Kenichi Shinoda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kenichi Shinoda | |
| Born | January 25, 1942 Oita Prefecture, Japan |
|---|---|
Kenichi Shinoda (篠田 建市 Shinoda Ken'ichi?), also known as Shinobu Tsukasa (司 忍 Tsukasa Shinobu?, born January 25, 1942) is the sixth and current kumicho (supreme Godfather) of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization. He is currently imprisoned for firearms possession.
After graduating high school and working part time for a local firm, he drifted to Osaka in 1962 where he met Kodo-kai, a Yamaguchi-gumi affiliate. Shinoda took control of the 40,000-strong gang on July 29, 2005 after the retirement of previous don Yoshinori Watanabe. Before assuming this role, Shinoda had headed a Yamaguchi-gumi affiliate based in Nagoya, the Kodo-kai. Under Shinoda, the Kodo-kai was a successful branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi, establishing branches in 18 prefectures -- including expansion into the Kantō region, traditionally not Yamaguchi turf.
Under Shinoda, the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi is expected to continue that expansion into Tokyo and Eastern Japan. According to both yakuza and police, this movement will inevitably create conflict between the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Kanto-Hatsukakai, a federation of Tokyo-based yakuza groups including the Inagawa-kai and the Sumiyoshi-kai.
Shinoda is the first Yamaguchi-gumi kumicho not to hail from the Kansai region. He also eschews the "supreme Godfather" image, in public at least: after his appointment as kumicho, he insisted on taking the train to his induction ceremony instead of a chauffeured limousine. He also reportedly stopped in a street ramen noodle restaurant on the way to the lavish yakuza banquet arranged in his honor.
In the early 1970s, Shinoda was convicted of murdering a rival gang boss with a katana, and spent 13 years in prison.[1]
On December 4, 2005, only four months after being named kumicho, Shinoda began serving a six-year prison sentence for gun possession after the Japanese Supreme Court finally rejected his appeal of a 1997 conviction. In the 1997 case, one of his bodyguards was caught with an illegal pistol, and Shinoda was convicted of "conspiring" with the bodyguard.[2]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Preceded by (none) |
Kumicho of Tsukasa-kogyo 1960s-1984 |
Succeeded by (unknown) |
| Preceded by Takeshi Hirota (former Hirota-gumi) |
Kaicho of Kodo-kai 1984-2005 |
Succeeded by Kiyoshi Takayama |
| Preceded by Yoshinori Watanabe |
Kumicho of Yamaguchi-gumi 2005-present |
Succeeded by (incumbent) |
 |
This biographical article related to Japan is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
