TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested an upper-level member of a yakuza criminal syndicate for establishing an office in Shinjuku Ward that is too close to a school than what is allowed by law, reports TBS News (July 18).
In July of 2016, Kenjiro Tamaru, a 40-year-old executive of a syndicate affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai, allegedly established an office for the gang inside an apartment in the Kabukicho red-light district that is about 180 meters from elementary school, according to police.
As mandated by a Tokyo Metropolitan Government ordinance, it is prohibited for a boryokudan (criminal syndicate) to have an office with 200 meters of a nursery or elementary school.
Tamaru, who also uses the surname Chuetsu, is a former member of the Kanto Rengo bosozoku motorcycle gang. Police believe he formed the Chuetsu-gumi, an affiliate gang of the Sumiyoshi-kai, after leaving Kanto Rengo.
Police arrested Tamaru after it was confirmed that members of the gang were coming and going at the residence. The suspect denies the allegations, police said. “It is not a boryokudan office; it is a second house,” the suspect was quoted.
