Police in Tokyo said Thursday they have issued arrest warrants for 15 suspects in the murder of a man in a nightclub in Roppongi in September.
On Sept 2, a gang of 10 men wearing ski masks came into the former club Flower at about 3:40 a.m. Some were brandishing metal bats and attacked a 31-year-old man 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, police said. The victim, who was identified as Shibuya restaurant manager Ryosuke Fujimoto, was taken to hospital with severe head injuries, but was pronounced dead.
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.
Based on the camera footage, police said that the 15 men are members of a group called Kanto Rengo, comprising second and third generation returnees from China following the end of World War II, NTV reported.
Police said that several of the men left Japan shortly after the incident, while the others' whereabouts remain unknown.
© Japan Today
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paulinusa
A Shibuya restaurant manager and a Japan based Chinese gang . Obviously there's more to this story.
nath
Had to be foreigners.
rickyvee
@JT
are their racial backgrounds really relevant to the story? come on!
papigiulio
Seriously, the footage was released like 1 or 2 days after. They could see the license plates and types of car. Search for the license in the registry, Badabingbadaboom turns up with an address and catch them. Why did it take 3 months? sigh
tairitsuiken
@rickyvee Better read that again:
JapanVisitor
Yes, are they not 2nd and 3rd Japanese returnees whose grandparents and parents were living in China and Manchukuo? That is the impression I got on reading the article.
Virtuoso
When the zanryu koji (war-displaced orphans) began "returning" to Japan, they were allowed to bring their spouses and extended families from China. A lot of the kids had problems adjusting and some banded together and gravitated to crime. Aside from giving the returnees entry visas on the basis of their Japanese birthright (never mind that they couldn't speak a word of Japanese), the government didn't make much of an effort to ensure their smooth assimilation. In other words, it's certainly a problem of Japan's own making and they would be way out of line to blame anyone else.
gogogo
Why would you write that? So that it doesn't look like Japanese people? They are 2-3rd generation Japanese, really sad that they needed to point this unless info out.
Wakarimasen
Should never have let the Manchurians come home.
Cos
But these people didn't come back "at the end of the war" but decades later. The third generation are a bit young. The article is not very precise but they may be simply grand-kids of colons. Some of these returnee families are fans of extreme-right so no surprise if their bad apples join ultra-right neo-nazi bosozoku gangs like this Rengo Kai.
That took... time. Was the police asked to wait till all main political parties had cashed the donations before arresting the guys ?
jumpultimatestars
@rickyvee
Their race becomes relevant if it's regarding either a racial gang or a racial hate crime. In otherwords, the fact that everyone shares the same race in this group is not just coincidence.
Eric Eason
http://www.japansubculture.com/police-raid-daikanhama-club-in-kanto-rengo-kai-crackdown/
alliswellinjapan
Kanto Rengo basically consists of Japan nationals who are former bosozoku members. Many of these members have later become yakuzas including the main figure behind this murder who belongs to the Sumiyoshi group. There are some zainichi Chinese who were also part of this but are not related to Kanto Rengo. There seems to be a high possibility that they killed the wrong guy and were actually planning to attack someone else belonging to the Yamaguchi group.
Lowly
Good thing they went together with their 15 buddies to jump an unsuspecting guy and beat him up. I bet that gave them courage.
Patrick Hagger
NOW THAT IS GANG ACTIVITY
Nessie
Wasn't the victim heavily in debt to some gang, after borrowing money and spending it on cars?
alliswellinjapan
Nessie: It is being reported most recently as yesterday that there seem to be no link between the victim and the gang except for the fact that the possible target and the victim looked very much alike in appearance. The police seem to now believe they took actions under yakuza orders but attacked the wrong guy.
tmarie
comprising second and third generation returnees from China following the end of World War II, NTV reported.
So they are ethnically Japanese but the media needs to scapegoat them so they add in the Chinese thing? Nice. Gaikoku tainted their blood?
alliswellinjapan
tmarie: Don't think there is any local media which actually did that. Profile of Kanto Rengo is fairly well known especially following a series of incidents involving Ebizo and other celebrities.
AustPaul
Second and third generation returnees? Of what relevance is this?? For all intents and purposes they are still Japanese right?
nath
They are ALL JAPANESE Citizens, "second and third generation returnees from China." They are descendants of people that immigrated to Japan after the war. They walk, look and quack like normal Japanese people, the only way that a normal Japanese person might be able to distinguish them from any other Japanese citizen, is by their last name.
There's a whole list of last names they gave out to foreigners, and pretty much, nearly every natural Japanese citizen is versed in what the names on this list sound like, or the phonetics begin or end with.
LostinNagoya
Can you give some examples, I am curious.
Noliving
Probably because they used a stolen vehicle.
John Mcmahan
Sounds like drugs are involved.