Kenichi Shinoda

Infobox Person
name= Kenichi Shinoda


caption=
birth_date=Birth date and age|1942|1|25|mf=y
birth_place= Oita Prefecture, Japan
death_date=
death_place=

nihongo|Kenichi Shinoda|篠田 建市|Shinoda Ken'ichi, also known as nihongo|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. [ [http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/5/8/30/n1034822.htm 日最大黑幫16年來首換老大 警方緊盯 ] ]

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. [ [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?nn20050819f3.htm Police wary as Yamaguchi-gumi prepares to fete sixth don | The Japan Times Online ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,7369,1651311,00.html Guardian article]
* [http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/makeprfy.pl5?nn20050819f3.htm Japan Times article]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4499854.stm BBC News - Japanese yakuza boss goes to jail]