Golden Age of Gangsters

The Golden Age of Gangsters was a period from the mid 1970s to the 1990s in Yamatai, during which the traditional Yamataian organised crime syndicates known as the Gokudo expanded massively. Political and economic turmoil in the period enabled these criminal organisations, with roots stretching back hundreds of years, to begin expanding both domestically and abroad. Characterised by a wide development of illicit trades and underground activity as well as gang wars of ever-increasing scale, the period also saw heavy-handed government purges and the destruction of several Gokudo clans, resulting in the "gangster oligarchy" of the modern day. Due to the tendency of the Gokudo secret societies to operate both illegal and legitimate endeavours, the Golden Age of Gangsters made great impacts on Yamataian society that can still be felt to this day.

Gokudo societies have existed for hundreds of years, evolving from illicit underground gambling and trading organisations into vast crime syndicates. The modernisation of Yamatai in the 1800s resulted in the first major Gokudo expansions, as Gokudo began entering legitimate businesses and even politics. However, the government of Imperial Yamatai heavily suppressed criminal groups, forcing the Gokudo underground. It was only after the democratisation of Yamatai in the 1960s did Gokudo societies again begin to grow in influence and power. In 1972, the reunification of Hinomoto with Yamatai resulted in a wave of refugees and a new market for the Gokudo to expand into. One of the biggest factors that ushered in the Golden Age of Gangsters was the massive amount of ex-Hinoan weapons that flooded the black market, allowing enterprising gangs to prosper and expand rapidly.

A series of violent gang wars broke out following the Jingweon Mafia Massacre, a hit carried out by the Tojo Clan against the Yeongseoni gang that resulted in 34 dead. A cascade of alliances and feuds quickly spiralled out of control, resulting in 1985's infamous "Three Months of Headlines" where gang-related murders and violence dominated the national headlines for almost three months straight. In 1985, the Niihama-based Tojo Clan, one of the largest Gokudo organisations, became embroiled in a lengthy gang war with the smaller Ueno Seiwa Clan following a failed hit on the Ueno Seiwa's patriarch. Following this, another major war broke out in 1988 between the Tojo Clan and the Heian-based Omi Alliance, which became so violent and public that the government decided to step in, forming the National Agency of Safety Enforcement to directly combat the gangs.

By 1990, the Gokudo organisations were again forced underground, and the arrests of numerous key leaders caused the collapse of many of the smaller organisations. Some experts were quick to declare the Golden Age of Gangsters over in 1991, with the assassination of the patriarch of the Tojo Clan in 1991 by Chiseian gangsters and the arrest of the entire Omi Alliance leadership on tax evasion charges. However, gang activity did not stop, and in 1992 a lesser Gokudo group known as the Inugane-Gumi suddenly emerged victorious in a major multinational gang conflict and muscled in on the void left by the shrinking Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance. A major international gang war broke out in 1999 between the Inugane-Gumi and the largest Chiseian gang, cementing the Inugane-Gumi's new place as the most powerful gang in Yamatai, and one of the most powerful in the region at large.