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Tokyo: Man used broken Japanese to pose as foreigner in convenience store robbery

Yoshimasa Tamura
Yoshimasa Tamura (Twitter)

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 56-year-old man who posed as a foreigner during the robbery of a convenience store in Nerima Ward earlier this month, reports Fuji News Network (June 28).

At around 3:00 a.m. on June 11, Yoshimasa Tamura entered the outlet while carrying a knife and demanded from a male clerk. He then stuffed about 90,000 yen in cash taken from two registers into a plastic bag he was carrying before fleeing the scene.

Tamura, who has been accused of robbery, denies the allegations. “I do not clearly recall [the incident],” the suspect was quoted by the Shakujii Police Station.

According to police, the suspect spoke in broken Japanese — for example, saying kane (money) and dase (take out) with a heavy accent — when giving orders to the cashier to appear to be a foreigner.

Tamura surfaced as a person of interest for police after an examination of security camera footage, police said.

On May 31, a man robbed used similar methods to rob round 60,000 yen from another convenience located about 500 meters away. Police are investigating whether the two incidents are related.