Police moved yesterday to ward off a swelling turf war between Japan's two largest underworld gangs, sending dozens of investigators to raid the offices of one of the groups believed to be behind the violence.
Ending a yearlong hiatus in gang violence, the 43-year-old boss of a gang affiliated with the Tokyo-based Sumiyoshi-kai syndicate was shot to death on Monday.
The killing is believed to have prompted three more shootings this week at gangland headquarters in Tokyo.
The murderer still remains at large. No other injuries have been reported.
Hoping to keep the violence from escalating, police on Wednesday arrested two members of a gang that belongs to the Sumiyoshi-kai syndicate.
The two are suspected of firing shots into the front door of an office used by the rival Yamaguchi-gumi.
About 40 officers, many in full body armor, also raided the offices of the Sumiyoshi-kai affiliate yesterday.
Police refuse to comment on the motive for the shootings, but shooting into the doors or windows of a rival gang's offices are the hallmark of underworld retaliation in Japan.
The Yamaguchi-gumi, which with 21,000 members is the largest in Japan, and 8,000-strong Sumiyoshi-kai have frequently been involved in turf wars in recent years.
Police say the strife has been generated by the Yamaguchi-gumi's rapid expansion of its operations in Tokyo, the Sumiyoshi-kai's traditional base.
The Yamaguchi-gumi is based not in Tokyo but in the port city of Kobe.
The high-profile violence has alarmed residents of Tokyo, where shootings are rare, and police have moved quickly to quell it.
Like gangsters in other parts of the world, Japan's are involved in extortion, gambling, the sex industry, gunrunning, drug trafficking, real estate and construction kickback schemes.
Despite the recent respite in violence, crackdowns on gangsters -- known as yakuza, which means roughly "good for nothing," have had limited results.
The number of gangsters nationwide -- including criminal "freelancers" who aren't formal gang members but are loosely allied with the groups -- has grown to about 84,500, down slightly from two years ago but up considerably from the 61,000 or so in 1991, according to police figures. The majority belong to the Yamaguchi-gumi gang.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number