OSAKA (TR) – The downtown Minami area of Osaka City is often packed with tourists each day. However, a brutal assault involving the owner of a trading card store occurred in the unique entertainment district known as “Ota Road” last year.
Over a roughly two-week period in February last year, Koji Takeuchi, 29, Mitsuteru Hashimoto, 24, and Ryo Yamashita, 37, allegedly threatening the victim on the streets of Naniwa Ward and forced him to eat Hashimoto’s excrement mixed with instant food.
They also electrocuted his genitals and then set his legs on fire.
The three have been indicted on charges of coercion and assault.
“Mistake at work”
Yamashita ran the trading card store. Meanwhile, the victim is a former employee. Yamashita invited the victim to start working there in December 2024. He was tasked with helping out with customer service and other tasks. The assaults began the following January.
The incident came to light when police arrested Yamashita and Takeuchi for separate crimes. During the investigations, a video of the man’s assault was found on a smartphone in the possession of one of the suspects.
A social affairs reporter tells the site of Shukan Bunshun that the attack was as “punishment for him making a mistake at work.”
As they forced the victim to eat instant food containing excrement, they threatened him: “I’ll poke you in the eyes. Hurry up, we don’t have time.”
This was not a one-time occurrence; Yamashita tried to force the victim to eat excrement on the street on other occasions.
“On another day, they are also suspected of shaving the victim’s hair with clippers, wrapping aluminum foil around his genitals, and then plugging it into an outlet in electrocuting him,” the reporter says. “They are also said to have sprayed alcohol on his legs and set them on fire. These videos were found on the smartphone seized [by police]. Naturally, the victim wants them to be punished.”
