Kokusui-kai

The Kokusui-kai ("Patriotic Society") (國粹会), founded in 1958, is a Tokyo-based yakuza organization with an estimated 500 members. Despite its relatively low membership, it is widely viewed as a wealthy and successful gang, controlling Tokyo's fashionable Ginza district. (If one includes local affiliates in seven prefectures of the Kantō region, its membership is estimated at 1,050). Its oyabun, or Godfather, was Kazuyoshi Kudo until his suicide in February 2007.