Kenichi Shinoda

Ken'ichi Shinoda (篠田 建市), also known as Shinobu Tsukasa (司 忍), (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 posession.

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 Kanto 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 1970's, Shinoda was convicted of murdering a rival gang boss with a samurai sword, and spent 13 years in prison.

On December 4, 2005, only four months after being named kumicho, Shinoda began serving a six-year prison sentence for gun posession 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.

External links

• Yomiuri article
• Asahi Shimbun article
• Japan Times article
• Guardian article