Shinoda Leadership Style

Introduction

The Yamaguchi-gumi is the largest Yakuza organization in Japan and one of the largest gangs in the world. The National Police Agency reports membership totals of 20,400 regulars and 18,600 associates in 2007 (wiki). At 39,000 total members, the Yamaguchi-gumi “encompasses roughly 45% of the 86,300 yakuza in the Japanese underworld” (wiki). 102 of those members are considered leaders, with 1 kumicho (boss), 15 shatei (younger brother) and 86 wakachu (child). The current kumicho is Kenichi Shinoda, or Shinobu Tsukasa, who became the sixth leader in 2005. Shinoda is 75 years of age and is considered humble for his position, such as “ insist[ing] on taking the train to his induction ceremony instead of a chauffeured limousine” (wiki).

Charismatic leaders focus on their charming personality to win over the members of that specific gang. They emphasize compassion to earn their respect, however, also “manipulate other gang members into aggressive or violent actions just to meet their own selfish needs” (145). On the other hand, militaristic leaders are found in more highly structured gangs and accentuate a hard-nosed environment to remind everyone who is in charge. There are four different leadership typologies--the entrepreneur, the prophet, the realist, and society 's victim--Amir Rostami, Fredrik Leinfelt, and David C. Brotherton found in their research. Business and profit drive the entrepreneur, while, instead, the prophet is more genuine and devoted to the gang. The realist, on the other hand, is flexible and adaptable to any situation to survive as the gang leader and help keep the gang afloat. A society’s victim leader will often blame outside circumstances as he/she cannot control their own destiny and, “consequently, [he/she] is the angry rebel who conceives criminality as a way to oppose societal norms and values” (article). As a gang becomes more established, their leadership becomes more structured and employs a militaristic leader, i.e. the Yakuza and Italian Mafia. However, less structured gangs like the Crips and Bloods fail to have a single leader and their small leadership groups fail to entail the same

For example, there are five keys to gang leadership that are the same for small business owners: “stay true to the vision, get a mentor, learn humility, assessment of people, and train your employees”. Andre Norman, a former prison gang leader, is now a business owner and used the above characteristics in both situations. Law enforcement’s standard approach to gang leaders is a combined effort from state, local, and federal to control and reduce gang activity. Preventing gang leaders starts when they first go to school, where programs are integrated into school curriculums, especially with after-school activities. However, if the potential gang leader realizes his/her position, law enforcement, through gang task forces, uses force to remove him/her from his/her position. Also, an immense portion of law enforcement’s plan is to create snitches within the gang and receive an abundance of information. The most successful way to deter gang leaders is to prevent them from ever becoming one. Whether law enforcement emphasizes that is another question. However, they do emphasize gang task forces that remove gang leadership after they come about. In this case, they hope to accomplish the removal of the entire gang, using the phrase “if you cut off the head of the snake, it dies”. Gang leaders are perceptive and slithery, making it near impossible for law