TOKYO (TR) – A former member of a criminal syndicate on death row over the murders of four people in Gunma Prefecture more than two decades ago has died, the justice ministry said on Friday.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Masato Kohinata, 56, stopped breathing at the Tokyo Detention House at around 1:30 a.m. on Friday.
In detention at the Tokyo Detention House, Kohinata had previously complained of shortness of breath.
He was transported to the hospital just after 2 a.m. but was later pronounced dead.
Gunma “snack” killings
On January 25, 2003, Kohinata, then a member of the Yano Mutsumi-kai, was one of two gunmen who shot three persons dead and wounded two others, including a boss of a rival gang, inside a “snack” hostess club in Maebashi City, Gunma.
Once outside, the pair shot the bodyguard of the rival boss to death.
Yano Mutsumi-kai was an affiliate gang of the Sumiyoshi-kai. The shooting was a part of an ongoing turf war between the Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai in which the rival boss was the target. The incident was payback for the murder of two Sumiyoshi-kai members at a funeral home in Tokyo two years before.
After the killings, a court sentenced Kohinata to death, a ruling that was finalized in 2009.
The cause of death of Kohinata is unknown, but he exhibited symptoms of an acute myocardial infarction, the justice ministry said.
The number of inmates on death row nationwide is now 104.
