Kitagawa-Kai

History

Originally a roaming gang of unemployed youth with bad upbringing seeking to find their masculinity. Kitagawa-Kai was founded some 20 years ago in Osaka by Shinichi Tanaka, a rotund, but wild and charismatic street kid. The gang started without any particular monetary purpose, but did engage in muggings, assault, and low level theft. However the group grew rapidly as a result of its message of rejecting the uptight conservative culture in favor of living a free and manly life living off your own strength. Kitagawa-Kai became a movement more than a simple gang. A youth who has never even met a member of the group could identify with it. They often will make a living by doing dirty work for organized syndicates like Crane's Crown, and also running their own disparate and unorganized small scale crimes.

Structure

Compared to other criminal groups, Kitagawa-Kai is more of an unorganized band of equals with a figure head in the form of Shinichi Tanaka. In effect there are leaders who stick out and organize things, but they are unofficial. Kitagawa-Kai as a movement has spread primarily in southern Japan, with a membership in excess of 200,000. Granted the low bar for entry, lack of organization, and low level of per member impact means Kitagawa-Kai may be large membership wise, but is not the most impactful or powerful of the criminal organizations.

Culture

Initiation

To join, one must simply choose to do so. There is no barrier to entry. However typically there is some expectation of proof of your resolve via the committing of crimes, and proof of ideological convictions of the group.

Symbology

Circle within Triangle - A black triangle with a circle cut out in the center containing the characters for Kitagawa-Kai Red markings - Members love to sport the color red as a way of signifying their allegiances. Red can be red headbands, armbands, and so on.
Open Tattoos - There's no tattoo rules, but many members are loud and proud, walking around without shirts, showing their ink to the world.

Activities

Kitagawa-Kai are a primarily ow level thuggish and violent group, whose crimes are unsophisticated.

• Blackmail - Using threat of humiliation, violence, and other means to get an institution to agree to unfavorable terms
• Drug Trafficking - Proliferation of narcotics
• Arms Trafficking - Illegally obtaining and reselling firearms
• Theft -Low level theft of jewelry, and other expensive good from easy to enter and exit places like homes
• Smuggling - Movement of illicit goods throughout the empire for distribution
• Death Sports - Illegal matches of combat to the death either martial arts or with swords.
• Animal Fighting - Illegal underground animal fighting rings
• Kidnapping and Ransoming - Kidnapping high profile people to ransom them back for money
• Black Marketing - Selling illegal foreign imports at an up charge
• Protection Rackets - Forcing businesses to pay fees lest they have their property vandalized
• Paid Thuggery and Intimidation - Mobs of violent gang members can be deployed to carry out the will of a buyer

Drug Distribution

Kitagawa-Kai doesn't grow or make its own drugs. However they make great hired smugglers and dealers for other crime syndicates, which often try to avoid having to have their own be put at risk of being directly tied to crimes. Kitagawa-Kai thugs give a degree of separation and deniability, and make tracing the drugs more difficult.