Tokyo police seize man after 15-hour stand-off in which suspected mobster kills fellow gangster
Apr 22, 2007
TOKYO - POLICE stormed an apartment in Tokyo yesterday, seizing an armed suspected gangster and ending a 15-hour stand-off.
The suspect, identified as 36-year-old Yuji Takeshita, is believed to have gunned down a fellow gangster before holing himself up in the apartment.
The violence came just days after the mayor of the southern city of Nagasaki was shot dead by another suspected mobster in an unrelated killing.
Crime syndicates are responsible for most of Japan's rare gun attacks, and police believe the latest flare-up could be a symptom of infighting in the underworld.
Takeshita's stand-off with police began on Friday, when he allegedly shot dead a mobster from his own gang in a western suburb of the Japanese capital.
As police closed in on him, he barricaded himself inside his own apartment, firing a series of shots at the officers outside, said a Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesman.
Police officials said the gangster had fired nine shots from the apartment, with one hitting a police vehicle. No one was injured.
During the siege, police had another gangster call Takeshita on the phone to persuade him to give himself up.
Japanese newspapers reported him as replying: 'I want to apologise with my death.'
Police threw smoke bombs and stormed Takeshita's apartment shortly after 3am local time on Saturday. They found him with severe head wounds, having apparently shot himself.
Investigators found a pair of handguns in his apartment and later arrested him at the hospital for illegal possession of firearms.
Analysts say the recent shootings are signs that gangsters are getting desperate in keeping their turf and finding income sources since the government stepped up measures against them in the 1990s.
Police believe internecine strife has also been generated by the Yamaguchi-gumi gang's rapid expansion of operations in Tokyo, the traditional base of Japan's second largest gang, the Sumiyoshi-kai.
Japan has strict gun control laws, and legal firearms are mostly in the hands of hunters and police. Illegal firearms are mostly in the hands of 'yakuza' gangsters, whose mainstays include prostitution, drugs, extortion and finance.
The shooting of Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito by a gangster last Tuesday has prompted lawmakers, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to call for even tighter supervision.
The government is set to hold a taskforce meeting on gun control this week, and media reports have said it is aiming to submit a Bill to Parliament to revise gun control legislation by the end of the current session, on June 23.
Gun-related crimes are not common in Japan, with the number of shootings having fallen to a record low of 53 last year, with most involving members of organised crime. Of that number, 36 were thought to have involved gangsters. Only two resulted in deaths.