AP
In December of 2013, the CEO of Japan’s “Dumpling King“ franchise was brutally gunned down on the firm’s headquarters in Kyoto—and now the Kyoto police have lastly arrested the yakuza boss they imagine was accountable. The query is: Who ordered the killing, why, and does it go all the best way to the highest of the dreaded Kudo-kai group?
The suspect, Yukio Tanaka, 56, is a senior member of the Fukuoka-based Kudo-kai syndicate. He was arrested on expenses of homicide and violations of Japan’s stringent Firearms and Swords Management Regulation—and is suspected of capturing Takayuki Ohigashi, the then-72-year-old CEO of Japanese restaurant chain Gyoza no Osho or “The Dumpling King.”
The arrest was made Friday at 2 p.m. native time. Tanaka was picked up and brought into custody for Ohigashi’s homicide at Fukuoka Jail, the place he had already been serving a 10-year jail sentence for an unrelated crime however an identical MO. In 2008, Tanaka shot up a automotive containing workers of Obayashi Company, a significant building firm, in Fukuoka Metropolis after the agency refused to repay the Kudo-kai. Within the 12 months earlier than his dying, Ohigashi had ordered an inner evaluate of whether or not or not the Gyoza No Osho had any ties to anti-social forces, and ordered a cease to all pay-offs to any and all Yakuza teams. The corporate’s board of administrators was introduced with an inner report in November 2013 on transactions involving thousands and thousands of dollars, which gave the impression to be paid to organized crime members. A month later, Ohigashi was lifeless.
This image taken on Dec. 14, 2009, exhibits Takayuki Ohigashi, 72, president of the "Gyoza no Ohsho (King of Dumplings)" chain, who was discovered bleeding and unconscious in a car parking zone in entrance of the corporate's HQ in Kyoto, Japan, on Dec. 19, 2013.
Jiji Press/AFP by way of Getty
In keeping with the police, his assassination might have been an try to forestall the agency from slicing ties with the Kudo-kai, or to cover-up extortion cash already paid out to the group. Police sources imagine that the orders would have come from the pinnacle of the Kudo-kai on the time, Satoru Nomura.
What is understood now could be that on Dec. 19, 2013, at 5:45 a.m., Ohigashi was shot 4 occasions within the chest and abdomen within the car parking zone of his firm’s headquarters in Kyoto’s Yamashina Ward. It was raining that morning and the capturing occurred properly earlier than dawn. Exhibiting as much as work at daybreak was nothing uncommon for Ohigashi. He was identified for driving to work early each morning to scrub the car parking zone himself. Arduous working and humble, he was revered by his trade friends and his workers, a lot in order that for a lot of his identify was synonymous with “The Dumpling King” himself.
Gyoza No Osho, whereas comparatively unknown exterior of Japan, is among the most profitable fast-food franchises within the nation. Gyoza, initially a Chinese language dish, are sometimes dumplings stuffed with floor meat and greens wrapped and fried in skinny dough. Ohigashi was appointed the fourth CEO of Gyoza no Osho in 2000 and was so profitable in working the corporate that it turned the highest Chinese language food-chain restaurant within the nation. It serves not solely gyoza however different savory Chinese language meals and naturally, low-cost beer. By 2007, the chain expanded to 600 areas throughout Japan. After 13 years of arduous work and dedication to rising the agency, the nation was shocked when Ohigashi was shot within the car parking zone, dying from large blood loss. The capturing itself was a uncommon incident in Japan, which has a few of the most stringent gun legal guidelines on the earth.
Cops examine the homicide website of Takayuki Ohigashi in Kyoto, western Japan.
Jiji Press/AFP by way of Getty
Gun violence in Japan, a nation of over 122 million folks, is extraordinarily uncommon. It has been a decade for the reason that annual variety of deadly shootings went into double figures.
In keeping with officers, Ohigashi was shot with a .25 caliber computerized pistol at shut vary. Ohigashi’s shooter left behind the money discovered inside his automotive and clothes. This led police to imagine that whoever it was that had killed Ohigashi was motivated by a private grudge, or that the act was carried out as a part of a shakedown.
Along with the money left on the crime scene, the police had present in an space linked to the crime cigarette butts—of the identical model that Tanaka commonly smoked on the time. Police carried out a DNA evaluation and outcomes confirmed that it was a match with Tanaka, authorities mentioned. Nevertheless, the police investigation has not but yielded definitive proof into the connection between the killing and Tanaka. The Kyoto police have lengthy suspected that Tanaka’s Yakuza syndicate, the Kudo-kai, was concerned, which is why they’ve continued to crack down on its members with the assistance of the Fukuoka police drive. They're conducting a full-scale investigation into Tanaka’s motives. At 5 p.m. Friday, Tanaka was transferred to Yamashina Police Station in Kyoto, which is the place Ohigashi’s homicide occurred 9 years in the past.
Meet The Extremely-Violent ‘Pineapple’ Lobbing Kudo-Kai
The Kudo-kai, which included Tanaka as a senior rating member, is probably the most vicious organized crime group in Japan. The group, situated in southern Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture, was based in 1946. It has a popularity for excessive violence, even lobbing grenades—referred to as “pineapples” by the Yakuza—at rival gangs and as soon as even right into a hostess membership that refused to pay safety cash. They've additionally sprayed rat poison in a well being membership that might not give into their extortion calls for—making over 100 folks sick. Whereas most Yakuza teams nominally declare “we don’t trouble peculiar residents” and present a level of restraint, this doesn’t apply to the Kudo-kai. They've additionally proven no compunction in attacking cops, even retired ones.
In Japan, the Yakuza are formally labeled boryokudan (violent teams) and are regulated however not outlawed. They're allowed to have workplaces and enterprise playing cards. Nevertheless, the Kudo-kai is designated “an particularly harmful violent group,” placing it beneath probably the most extreme rules allowed by present legal guidelines.
Satoru Nomura, 75, the previous president of the Kudo-kai, was arrested in 2015 on numerous expenses—together with the tried homicide of an ex-police officer and the homicide of a union employee. A megalomaniacal chief, he's believed to have micromanaged the group’s most flagrant assaults on resisting firms and particular person residents. Final 12 months, Nomura was sentenced to dying. On the time the decision was handed down, Nomura loudly protested, telling the chief decide on the Fukuoka district court docket, “You’ll remorse this for the remainder of your life.” He has appealed the case to the Fukuoka higher court docket. In July this 12 months, he fired his complete protection workforce which has delayed the opening of the appeals trial.
One among his tried homicide victims was a feminine nurse who had laughed at him whereas he was wincing in ache from a penis-enlargement process. He had apparently seen an advert for the service in a Yakuza fan journal. The nurse had taunted him by saying, “Oh c’mon this could’t damage as a lot as getting a type of old style yakuza tattoos.”
The Kudo-kai, which survived after Nomura’s arrest, continues to be energetic in the present day however the numbers have been lowered from over 1,000 members at its peak to roughly 470 members. The group’s headquarters, a digital fortress in Kita-Kyushu Metropolis, was lastly torn down in February 2022.
A former detective within the Fukuoka Prefectural Police informed The Each day Beast, “We lengthy suspected that the Kudo-kai was behind that assault on the CEO, however the motive has by no means been fully clear. Let’s hope this case is one other nail within the coffin of those assholes.”