Yutaka Ogikubo (1935-) was a Japanese LDP politician who served on the Yokohama city council, in the House of Representatives for Kanagawa Prefecture's 2nd district, and as Chairman of the LDP until 2019, when he was deposed by Tokyo governor Ryo Aoki.
Biography[]
Yutaka Ogikubo was born in Yokohama, Japan in 1935. Ogikubo entered politics with the LDP after World War II, affiliating himself with the political boss Minoru Daidoji's Daidoji Faction. Ogikubo served on the Yokohama city council during the 1950s, a time when the Seiryu-kai yakuza clan battled the Chinese Yokohama Liumang triad for turf and black market control. In 1960, Ogikubo negotiated a truce between the two factions, making them partners in a counterfeiting operation which he supplied with the technology for yen forgery. The Liumang would import specialized paper from China, the Seiryu Clan would produce the bills, and Ogikubo would offer political protection; the two factions thus went from rivals to partners, and Ogikubo's political career benefited from his surge in personal finances and the peace he brought about in his district. Ogikubo would use this popularity to get elected to the House of Representatives and later as LDP party chair, making him the power behind the throne of Japan's prime ministers. During the 2000s, Ogikubo added the Geomijul to the counterfeiting partnership, which became known as the "Ijin Three".
Despite being affiliated with the reactionary Daidoji Faction, which was dominated by the country's prewar political elite, Ogikubo had a relatively liberal political profile. Ogikubo believed in the need to protect marginalized communities like Yokohama's Chinese and Korean minorities, its homeless population, its sex workers, and other people whose ways of life fell into "gray zones."
By 2019, Ogikubo was the oldest member of the LDP. The ambitious Tokyo governor Ryo Aoki harbored ambitions of becoming Japan's new political kingmaker and, with the help of Yu Nanba and Bleach Japan, uncovered the Ijin Three's counterfeiting operation. Ogikubo, who had fallen ill, was forced to retire, and Aoki visited him in the hospital and taunted him about the failure of his work to provide a safe haven for people who had lost their place in society.