Yano Osamu
Mob boss to hang for five slayings
Kyodo News
The Tokyo District Court sentenced a mob boss to death Monday for ordering two separate shootings in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, and Tokyo in which five people, including three bystanders, were killed.
Osamu Yano, 58, boss of an arm of the Sumiyoshi-kai mob syndicate, was convicted of ordering accomplices to open fire in a bar in Maebashi in January 2003 in which three bystanders and a mobster were killed.
He was also convicted of ordering the fatal shooting of the leader of a gang under his group's wing at a Tokyo hospital in February 2002.
Yano's not-guilty plea denied statements by his alleged accomplices that he had ordered them to carry out the shootings.
Prosecutors had demanded the death sentence.
Presiding Judge Yoshifumi Asayama ruled that Yano masterminded the attacks as part of a turf war among rival gangs.
"The defendant involved three members of the public who just happened to be there, in his indiscriminate terrorism," Asayama said of the Maebashi case. "The defendant realized that the shooting in the bar would involve people other than his target, but he did not order the accomplices to be careful so that they would not hurt other people."
Noting that Yano gave specific orders to his hit men to shoot the targets, the judge concluded that the boss "bears equal or even more grave responsibility" for the crimes.
In the Maebashi shooting, Masato Kohinata, a 38-year-old member of Yano's group, has been sentenced to death in district and high court rulings for killing the four and injuring two others. Kohinata, who has appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, has testified that he had acted on Yano's orders.
The 6,000-member Sumiyoshi-kai is a major gang in the Kanto region along with the Inagawa-kai, which has 5,000 members. Yakuza gangs control various entertainment businesses, including bars and night clubs.
Mob gun bust
A Tokyo mob boss affiliated with the Kyokuto-kai syndicate has been arrested for allegedly possessing three guns, police said Monday.
Hideo Amagai, 58, is suspected of having an acquaintance conceal a revolver, a semiautomatic pistol and an air gun modified into a lethal weapon, as well as 60 bullets, at the man's home in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. The 53-year-old acquaintance, a part-time gangster, told police he was asked by Amagai to stash the guns in January or February.
The Japan Times: Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007
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＜前橋銃乱射＞会長に死刑言い渡し
事件の首謀と認定
12月10日11時47分配信 毎日新聞
前橋市のスナックで０３年に市民ら４人が射殺された事件や、日本医科大付属病院（東京都文京区）で０２年に入院中の暴力団組長が射殺された事件で、殺人罪などに問われた指定暴力団住吉会系矢野睦会会長、矢野治被告（５８）に対し、東京地裁は１０日、求刑通り死刑を言い渡した。朝山芳史裁判長は「５人もの尊い人命を奪い、首謀者である被告の刑事責任はこの上なく重い」と述べた。
弁護側は「被告の関与を認めた実行役の証言は虚偽だ」と無罪を主張したが、判決は、実行役の証言の信用性を認めた。その上でスナック乱射事件について「店でいきなり拳銃十数発を乱射した一種の無差別テロ。巻き添えになった市民の無念は察するに余りある」と指摘した。
判決によると、矢野被告は対立していた暴力団元組長の殺害を実行役の小日向将人被告（３８）＝１、２審死刑、上告中＝に指示。０３年１月２５日深夜、小日向被告らが前橋市のスナック店で拳銃を乱射して、客の男女３人や警護役の元組員を射殺し、元組長ら２人に重傷を負わせた。また住吉会系組長（５８）＝無期懲役が確定＝らと共謀し、０２年２月２５日、同病院集中治療室にいた同会系の組長（当時５４歳）を射殺した。【銭場裕司、鈴木敦子】
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