Sumiyoshi-kai is the second largest organized crime group of Japan’s Yakuza group. It is also called the Sumiyoshi-rengo. It was founded by Shigesaku Abe in 1958. This gang is estimated to have around 10,000 members. The current boss of Sumiyoshi-kai is Shigeo Nishiguchi.
Sumiyoshi-kai is basically a federation of various small crime groups. It follows a loose chain of command. Though Shigeo Nishiguchi is the Big Boss, but his powers are shared several other men too.
Sumiyoshi-kai has a strange history as regards its name. It underwent various changes in its name. The founder Shigesaku Abe named the organization as Minato-kai in 1958. Later on, when the new boss Yoshimitsu Sekigami came into power, he changed the organization’s name to Sumiyoshi-kai. The organization dissolved in the year 1965. However it again came up in 1969, this time as a union; Masao Hori was behind it. The union was named as the Sumiyoshi-rengo. Masao Hori ruled until his death in October 1990.
After Hori, Shigeo Nishiguchi took over the organization in February 1991. He renamed the organization to Sumiyoshi-kai. After him, Hareaki Fukuda became the head of the organization in 2005.
In 2008, a member of the Yamiguchi-gumi gang, Hioshige Suzuki was brutally murdered in Yashio city, near Tokyo. On the next day of this murder, a member of the Sumiyoshi-kai group, Atsushu Suzuki, was found dead. It was suspected that these murders were a result of a dispute among the two crime groups.
Currently the gang is under great pressure. It is due to the economic recession which has caused a reduction in the gang’s revenue from various sources like the real estate sector.