Word: itoh
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...Yasu Itoh, owner of Japanese restaurant Tampopo and a long time friend of Kotobukiya’s owner, echoed Tanaka’s concern. But he said he had five years left on his lease and so was not concerned for his restaurant’s security...
Tetsuya Shiroo woke up that morning and got himself a gun. Before the day was over, he allegedly used it to murder Iccho Itoh, the mayor of the southwestern Japanese city of Nagasaki, outside his campaign office. While the April 17 shooting first appeared to be an assassination, it soon emerged that Shiroo, a 59-year-old yakuza (gangster) with ties to Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest criminal syndicate, seemed motivated less by politics than by a petty personal grievance. He blamed a minor car accident on city construction work and wanted $17,000 in damages from the Nagasaki government...
...there's reason to doubt this tidy narrative. The Japanese media reported that Shiroo had tried and failed to help a yakuza-linked company win government construction contracts. City officials excluded the company in a push to reduce yakuza influence in the construction sector. Shiroo may have murdered Itoh to intimidate other officials...
...Yakuza gangs have ties to right-wing groups, but right now there's no evidence that the shooting was politically motivated. Itoh was a liberal and a vocal opponent of nuclear weapons - a political necessity for any leader of Nagasaki. At the 60th anniversary of the city's bombing, Itoh angrily criticized the U.S. for continuing to maintain a massive atomic arsenal, and urged Japan to get out from under the American nuclear umbrella. (Tokyo has no nuclear weapons of its own, and depends on the U.S. for most of its security.) After North Korea tested a nuclear device last...
...right, and political intimidation by fringe rightist groups isn't unknown. In August the house of senior legislator Koichi Kato was burned to the ground in an arson attack, in what was taken as a warning against Kato's outspoken liberal views. It remains to be seen whether Itoh's shooting was another political warning, or just a personal grudge...