Yakuza Exec. Pleads Innocent over Ohsho President Shooting

Kyoto, Nov. 26 (Jiji Press)–A ranking gang member in a first trial hearing Wednesday pleaded not guilty to the charge of shooting to death the head of the “Gyoza no Ohsho” dumpling restaurant chain in Kyoto, western Japan, in 2013. “I’m definitely not the culprit” in the shooting of Takayuki Ohigashi, then 72 and president of Ohsho Food Service Corp., said Yukio Tanaka, the 59-year-old executive of an affiliate of Kudokai, a legally designated dangerous yakuza group. Public prosecutors claimed in an opening statement that the DNA type detected from two cigarette butts collected at the incident site perfectly matched that of the defendant. They said that video footage showed that a person whose height, physical build and way of walking resembled those of the defendant was near the victim’s house a day before the murder. The defendant side replied that the evidence presented was “not decisive” to prove the allegation, pointing out that it was all circumstantial. Suggesting plans to prove an alibi, it claimed that the defendant may have been in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on the day of the shooting. The trial at Kyoto District Court, presided over by Judge Atsushi Nishikawa, will focus on whether Tanaka actually killed Ohigashi, as no direct link between the two has been confirmed and the motive for the murder is unclear. Prosecutors are expected to build up circumstantial evidence and try to establish the background, people familiar with the matter said. According to the indictment and other sources, Tanaka is believed to have shot dead with a hand gun Ohigashi in his chest and stomach in front of the Ohsho Food Service headquarters in Kyoto’s Yamashina Ward in the early morning of Dec. 19, 2013. After the defense side’s special appeal for a lay judge trial was rejected by the Supreme Court in November last year, the homicide shooting case will be examined solely by professional judges. The ruling will be handed down on Oct. 16 next year. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]