Sakaume-gumi

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The Seventh Sakaume-gumi (七代目酒梅組, Shichidaime Sakaume-gumi^?) is a yakuza gang based in Osaka, Japan.

It is a small group that focuses primarily on gambling, and not on other activities like extortion and drugs. Perhaps because of this, it has had relatively good relations with the local police.

When Japan passed new anti-boryokudan laws in 1992, the Sakaume-gumi was one of the few Kansai-based groups not to launch legal challenges against the new legislation. At a hearing, the group's representative stated, "If the Sakaume-gumi fulfills conditions for designation (as a boryokudan group), we have no choice but to accept it."

One former member of the Sakaume-gumi has achieved a measure of fame in another field: born-again Christianity. Rev Hiroyuki Suzuki, a tattooed, pinky-missing former Sakaume-gumi gangster, has become Japan's most colourful evangelical Christian preacher.

[edit] Successive kumichos

• 1st:
• 2nd:
• 3rd:
• 4th:
• 5th (1979-1995): Masao Taniguchi (谷口 正雄)
• 6th (1996-1999): Koji Oyama (大山 光次) who was kumicho of the Third Sakaguchi-gumi (阪口組).
• 7th (1999-): Kozaburo Kanayama (金山 耕三朗) who was kumicho of the Kanayama-gumi (金山組).