TOKYO (TR) – Two decades ago, it was a confrontation that turned deadly.
At the Asakusa View Hotel on October 24, 2004, a gang member shot four yakuza from a rival syndicate — two fatally — after a discussion intensified.
At the time of the incident, about members of the Takahiro-kai, an affiliate gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi, were sitting at a table in the back of the hotel’s coffee shop, Les Halles.
Also present were members of the Nakamura-kai, an affiliate gang of the Sumiyoshi-kai with an office near the hotel.
At around 1:40 p.m., Shun Katagiri, then a 37-year-old member of the Nakamura-kai, fired six shots, one struck Kenichi Nakagawa, 41, a senior member of the Takahiro-kai. He was later confirmed dead.
Tamio Sueyoshi, a 56-year-old member of the Takahiro-kai, was shot in the forehead. He died in a hospital the next day.
Police accused Katagiri and fellow gang member Tsutomu Kato, then 39 years old, of attempted murder and violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law. Katagiri was carrying a handgun at the time of his arrest and has admitted to firing it.
At the time, a female employee and one female customer were present in the coffee shop. According to the hotel, the female employee said, “I got scared when I heard the gunfire, so I crouched down on the counter and waited for it to calm down. When it got quiet, I quickly ran outside.” The female guest was not injured, the Sankei Shimbun reported on October 25.
Without uttering a word
Prior to the incident, around fifty members of the Takahiro-kai suddenly stormed into the Nakamura-kai office. The two groups then decided to decamp to the coffee shop to settle their dispute.
The hotel took note. About an hour before the incident, at around 12:30 p.m., dozens of men who looked like gangsters appeared in the lobby on the first floor. The hotel then notified the Asakusa Police Station. Several plainclothes police officers arrived shortly after.
Katagiri and Kato resumed negotiations with the Takahiro-kai at the table in the back.
Katagiri and his associates continued to talk with Nakagawa and others as they went in and out of the cafe, perhaps to remain in contact with gang members outside.
It was a stalemate that continued for an extended period. At one point, the meeting broke up due to an intervention by the plainclothes police officers.
According to one explanation by one police officer, a Takahiro-kai member felt something was off about a gang member from the Kanto area who was trying to promote the Yamaguchi-gumi while speaking loudly in an unfamiliar mix of Kansai, Hiroshima, and Kyushu dialects.
At around 1:40 p.m., when the Nakamura-kai members returned to the cafe, they were suddenly surrounded by dozens of Takahiro-kai counterparts who had been waiting in the cafe. Shouting and yelling ensued.
Deciding that the conversation was no longer worthwhile, Katagiri turned to the person in charge, Nakagawa, who was sitting across from him at the table, and started blasting without uttering a word. One bullet hit the gang member from the Kanto area.
At the time, two weddings were being held at the hotel, with 500-600 guests attending. The lively atmosphere for the guests was instantly shattered.
“The old man’s been shot!”
The Tokyo Shimbun reported that after the six gunshots rang out they were followed by angry shouts. “The old man’s been shot!” “Call an ambulance!”
Police officers waiting nearby arrested Katagiri, and the officer next to him, Kato, on the spot.
A male office worker, 50, who was passing by shortly after the incident said he saw police officers and gangsters yelling at each other. He added that a man with a bloody face was carried away on a stretcher to an ambulance. “The atmosphere was tense,” he said, “so I knew something would happen at some point.”
A 31-year-old woman staying at the hotel from Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture said with a gloomy look on her face, “I was in a room on the 21st floor and didn’t know what was happening, but it was terrifying.”
Katagiri was later handed a life-in-prison term.
