TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested four persons affiliated with criminal syndicates for trespassing into a baseball game at Tokyo Dome in Bunkyo Ward last year.
The arrests of Nobuo Kusuno, the 62-year-old leader of the Narashino-Ikka, an affiliate group of the Inagawa-kai, and three other gang members are not unprecedented, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Feb. 9).
According to Tomisaka Police Station, Kusuno and the other three suspects are accused of trespassing into Tokyo Dome for a game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Hiroshima Carp between 5:10 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. on September 10.
The suspects entered despite a sign stating, “Organized crime groups and those affiliated with organized crime are not permitted at this facility.”
Upon their arrests on suspicion of trespassing, Kusuno and one other suspect admitted to the charges. Kusano said, “I definitely went.” Meanwhile, the other two suspects denied the allegations.
According to police, the four suspects had tickets for season seats on the third base side. Before the game began, Dome officials spotted a tattooed individual near the entrance. After confirming the identities of the members of the group with security cameras, they called police.
After Dome officials raised the issue with the four suspected gang members, they left shortly after 7:00 p.m. The season tickets were purchased under the name of an industrial waste collection and transportation company in Chiba Prefecture.
Not the first time
The arrests are not unprecedented. In 2023, Hyogo Prefectural Police arrested several Osaka Prefecture gang members on suspicion of trespassing after they attended a Hanshin Tigers game at Koshien Stadium in Hyogo.
Based on the 2003 “Declaration to Exclusion of Organized Crime Groups,” the 12 professional baseball teams and others have included clauses excluding organized crime in their “game viewing contract terms and conditions.”
The website of Tokyo Dome City, which operates Tokyo Dome, also says that “members of organized crime groups or similar anti-social groups, and those with close ties to them” as people who will be “denied entry” to baseball games.
