Japan's No. 2 yakuza jailed for extortion

TOKYO (AFP) - A "one-eyed" gangster, the number-two man in Japan's biggest yakuza crime organisation, was convicted of extortion on Friday, winning a high-profile victory for the country's anti-mob police.

Kiyoshi "Mekkachi" Takayama, 65, who reputedly lost the use of his eye in a swordfight early in his career, was jailed for six years. His underworld nickname of "Mekkachi" means "one-eyed" in the dialect of western Japan.

Takayama is second in command of the Yamaguchi-gumi, a vast organised crime syndicate that had 27,700 members at the end of 2012, according to the National Police Agency.

He had been on 1.5 billion yen (S$19.9 million) bail for treatment of an illness since June last year. The details of his illness were not reported.