Bad blood among Japan’s yakuza gangs shoots up handgun prices
Up to five-fold increase in price of weapon on black market, says Mainichi newspaper
The price of a handgun has soared in Japan since the latest outbreak of violence between rival yakuza gangs, although experts say the much-publicised clampdown by the police means gangsters are less likely now to get involved in a shoot-out.
The ongoing bout of bad blood between gang members dates back to August, when Shinobu Tsukasa, the head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, excommunicated five subsidiary gangs from his 23,000-strong organisation. The gangs were punished after their leaders expressed dissatisfaction with 73-year-old Tsukasa’s leadership.
However, the subsidiaries reformed themselves into the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi and set about taking market share – primarily in gambling, drugs, prostitution, loan shark operations and protection rackets – away from their former comrades.
Police immediately stepped up their preparations for a repeat of the violence last witnessed on the streets of Japanese cities in 1984, when the Yamaguchi-gumi underwent a similar split. Those clashes left 25 dead, including a police officer, and 70 more injured in a series of incidents. The injured including passers-by caught up in the violence.
Quoting underworld sources, the Mainichi newspaper claimed that a handgun that previously sold for between 200,000 yen (HK$14,800) and 300,000 yen on the black market is now fetching 800,000 yen to one million yen. A single bullet, which used to cost 7,000 yen, now commands a price of around 10,000 yen. Although the second-in-command of the Ikeda-gumi was shot dead in the parking lot of an apartment complex on May 31, there has not been a significant outbreak of gun violence targeted at gang members.
