A police source revealed that Seki Ikio, boss of the powerful yakuza group Sumiyoshi-kai, had died at 76 on the 31st of May. He had retired from the chairmanship in April last year and officially took up the role of "representative", however he was still regarded as the head of the Sumiyoshi-kai by the Metropolitan Police Department.
The Sumiyoshi-kai is headquartered in Minato ward, Tokyo, and operates in 18 prefectures including Tokyo and Hokkaido. As of the end of 2021, they count about 2,500 members, which makes them the second largest group after the Rokudaime Yamaguchi-gumi (about 4,000 members).
In June 2015, when he was chairman of the Sumiyoshi-kai, Seki was arrested on suspicion of violating the Public Officers Election Act for requesting voters to support prospective candidates during the Chiba prefectural elections in April of the same year. He was then found guilty and convicted. In September 2020, the Tokyo District Court ruled that Seki and other executives were responsible for the actions of members of their group in a special fraud case, and ordered them to pay back 170 million yen.
Asahi Shinbun, 31/05/2022
Link to the original article: https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASQ504HR8Q50UTIL014.html
