Japanese gang leader’s house on sale for US$330,000 or more – will anyone bite?

A walled mansion in one of Kobe’s most desirable suburbs is heading for a court-ordered auction, but its murky past as a target of gang attacks may put off buyers.The two-storey house, long the home of Kunio Inoue, head of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi – a breakaway faction of Japan’s largest Yakuza syndicate – is being forcibly sold after judges held him responsible for the crimes involving one of his subordinates, in a rare test of Japan’s anti-organised crime laws.The ruling came from the Osaka High Court last year under legislation commonly referred to as “gang boss lawsuits”, which allows victims to seek damages directly from crime syndicate leaders for offences committed by their members.Judges ordered Inoue to pay 270 million yen (US$1.72 million) in compensation for losses, in part caused by tax evasion linked to a member of his group. When the payment was not made, a lower court moved to seize the property and schedule a forced auction, with the sale set for April 14.Legal experts say it is the first time the legal framework has been used to sell off the home of a Yakuza boss.“The laws are proving remarkably effective,” said Shinichi Ishizuka, founder of the Tokyo-based Criminal Justice Future think tank and a former criminal lawyer.