Word: taoka
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...yakuza branched out from gambling into other rackets, the gangs grew in number and power. Today the largest, Yamaguchi-gumi,* is a veritable army of 10,000 men. Under the command of Japan's top mobster, Kazuo Taoka, 60, police say that Yamaguchi-gumi has become a criminal conglomerate that controls more than 50 corporations, ranging from restaurants and bars to trucking companies and talent agencies. The gang's take from gambling alone is estimated to be as high as $100 million a year...
...Taoka, who is currently on trial for income tax evasion, extortion and labor-law violation, last week granted a rare interview to TIME Correspondent S. Chang at his sumptuous Western-style house on the fringes of Kobe, which neighbors have dubbed the "Taoka Palace." "Throughout the interview," Chang cabled, "there was a distinct element of opéra bouffe. The house compound is patrolled by a handful of crop-haired, heavy-set henchmen, who in greeting bow gawkily, like giant pandas trying to crouch. Inside, Taoka's great drawing room is deeply carpeted and adorned with many trophies presented...
...Tastefully dressed in a pale green turtleneck, matching jacket and slacks, Taoka, who is recuperating from a heart ailment, played the solicitous host to perfection. He offered his caller a delectable piece of green melon and then launched into a professorial discourse on social ills. Many of his followers, he said, were low-caste buraku-min (TIME. Jan. 8), social misfits who had suffered from discrimination. Since the government offered no help for them. Taoka had taken on the responsibility. 'What I need now,' he declared, 'is the services of some scholars in finding ways and means...