Masaru Takumi

Takumi featured on a nonfiction book after his death

Masaru Takumi (宅見 勝 Takumi Masaru; June 22, 1936 – August 28, 1997) was a powerful Japanese organized crime figure assassinated in 1997. Until his death, he was the second-in-command (wakagashira) and financial overseer of Japan's largest yakuza gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi. Known as "the man who never sleeps", he also headed his own sub-organization, the 1000-member Takumi-gumi.

He was considered a likely successor to the Yamaguchi-gumi's fifth godfather, Yoshinori Watanabe, but in August 1997, Takumi was shot and killed in a coffee shop on the fourth floor of the Oriental Hotel in Kobe by members of a breakaway Yamaguchi affiliate, the Nakano-kai. An innocent bystander was killed by a stray bullet in the attack, which led to the downfall of the Nakano-kai.

His last position at the Yamaguchi-gumi was as wakagashira (the number-two), and after his death, the wakagashira post became vacant and had been vacant until 2005 when it was succeeded by Kiyoshi Takayama. The Takumi-gumi's head position was succeeded by Tadashi Irie.

His wife was the sister of Hideki Saijo, a Japanese singer and television celebrity most famous for singing the Japanese version of the Village People's hit song "Y.M.C.A.", called "Young Man".