Japan’s biggest crime syndicate has cancelled its annual Halloween event for children, apparently out of concern that a recent high-profile split in the gang could trigger violence and put public safety at risk.



The Yamaguchi-gumi, which boasts a membership of 24,000 and revenue of an estimated $6bn (about £4bn), posted a notice announcing the cancellation of its trick-or-treat event this Saturday, along with an apology to disappointed parents and children.

“The Halloween event that has taken place annually on 31 October will be cancelled this year due to various reasons,” said the notice, posted on the gate of the Yamaguchi-gumi’s headquarters in the western port city of Kobe.

“We regret disappointing parents and children who are looking forward to the event, but we promise to hold it next year, so please look forward to that.”

Last month, police warned of a possible outbreak of violence after 13 of the Yamaguchi-gumi’s 72 factions left to form a new group, amid internal rows centring on its head, Shinobu Tsukasa.

The 73-year-old Tsukasa, also known as Kenichi Shinoda, became the Yamaguchi-gumi’s sixth leader a decade ago and has been criticised for increasing monthly “loyalty payments” and for giving preferable treatment to members of the Kodo-kai, an affiliate he founded in 1984 in the central city of Nagoya.

Media reports in Japan said the rival gang, with about 3,000 members, was headed by Kunio Inoue, the 67-year-old head of the Yamaken-gumi, and was based on Awaji island, near Kobe.

Police officials say they fear a repeat of the bloodshed that followed a similar split in the mid-1980s. Over three years, at least 20 gangsters were killed, more than 70 were injured and 500 were arrested.

The cancellation signals that the Yamaguchi-gumi, now in its 100th year, is putting on hold attempts to soften its image as it addresses the recent schism and reassesses its response to tighter anti-gang laws and police vows to crack down on organised crime.

At last year’s Halloween event, Tomohiko Suzuki, a freelance writer and yakuza expert, posted a photo on Twitter showing gang members handing out colourfully decorated bags of sweets to children dressed in costumes. The gang hosts other community events, and was among the first to distribute water and food to survivors of the Kobe earthquake in January 1995.

Fears of a repeat of the 1980s turf war have so far failed to materialise, but police have increased patrols of gang premises, and two recent killings have been linked to the rift.

Earlier this month, police arrested a Yamaguchi-gumi member over the fatal shooting of a rival gangster at a hot spring resort in Nagano prefecture; on Monday, police said a senior member of the breakaway gang had died after a shooting at an office in Osaka.

Yakuza watchers speculated that crime bosses had been unnerved by the possibility of a violent incident breaking out at an event where children and their parents would be present.

“The Yamaguchi-gumi has split and is in tense relations with the [splinter] group,” Atsushi Mizoguchi, a freelance writer and expert on Japan’s underworld, told Agence France-Presse. “If they gather the neighbourhood children and an incident occurs, the boss would be pursued for responsibility.”

The Yamaguchi-gumi was formed in 1915 by a former fisherman, Harukichi Yamaguchi, on Awaji island. It accounts for almost half of Japan’s yakuza membership, according to police, and is active in all but three of the country’s 47 prefectures.