Masaru Takumi

Takumi featured on a nonfiction book after his death

Masaru Takumi (宅見 勝 Takumi Masaru; June 22, 1936 – August 28, 1997) was a powerful Japanese organized crime figure assassinated in 1997. Until his death, he was the second-in-command (wakagashira) and financial overseer of Japan's largest yakuza gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi. Known as "the man who never sleeps", he also headed his own sub-organization, the 1000-member Takumi-gumi.

He was considered a likely successor to the Yamaguchi-gumi's fifth godfather, Yoshinori Watanabe,^[1] but in August 1997, Takumi was shot and killed in a coffee shop on the fourth floor of the Oriental Hotel in Kobe by members of a breakaway Yamaguchi affiliate, the Nakano-kai.^[2] An innocent bystander was killed by a stray bullet in the attack, which led to the downfall of the Nakano-kai.

His last position at the Yamaguchi-gumi was as wakagashira (the number-two), and after his death, the wakagashira post became vacant and had been vacant until 2005 when it was succeeded by Kiyoshi Takayama.^[3] The Takumi-gumi's head position was succeeded by Tadashi Irie.^[4]

His wife was the sister of Hideki Saijo,^[5][6] a Japanese singer and television celebrity most famous for singing the Japanese version of the Village People's hit song "Y.M.C.A.",^[7] called "Young Man".

References

1. "Police wary as Yamaguchi-gumi prepares to fete sixth don", August 19, 2005, The Japan Times
2. "Tokyo police continue gang sweeps", September 18, 1997, The Japan Times
3. "Into the Yamaguchi-gumi's 'total domination' of the underworld", September 10, 2008, Monthly Central Journal, Central News Bank (Japanese)
4. "Osaka Police Nab Another Yakuza Boss as Crackdown Continues", December 1, 2010, The Wall Street Journal
5. 森功『同和と銀行』（講談社、2009年）p.175
6. 田中森一・夏原武『バブル』（宝島社、2007年）
7. Pearlman, Jeff (June 2008). America's favorite ballpark sing-along is (gasp!) a disco anthem about gay sex. Spin. pp. 75–78. Retrieved 16 May 2010.