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.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
RSS