The Shadow Man Who Protected Ginza: Ryoma Suzuki and the Legacy of the "Ginza Police" (1950-2002)

The Shadow Man Who Protected Ginza: Ryoma Suzuki and the Legacy of the "Ginza Police" (1950-2002)

In postwar Ginza, Tokyo, there was an order separate from the law. At the center of this existence, known as the "Ginza Police," was Teruo Takahashi, the first chairman of the Sumiyoshi-kai Sumiyoshi Family Dainippon Kogyo. He took charge of all the nighttime troubles in Ginza and settled them before the police got involved. Geishas, club moms, and even politicians looked to him for their rulings and saw order on his back.

The young man who served Takahashi was Ryoma Suzuki. He had been through the rough and tumble from early on and rose to become the organization's top advisor. He continued to support the Sumiyoshi family with the same sense of duty and humanity that Takahashi had bestowed on him. In 2001, however, a shooting incident in Akasaka led to his excommunication, and the following October 2002, he committed suicide in the bathroom of his home. The manner of his death was a legacy of the Showa period itself.

Suzuki's figure, who protected Ginza like Takahashi and maintained his pride in chivalry, was a man of beauty rarely seen in modern times. Whenever the lights of Ginza swing, the shadowy figure of Suzuki comes back to life in the hearts of those who knew him.