The based in Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

, is Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's fourth-largest yakuza

Yakuza

, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...

 organization. Its name comes from the Aizu

Aizu

is an area comprising the westernmost third of Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. The principal city of the area is Aizuwakamatsu.During the Edo period, Aizu was a feudal domain known as and part of Mutsu Province.-History:...

 region, "Kotetsu", a type of Japanese sword, and the suffix "-kai", or society.

Rather than a stand-alone gang, the Aizukotetsu-kai is a federation of approximately 100 of Kyoto's various yakuza groups, comprising an estimated 7,000 members.

In 1992 the Aizukotetsu-kai became one of the first yakuza syndicates named under Japan's new anti-boryokudan legislation, which gave police expanded powers to crack down on yakuza. Its chairman at the time, Tokutaro Takayama

Tokutaro Takayama

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....

, campaigned publicly against the new laws, and the group launched a lawsuit challenging their constitutionality

Constitution of Japan

The is the fundamental law of Japan. It was enacted on 3 May, 1947 as a new constitution for postwar Japan.-Outline:The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights...

. In September 1995 the Kyoto District Court threw out the lawsuit.

In October 2005, the group formed an alliance with the Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi

Yamaguchi-gumi

is Japan's largest and most infamous yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe pre-WWII....

, Japan's largest yakuza clan.

Successive kaichos

• 3rd (1975-1986) sosai: Riichi Zukoshi (図越 利一) who was kaicho of the Second Nakajima-kai.
• 4th (1986-1997): Tokutaro Takayama (高山 登久太郎, korean name: 강외수) who was kumicho of the Second Nakagawa-gumi.