crime

Robbery at Tokyo apartment leaves one suspect dead; 4 get away

29 Comments

One man was stabbed to death after he and four other men forced their way into an apartment in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district on Tuesday. The resident of the apartment stabbed the intruder in the neck during a struggle.

According to police, the incident occurred at around 9:30 a.m. in the apartment on the 9th floor of a building in Higashi-Ikebukuro, Kyodo News reported. Police said the resident is a Chinese man in his 40s, who is a company president. A female employee was also in the apartment at the time.

The woman said the five men gained admittance by pretending to be from a gas company and that they were wearing workmen's clothing. The resident told police that after the men entered the apartment, there was a scuffle, during which he stabbed one of them in the neck with a pair of scissors. The others overpowered him. He and his employee had their arms and legs bound with tape.

The intruders stole one million yen in cash, ATM cards, four bankbooks and several cell phones and fled the apartment, leaving the dead man behind.

The company president suffered minor injuries during the robbery.

Police said they are trying to identify the dead man who appeared to be in his 20s.

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29 Comments
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Good on the resident - he took the appropriate action to protect his partner and himself.

Let's hope the police catch all the remaining trash involved.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

Hey JT please dont forget to do a follow up article/edit on this!!

Depending on what the Justice says here, in a single night this hard-working guy has been robbed of a million yen (according to japanese sites) + his business, freedom and his whole life in Japan!

Please don't to this Japan..

10 ( +19 / -9 )

Seeing as Japan does not have Castle Law, the guy who did the (justifiable) stabbing will probably end up in jail! Which is ridiculous.

It’s called manslaughter, and Japan is not the only country that prosecutes lethal retaliation to non-lethal threats. Sad but true. He’ll probably only get a suspended sentence however, considering the circumstances.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

Troublemakers, send the whole lot of them to jail

7 ( +10 / -3 )

No Honor Among Thieves.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

No mention of the nationalities of the intruders. They knew exactly where to find money.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

“Seeing as Japan does not have Castle Law, the guy who did the (justifiable) stabbing will probably end up in jail! Which is ridiculous.”

Japan does have its own Castle Law (Prevention and Punishment of Robbery and Theft Act). I don’t think the Chinese company president will end up in jail.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Insider Job, they all know each other soon we will learn.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Too bad he only got one of them. However, I suspect from the address and nature of the crime that this is related to Chinese crime gangs.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Please explain, but those with common sense would ask WHY would the gas company send 5 guys to a small single apartment to access a reported problem? If there was any. IF it was me and that many guys showed up to my home, I would ask that question, before opening the door. Even if they gave me a valid reason I would tell them only one person is allowed in my home there is no need and no room for so many people roaming the house for a problem of concern that I didn't call about. How many engineers do it take to screw in a light bulb?

Five men gained admittance by pretending to be from a gas company

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Never mess with chinese who is not under Ccp he will fight back

1 ( +6 / -5 )

I'm very interested in what charges, if any, are levelled at the apartment resident. Japan does have a self defense law but its bar is set VERY high. Even higher for this fellow, I suspect. 

I have a baseball bat at home for just such an event (but if anyone asks it's because I'm an avid ball player). I'm aware that a successful self defense plea is rare, but if it's a choice between myself spending some time in the pen, or my wife and child being potentially harmed by intruders, I know which road I'll go down. 

(Hope it never comes to that, obviously)

Good question. The self defense laws in Japan fall into two categories. Justified self defense 正当防衛 and excessive self defense 過剰防衛.

Generally, you can only retaliate after being attacked or threatened with the least amount of force necessary to subdue the attacker.

Use of bladed weapons is not recognized as justified defense, unless under the most extreme circumstances, such as the assailant having a gun. Death of the assailant as a result of self defense, even if justified, is almost always a manslaughter charge, but if proven in court that the amount of force was necessary and there was no intent to kill, most cases are not sentenced more than probation a suspended sentence, or 90days to a year imprisonment.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Asian gang in the US usually target the Asian community,they know the retribution of targeting non Asian

1 ( +3 / -2 )

My home my castle. Bravo to the man who defended his home.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Good on the resident - he took the appropriate action to protect his partner and himself.

unfortunately hell still likely be charged with a crime, as self defense isnt evidence of innocence in Japan

0 ( +2 / -2 )

CAPTAINMar. 22  05:09 pm JST

No Honor Among Thieves.

Exactly. They didn't bother to see if their cohort was injured or dead. Now let's see if the remaining\g 4 stick together or snitch on each other.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The victim should have been arrested yet there is no mention of this in the article

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Seeing as Japan does not have Castle Law, the guy who did the (justifiable) stabbing will probably end up in jail! Which is ridiculous.

-2 ( +16 / -18 )

How do we know the robbery victim is a foreigner? Could have been born here and with Japanese citizenship. He was defending himself and his female employee. Home invasion and assault are the worse.

Maybe the police can trace the robbers from the ID of the dead man.

-3 ( +8 / -11 )

Maybe they should hire armed guard in high rise apartments,like in Houston,were only residents have access and guess can only be welcome by a resident,some are even self sufficient,they have a store, ATM machine,gym , laundry room and roof top swimming pool

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

The resident of the apartment stabbed the intruder in the neck during a struggle.

This should be the major point here!!!!

The robbery victim is a foreigner! And had the guts (or probably ignorance about Japan) to kill the attacker!

Is he going to be arrested??

Sent to jail as a murderer??

Deported and banned for life after serving sentence??

My experience with law in this place (especially while defending foreigners) is that there is no such a thing as "self-defense", you harm someone, YOU go to jail.

-7 ( +17 / -24 )

Wow, what are those scissors? The ones I have at home can barely cut paper or finger nails. lol

-10 ( +1 / -11 )

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