The yakuza: Inside Japan's murky criminal underworld

The new group, which was formally created in early September, is calling themselves the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi and is already setting up alliances with other organized crime groups. The National Police Agency says they have had an emergency meeting to discuss how to handle the crisis, and police nationwide are on alert.  

In the Japanese underworld, the 21 other organized crime groups are trying to decide which way the wind blows and who to align themselves with. The last split in the Yamaguchi-gumi, which began in 1984, resulted in several years of epic warfare marked with assassinations, attempted bombings and gun battles that terrified and enthralled the nation.

Japan has very strict gun control laws, and in a land of 127 million people, there were six gun-related deaths last year, according to statistics by the National Police Agency. The possibility of the gang war reigniting frightens