January 1, 1928 - Tokutaro Takayama
Takayama's career as a yakuza boss defies easy categorization — an ethnic Korean who joined organized crime by necessity, he became one of the most openly visible gang leaders in modern Japan, cultivating a public image built on accessibility and a self-described code of chivalry. His presidency of the Fourth Aizukotetsu-kai placed him at the head of a significant Kyoto-based criminal organization, yet he pursued a lawsuit against police over free expression and regularly granted interviews to the press. His case sits at an intersection of institutional discrimination, organized crime, and the constructed honor culture of the yakuza.
From Wikipedia
Tokutaro Takayama (高山 登久太郎, Takayama Tokutarō; 1928 – June 15, 2003) was a yakuza, the president of the Fourth Aizukotetsu-kai. An ethnic Korean, he rose to power as the head of the Kyoto-based gang until his retirement in the 1990s.
When he was a young man, his parents returned to Korea, leaving him to earn a living alone in Japan: "At that time," Takayama said in 1998, "I had no choice but to join the Japanese gangster world. This is because segregated people at that time had no way to survive in Japan."
For a yakuza boss, he was a remarkably public figure, often granting interviews to Japanese and foreign reporters for articles in which he always came off as a gentleman. He even filed a lawsuit against the Shiga Prefectural Police for infringing on his rights to free expression. (See court testimony). He viewed himself as an honorable outlaw, championing the weak and upholding the yakuza code of ninkyo (chivalry): "We did not regard ninkyo as a bad thing," he said. "Thus, we never killed anyone without reason.
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