also known as is the sixth and current "kumicho" (supreme Godfather) of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization. He is currently imprisoned for firearms possession. After graduating high school in and working part time for a local firm, he drifted to Osaka in 1962 where he met Kodo-kai, a Yamaguchi-gumi affiliate. Shinoda took control of the 40,000-strong gang on July 29, 2005 after the retirement of previous don Yoshinori Watanabe. Wikipedia
No sooner had he been sworn in as the new head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's biggest mafia organisation, than Kenichi Shinoda set in motion changes that could see violence erupt on the streets of Tokyo. www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,7369,1651311,00.html
In the meantime, in Nagoya, Shinoda's gang, Kodo-kai, expanded its influence, setting up gangs in the Kanto and Tohoku regions. www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/makeprfy.pl5?nn20050819f3.htm
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Kenichi Shinoda. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenichi_Shinoda