List of major crimes in Japan
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Major crimes in Japan
| Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1925 | Aoyama-kai/Mitani-kumi gang war | Tokyo | 150? | In one of the largest batlles between Yakuza groups, members of the Aoyama-kai and around thirty gangs led by the Mitani-kumi are involved in a dispute over a construction contract for Tokyo Denryoku Construction in Kanagawa. After six hours of fighting, reports between 600 to 2,000 gangsters are involved with weapons including rifles, pistols, swords and farm implements. The Tokyo police and the Kempei-Tai were called in after the Kawasaki police became unable to handle the situation and, although Japanese officials declared martial law, fighting did not end until a cannon was brought in by the Aoyama-gumi. |
| 1948 | Teigin Bank robbery | Shiina, Tokyo | 10 | Sadamichi Hirasawa, an unemployed painter, entered the Teigin Bank shortly before closing time and, claiming to be a public health official sent by US occupation forces, convinced the sixteen employees to take a pill and several drops of a liquid to inoculate the staff against an outbreak of dysentery. While the employees became incapacitated from ingesting the cyanide solution, Hirasawa stole around 160,000 yen before making his escape. Although ten people died as a result of cynide poisoning (including the child of an employee) as well as two others hospitalized, Hirasawa was eventually identified by one of the victims and arrested several months following the robbery. Although sentenced to death, a loophole in the Japanese constitution resulted in a stay of execution. During his 33 year imprisonment wrote his autobiography and died of natural causes shortly before his pardon by Emperor Hirohito. |
| 1968 | 300 million yen robbery | - | Tokyo | Disguised as a police officer, an unidentified man stops a company car belonging to the Toshiba Corporation near the Tokyo Fuchu prison and, in the guise conducting a bomb search, hijacks the van successfully escaping with almost 300 million yen. Despite a massive investigation into what would become the largest robbery in Japanese history, neither the man or the money are ever found. |
| 1988 | Affair of the Four Children of Sugamo | 1 | Toshima-ku, Tokyo | Four malnourished children are found in a Tokyo apartment nine months after their mother had left to travel with her boyfriend, during which time a fifth child was discovered to have been murdered by two friends of the oldest child. |
| 1990 | Sapporo murder | 1 | Sapporo | Nagata Ryoji murders a robbery victim during a break-in at a Sapporo residence. Ryoji is subsequently added to the Japanese Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. |
| 1990 | Gangland slaying of police officers | 2 | Okinawa | Hideo Zamami, a member of the Kyokuryu-kai affiliated Nishiki family, guns down two plainclothes Okinawa police officers mistaking them for rival gangsters. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he later appealed the decision claiming he was innocent of the shooting and used a scapegoat. Although rejecting his appeal, the court denied the prosecution's request for the death penalty. |
| 1995 | Tokyo Sarin Gas Attack | 12 | Tokyo | Twelve people are killed and over one thousand injured after gas attacks are set off by members of the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo along the Tokyo Metro subway lines. |
| 1997 | Murder of Masaru Takumi | 2 | Kobe | Masaru Takumi, considered to be the heir apparent of Yakuza leader Yoshinori Watanabe's Yamaguchi-gumi irganization, is killed by rival Nakano-kai gangsters Kouji Ishihara, Nakaho Kiyohara and Toriyabara Kiyoteru at a popular Kobe hotel. During the attack, dentist Hirai Hiroshi was mistaken as a bodyguard for Takumi and is killed by a four gunman Takeshi Yoshida whose killing of an innocent bystander would eventually lead to the Japanese government's proseution of the Nakano-kai. |
| 2000 | Niigata girl confinement incident | - | Tokyo | While investigating a domestic disturbance call, police discover a schoolgirl who had been kidnapped in 1990 and held prisoner in an upstairs apartment for over nine years by a mentally disturbed man, Nobuyuki Sato. The girl, Fusako Sano, was returned to her parents while Sato was hospitalized and evenutally sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. |
| 2000 | Tokyo Bay Sinyo Bay Bank robbery | 1 | Tokyo | Tominaga Kazuyuki, a career criminal associated with the Yakuza, successfully steals 46,000,000 yen after hijacking a delivery to a pachinko parlor in December 2000. During the robbery, the driver was gunned down by Kazuyuki and an unidentified Chinese accomplice. |
| 2002 | Hostess murders | 2 | Roppongi, Tokyo | Joji Obara, a prominent Osaka businessman, murders and dismembers British hostess Lucie Blackman. After the discovery of her body a year later, he is convicted of her murder as well as similar charges against Australian hostess Carita Ridgeway and sexual assault charges against six other women. |
| 2004 | The murder of Kaede Ariyama | 1 | Nara | Kaede Ariyama, a 7 year old school girl, is kidnapped and murdered by a local newspaper deliveryman Kaoru Kobayashi. Following his arrest, he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. |
| 2004 | Sasebo Slashing | 1 | Sasebo, Nagasaki | Satomi Mitarai, a 12 year old elementary student, is stabbed to death by an unidentified student known as Nevada-tan. Following the murder, she was classified as having hikikomori syndrome and institutionalized. |
| 2005 | Airi Kinoshita murder | 1 | Hiroshima, Japan | Airi Kinoshita died at the hands of Juan Carlos Pizarro Yagi. |
