Five-Year Civil War Has Wrecked the Supremacy of the Yakuza

TOKYO—Cops in Japan have to do jobs they hate, and one of them is babysitting gangsters. Yep, keeping the peace sometimes means keeping the traditionally tattooed, sociopathic, tribalistic, and well-tailored yakuza from killing each other. That doesn’t always go well.On the afternoon of Oct. 10, in Kobe city, the police stationed in front of the offices of a yakuza group, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi (“the Rebellion”) were on guard and bored. Some were in uniform, some were plainclothes cops....