At around 3:40 p.m. on January 17, 2008, a motorcyclist wearing a helmet opened fire on a vehicle carrying three employees of Obayashi Corp. at the company’s office in Hakata Ward. There were no injuries in the incident, according to police.
Police have accused Yukio Tanaka, a 51-year-old upper-level member of a gang affiliated with the Kudo-kai, of working with the other three suspects in carrying out the shooting, which is being treated as attempted murder.
Police did not reveal whether Tanaka and the other male suspects, who are former members of the gang, aged between 42 and 66, admit to the allegations.
In carrying out the attack, the motorcyclist blocked the vehicle as it attempted to enter the parking lot of the office, as was seen in surveillance camera footage. The perpetrator then fired four shots, which struck the vehicle’s bumper and headlight, police said.
Construction companies in Fukuoka Prefecture are often the targets of violence.
One month before the incident in Hakata, the president of an Obayashi subcontractor was fatally stabbed during the construction of a home improvement center in Kitakyushu City’s Kokurakita Ward. Police suspect that the incident was the result of Obayashi declining to pay “protection money” to a criminal syndicate.
Three years later, a male employee of general contractor Shimizu was injured after being shot at a construction site office in Kitakyushu. Last September, police arrested six persons, including a Kudo-kai member, over the attack.
