Tokyo

Yukio Ueda, oyabun, or head, of the Naganori-gumi Yajuza, was not used to apologizing.

"Moshiwake gozaimasen, I am extremely sorry."

Furious, he hung up the telephone.

Three years ago, when Kakuji Yagami, the oyabun of the Tokugawa-kai Yakuza, had unexpectedly died, his lieutenant had seized the opportunity to break away with his men and establish his own family.

Ueda had long been frustrated by the old man's blind adherence to tradition and refusal to take advantage of potentially profitable opportunities that were developing both to the East, in the United States, and to the West, in China and Southeast Asia.