
The Watase-gumi was a subsidiary of the Omi Alliance yakuza organization of Japan. By 2012, the Watase-gumi was one of the Omi Alliance's most powerful families, with Masaru Watase leading it. It derived the majority of its income from protection rackets, loansharking, and gambling, and it became one of the most feared organizations in Japan's criminal underworld despite its young age. Watase was imprisoned for two years on racketeering charges and was released in 2019, and he transformed his family into a private security company on the Omi Alliance's dissolution.