is a yakuza best known as the second-in-command (wakagashira) of the 6th-generation Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate in Japan, and the president of its ruling affiliate, Kodo-kai, based in Nagoya. Takayama has been considered the key person in the entire history of the Kodo-kai and behind the sixth Yamaguchi-gumi, being kept under close surveillance by the National Police Agency. The National Police Agency once distributed a report on its operations against the Yamaguchi-gumi to every police department across the country, which had a special section devoted to him and even made reference to his personality. In 2012, the Obama administration of the United States imposed sanctions on him as the second-in-command of the Yamaguchi-gumi. The sanctions also targeted Kenichi Shinoda as the leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi, along with several individuals linked to three other transnational organized crime groups, the Brothers' Circle of Russia, the Camorra of Italy, and the Los Zetas of Mexico. Career Takayama entered the underworld in his teenage years, and his career as a yakuza officially began at the age of 20 when he joined the Sasaki-gumi, a Yamaguchi-gumi affiliate based in Nagoya. The Sasaki-gumi was a sub organization of the Nagoya-based Hirota-gumi (later known as the Kodo-kai), and in 1969, four members of a Hirota-affiliated organization were murdered by a Kobe-based yakuza syndicate. Along with two other Hirota members (one being Shinobu Tsukasa), he was convicted of murdering the boss of a clan of the syndicate. After spending 4 years in prison, he was released in 1973, becoming the number-two boss (wakagashira) of the Sasaki-gumi in 1975. In 1976 when he was promoted to the managing director (rijicho) of the Sasaki-gumi, he founded his own organization, the Takayama-gumi. Road to the Kobe Shinobu Tsukasa formed the Kodo-kai as the successor to the Hirota-gumi in 1984 after the Hirota-gumi disbanded due to its boss' retirement. Following this, Takayama became the number-three (wakagashira-hosa) of the Kodo-kai, and after his achievements at the Yama-Ichi War, he became the number-two (wakagashira) in 1989, starting a radical reform of the Kodo-kai and forcing many "unwelcome" members including the senior managers into retirement. He succeeded Tsukasa as president (kaicho) of the Kodo-kai in March 2005 when Tsukasa was promoted to the Yamaguchi-gumi's provisional number-two (wakagashira), entering the Kobe headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi, as a senior manager (jikisan). The sixth wakagashira Takayama had rapidly been promoted in the headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi,