Career
He is regarded as the number-three leader of the 6th Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate. Irie began his career as a yakuza when he joined the Fukui-gumi, a Yamaguchi affiliate based in Osaka. He later joined the Takumi-gumi in 1978 when Masaru Takumi, then the number-two member (wakagashira) of the Fukui-gumi, became an executive underboss (jikisan) of the 3rd Yamaguchi-gumi.
Prior to this he was the head of his own clan, the Irie-gumi, which he formed in 1975, but following this he merged it into the Takumi-gumi.
He was known for his unwavering loyalty to Masaru Takumi. He had been offered the Yamaguchi-gumi"s executive position several times, but he repeatedly declined, preferring to be Takumi"s henchman.
In 1997 when Takumi was assassinated by the Nakano-kai, he succeeded as the head of the Takumi-gumi, making excessively ruthless organized attacks on the Nakano-kai in retaliation. He entered the Kobe headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi in 1997 when he became the head of the Takumi-gumi.
He was promoted to wakagashira-hosa (one of the number-three underbosses) in 2005, and following the start of the sixth era headed by Shinobu Tsukasa from the Kodo-kai of Nagoya, he flew the de facto number-three position (so-honbucho).
He has been involved in the Yamaguchi-gumi"s important yakuza wars such as the Osaka War (1975–1978, against the Matsuda-gumi) and Yama-Ichi War (1984–1989, against the Ichiwa-kai). He was charged with paying 3.9 million yen ($46,555) to the hitman"s relatives, whom he had paid a total of at least approximately United States$250,000. He was released on bail on December 24 of that year, and received a jail sentence of 10 months in March 2011.