an affiliate of the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza group. But in July of that year, the Nakano-kai broke spectacularly from its parent in a violent attack that led to the group's disbanding.

In August of 1997, four Nakano-kai gunmen walked into the Oriental Hotel in Kobe and assassinated Masaru Takumi, number 2 in the Yamaguchi-gumi and the expected successor to Yoshinori Watanabe. The Nakano-kai was reportedly angry at Takumi for ordering them to cease hostilities in a local Osaka gang war. The attack also killed an innocent bystander, dentist Hiroshi Hirai. Public outrage over the shooting led to a police crackdown and the arrest of many of the gang's members (however, two of the hotel gunmen are still at large as of 2005). The gang was disbanded shortly thereafter.