FUKUOKA (TR) – Police in Fukuoka City have arrested a senior member of a Yamaguchi-gumi affiliated gang and a subordinate for allegedly slicing off a man’s ear with a box cutter, reports the Asahi Shimbun (May 21).
Seiji Iwanaga, 47, and gang member Yu Wakisaka, 46, face charges of assault resulting in injury and witness intimidation.
Police have not disclosed whether the suspects have admitted to the allegations.
According to police, the suspects took a man in his 30s — who operates a designated driving service — into a mountainous area in Fukuoka’s Sawara Ward late at night in December 2024.
There, the gangsters allegedly presented the victim with a variety of weapons and ordered him to “hurry up and choose.” Using the box cutter the terrified man selected, the suspects severed his right ear.
As the victim stood in a daze, Iwanaga allegedly slapped the bleeding side of the man’s head where his ear had just been.
The following day, Wakisaka and other gang members approached the victim and his subordinate, aggressively warning them, “Absolutely do not tell the police.”
Investigators revealed that Iwanaga was the de facto owner of the victim’s driving service. Police believe the brutal assault was intended as a punishment, sparked by Iwanaga’s anger over how the victim was conducting business activities.
The attack left the victim with only his earlobe. However, the severed portion of the ear was handed back to him immediately after the incident. He later underwent reattachment surgery at a hospital.
