Police in Tokyo on Thursday arrested five men wanted for questioning in connection with a Roppongi nightclub murder earlier last September. The five were arrested at Haneda airport after returning from South Korea, NTV reported.
Three other men were also arrested Thursday in the case and police said nine more are wanted. All are said to be members of a former motorcycle gang called Kanto Rengo, and have been dubbed "half hoodlums" by Japanese media since they don't belong to any crime syndicate.
The attack occurred on Sept 2. A gang of 10 men wearing ski masks came into the club Flower at about 3:40 a.m. Some were brandishing metal bats and attacked 31-year-old restaurant manager Ryosuke Fujimoto who was drinking with friends. The attack lasted about 1-2 minutes, witnesses said. The gang left immediately after the assault and got away in two vehicles.
Surveillance camera footage showed members of the gang getting out of their vehicles before entering the club and showed the vehicles leaving after the attack.
Police said that seven of the gang left Japan for Hawaii, China and South Korea, one after another, in the days following the murder, NTV reported. It is not clear why the five returned to Japan on Thursday.
© Japan Today
23 Comments
Login to comment
humanrights
I know why they dont belong with a crime syndicate. They have a thing for being SO OBVIOUS.Forget your masks and the cameras??
Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land
It doesn't say what charges they were arrested on. I think I read in the Daily Yomiuri english version a couple of days ago, that they were only arrested on charges of weapons possession (baseball bats, are they illegal to own?) and another minor charge or two. They don't have enough to charge anybody with murder. I guess now they will use some 'enhanced interrogation techniques' to get their confessions.
badsey3
These criminals should have turned themselves in immediately -however it is nice to see that they have finally decided to take responsibility for their actions. Hopefully they can be rehabilitated. Another win for Japanese judicial system and society as a whole if you ask me.
alliswellinjapan
Would imagine these guys to already have internally discussed and agreed on what to and what not to explain to the police. Would be interesting to see how strong the cohesiveness of this group actually is upon each individual undergoing interrogations. Certain yakuzas should also be paying attention.
gelendestrasse
It would seem that the cops are getting somewhere with this case. Hopefully they've got the right guys and not forced confessions. But yeah, why on earth would they come back? I guess they are stupid on more than one level.
Crazedinjapan
How do they know they even have all the right guys ? There's no loyalty amongs most of these type of people and finger pointing or taking someone else's blame is part of their short careers in the underground.
People talking about police getting a bad rap....from what I remember of last year there were many instances of police bungling , fabricating and committing crimes or acts of indecency ....it's not surprising at all the many people have a negative view towards them.
nath
Dummies for returning.
jessebaybay
While I wouldn't want 8 men with bats attacking me, this just reassures me im truly safe in japan wherever I choose to go / party.
gogogo
I thought the cops followed them overseas?
tmarie
Cops can't win on this site. If they don't arrest anyone I can see some snide comments being made, but in this case they seem to have identified all the perps and rounded up half of them. Not sure what more they could do to win your respect.
How about arresting them before they flee the country??
rickyvee
@hidingout
totally agree with you. people just love hating on the j-cops.
these half hoodlums are 100% idiots. did they think people would just forget about their crimes if they stayed in korea for a few months? never underestimate the stupidity of people.
hidingout
Cops can't win on this site. If they don't arrest anyone I can see some snide comments being made, but in this case they seem to have identified all the perps and rounded up half of them. Not sure what more they could do to win your respect.
bajhista65
Just like a western movie..... hehehehe
kevind
too bad the public cant use guys like this everytime a politician does something stupid there would be a beating everyday
tmarie
Yong, I keep hearing that. Wonder if the real guy has fled the country yet.
YongYang
The man they murdered is now apparently being explain away as the 'wrong man', these scum didn't even murdere the man they were told to murder.
tmarie
Why did they return? Well I guess they figured they'd take their chances with J cops and well, I don't blame them based on how the cops manage to botch things.
One was a talento or something? Keep seeing his ugly mug on the news.
nikku510
It was a hired job . That's what kanto Rengo does. Yakuza won't get their hands filthy with crime like that.
DudeDeuce
Now the posters before me can all feel at ease when they return to their favorite Roppongi club every weekend to hang with other foreigners.
Scrote
These thugs always become "former gang members" from the moment they are arrested.
paulinusa
Maybe they returned to Japan because of an ingenious, clever trap set by the ingenious,clever police?
kimuzukashiiiii
Im sure they don't ... but this was a hire job, in my opinion. There were insiders in on it for sure.
Plus we ALL know about gangs like Kanto Rengo's links to the Yakuza, and Chinese mafia. They did it independently, however they were definitely contracted by someone...
gjn48kawaii
The swift arm of the law.