Tokyo Court Upholds Ban on Use of Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai front company office

The Tokyo District Court on the 21st of July (2011) rejected the legal pleas of the head of the Yamaguchi-gumi Kodokai （山口組弘道会）Komatsu-gumi and upheld a preliminary injunction against him which forbade use of the group’s office in Tokyo Taito ward. It was a small victory for citizens in the area who do not want to live next to a yakuza office.

The Yamaguchi-gumi Kodokai, is the ruling faction of Japan’s largest organized crime group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, which has 39,000 members. The Kodo-kai has between 3,000-4,000 members. The Kodo-kai Komatsu-gumi is their representative faction in Tokyo controlling several front companies (construction, real estate, investments) in the Kanto area.

In March, the Tokyo District court, ruled on the the complaints of 170 citizens and concerned parties living near the Komatsu-gumi office headquarters, finding that, “There is always a possibility that a gang war will break out in the vicinity of a yakuza office, and that this could endanger the life and safety of the inhabitants,” and ruled that the office was to be banned from being used. It has remained empty ever since.

The head of the Komatsu-gumi filed an objection in response to this asking for the temporary restraining order (使用禁止の仮処分）be put on hold, asserting that he would have no place to live. The Komatsu-gumi office is located in a business and residential building. The court ruled that in order to ensure that the gang boss did not use the residence as a yakuza office, “limiting the freedom of the Komatsu-gumi-cho (the leader of the gang) as to where he moves to and where he can live, is simply unavoidable.”