Tadashi Irie

Tadashi Irie (入江 禎 Irie Tadashi, born December 9, 1944 in Uwajima, Ehime)[1] is a yakuza, the head (kumicho) of the Osaka-based 2nd Takumi-gumi[2] and the grand general manager (so-honbucho) of the 6th Yamaguchi-gumi.[1] He is regarded as the number-three leader of the 6th Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate.[2]

Career

Tadashi Irie in a police van, December 2010

Irie began his career as a yakuza when he joined the Fukui-gumi, a Yamaguchi affiliate based in Osaka. He later joined the Takumi-gumi in 1978 when Masaru Takumi, then the number-two member (wakagashira) of the Fukui-gumi, became an executive underboss (jikisan) of the 3rd Yamaguchi-gumi. Prior to this he was the head of his own clan, the Irie-gumi, which he formed in 1975, but following this he merged it into the Takumi-gumi.[1]

He was known for his unwavering loyalty to Masaru Takumi; he had been offered the Yamaguchi-gumi's executive position several times, but he repeatedly declined, preferring to be Takumi's henchman.[1] In 1997 when Takumi was assassinated by the Nakano-kai, he succeeded as the head of the Takumi-gumi,[3] making excessively ruthless organized attacks on the Nakano-kai in retaliation.[1]

He entered the Kobe headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi in 1997 when he became the head of the Takumi-gumi. He was promoted to wakagashira-hosa (one of the number-three underbosses) in 2005,[1] and following the start of the sixth era headed by Shinobu Tsukasa from the Kodo-kai of Nagoya, he flew the de facto number-three position (so-honbucho).[4]

He has been involved in the Yamaguchi-gumi's important yakuza wars such as the Osaka War (1975–1978, against the Matsuda-gumi) and Yama-Ichi War (1984–1989, against the Ichiwa-kai).[1]

On December 1, 2010 — just 2 weeks after the arrest of the "number-two of the Yamaguchi-gumi" Kiyoshi Takayama[5] —, Irie, as the "number-three of the Yamaguchi-gumi",[2] was arrested on suspicion of compensating the relatives of a hitman (a member of the Takumi-gumi[6]) who had been jailed for murdering a senior member of the Nakano-kai.[7] He was charged with paying 3.9 million yen ($46,555) to the hitman's relatives,[3] whom he had paid a total of at least approximately US$250,000.[8] He was released on bail on December 24 of that year,[9] and received a jail sentence of 10 months in March 2011.[6]

Preceded by
Masaru Takumi		 Kumicho of Takumi-gumi
1997-present 		Succeeded by
(none)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 The Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi Complete Databook 2008 Edition : "Tadashi Irie (Takumi-gumi)", December 2008, Mediax, ISBN 4-86201-358-9
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Police anti-gang drive in trouble", December 11, 2010, Asahi Shimbun
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Osaka Police Nab Another Yakuza Boss as Crackdown Continues", December 1, 2010, The Wall Street Journal
  4. ↑ "Into the Yamaguchi-gumi's 'total domination' of the underworld", September 10, 2008, Monthly Central Journal, Central News Bank (Japanese)
  5. ↑ "Dawn raid on Japanese syndicate", December 1, 2010, The Courier-Mail
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Takumi-gumi kumicho receives a 10 months jail sentence after confessing to charges", February 28, 2011, Sankei Shimbun (Japanese)
  7. ↑ "Japan's No. 3 gangster arrested in police war on underworld", December 1, 2010, AFP
  8. ↑ "200,000 yen per month to a member in prison – the arrested Yamaguchi-gumi number-three", December 1, 2010. Asahi Shimbun (Japanese)
  9. ↑ "Yamaguchi-gumi : Kumicho of the Takumi-gumi, who compensated a hitman's family, is released", December 25, 2010, Mainichi Shimbun (Japanese)