Prosecutors Seek Life Sentence over 2013 Ohsho Pres. Murder

Kyoto, June 29 (Jiji Press)–Japanese prosecutors on Monday sought a life sentence for a gang member over the 2013 murder of the president of “gyoza” dumpling restaurant chain Ohsho Food Service Corp., at the 11th hearing of the trial at Kyoto District Court. The defendant, Yukio Tanaka, 59, an executive member of an affiliate of Kudokai, a legally designated dangerous yakuza group, is accused of shooting Takayuki Ohigashi, the Ohsho president who was 72 at the time, to death in the western Japan city of Kyoto. Prosecutors said the antisocial nature of the crime was huge, stating that the defendant made thorough preparations for a gun and a motorcycle as part of a premeditated plan. In his final statement, the defendant said, “I am truly not the culprit,” and the trial was concluded. In the trial, testimony was given by over 30 witnesses, mostly for the prosecutors. But the full facts of the murder of the leader of the company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange were not shown in court. As there was no direct evidence, the focal point was whether the defendant can be concluded to be the person who killed the president, based on circumstantial evidence including cigarettes left at the murder scene. The ruling will be delivered on Oct. 16. In their concluding speech, the prosecutors said that Tanaka waited to ambush Ohigashi while smoking two cigarettes, and that Tanaka shot him from a very close range and then escaped on a stolen motorcycle. Regarding two cigarette butts that were found at the scene, the prosecutors said that it would be extremely difficult for a third person to get them and leave them at the scene and that the presence of the defendant was essential to the crime. The prosecutors also argued that several people seemed to be involved in preparations such as obtaining the gun, adding that this points to the existence of a mastermind seeking to carry out the crime. In its closing argument, the defense questioned the reliability of the DNA analysis indicating that the saliva on the cigarette butts matched the defendant’s. It also countered that the real perpetrator left the cigarette butts at the scene in order to frame Tanaka. Arguing that none of the evidence was conclusive, the defense once again asserted the defendant’s innocence. According to the indictment, Tanaka killed Ohigashi by shooting him in the stomach and chest, in conspiracy with someone whose name is unknown, at around 5:46 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2013, in a parking lot in front of the main Ohsho office in Yamashina Ward in Kyoto. Tanaka was arrested in October 2022 over the case, while he was in prison over a different shooting. The Ohsho case was not subject to the lay judge system, and was handled solely by professional judges. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]