Just outdoors the West Exit of JR Nishi Kawaguchi Station in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture sits one among Japan’s most infamous red-light districts. Nishi Kawaguchi boasts bars, “pink salons” and varied different institutions within the industrial intercourse (fuzoku) commerce.
In March 2016, one among its buildings was the scene of the homicide of Tatsunari Ito, age 24. A complete of seven individuals participated within the lynching of Ito over his misappropriation of a cell phone and suspected swindling of shoppers on the bar that employed him, Hawaiian Bar Lapule.
After the arrests, weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun ran a number of tales on the case, together with one overlaying the sufferer and the bar the place the incident happened.
The constructing housing Lapule and the institution itself are thought-about fairly mysterious, one employee within the space tells the journal.
“The building that [Lapule] was in was famous for being frequented by gangsters,” the supply says. “The yakuza around here are the Sumiyoshi-kai, but over the past 10 years or so, yakuza from the west have gradually started to move in as well. There’s a sauna in the building that is full of tattooed gangsters, and there’s also an illegal massage parlour where Chinese women offer handjobs. A ‘happening bar‘ in the basement was once raided.”
Lapule was supposedly a Hawaiian bar, however what was it actually like?
“I’ve heard rumors that it was just a bar in name,” the supply continues, “and was actually an underground casino, or a brothel, or something like that. That’s how little anyone knows about it, and it has a slightly scary image.”
In the scant media protection of the incident, Ito was described as an “employee” at Lapule. Yet it’s a extra difficult image. In this second installment of a four-part collection from The Tokyo Reporter editorial crew, Ito is seen as extra of a person with a troubled background who wound up working with the incorrect crowd in Kawaguchi.
“He wasn’t the kind of kid who would suddenly run away”
At the time of the incident, Ito was dwelling alone in a small condo in Tokyo. According to native residents, he was “a good young man who always greeted people properly.” He additionally “would offer to carry heavy items for elderly people in the neighborhood.”
His keep within the residence started in 2015. But after about two or three months, he disappeared, based on weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun (Nov. 2021). After he obtained behind in his hire, the owner, apprehensive, went to look into his residence. Upon arrival, the entrance door was unlocked and open. There was no bedding inside. There was solely a light-weight rug and a paper bag stuffed with belongings.
“He wasn’t the kind of kid who would suddenly run away,” an individual dwelling within the space says, “and he always went to work in Kawaguchi at night, so we were worried that he had gotten into trouble. Or maybe he was so busy that he hardly ever went home.”
In reality, Ito had turn out to be entrenched on the backside of a criminal offense ring energetic in Kawaguchi. All seven of the individuals arrested for the assault on Ito in 2016 have been roughly members of this group.
“The leaders were [the aforementioned yakuza] Shimada and Junya Motohashi,” an individual accustomed to the matter says. “They referred to as one another ‘brothers.’”
Motohashi owned Lapule. He also ran a scouting company for cabaret clubs and adult entertainment establishments. He was strict with those who worked for him.
“He said a lot of unreasonable things,” the same person continues. “[His underlings] got irritated. The rest of the arrested were all young people in their 20s at the time. There was a clear relationship of master and servant in this group, with Shimada and Motohashi giving orders and the people below, including Ito, carrying them out.”
The group made a living by committing crimes on a daily basis. Their area of activity was centered in Saitama and extended to the downtown areas of Tokyo.
“They committed fraud, such as telephone fraud, burglary and robbery,” the same source says. “They also got involved in drug pushing. These crimes were committed by multiple people under the direction of the ringleader. The younger ones were mainly errand boys. The ringleader took 90 percent of the money they made, and the underlings who carried out the crimes only got about 10 percent. Even so, they couldn’t go towards their elders. They have been a reasonably unscrupulous group.”
“Somehow reform himself”
How then did an individual “who greets people properly” turn out to be concerned with this group? For the reply, Bunshun turned to an aged man whom Ito relied on.
The man tells the journal about Ito’s life.
“He was struggling to somehow reform himself,” the person says. “He had a complicated family background, so I was like a father to him when I met him about 10 years ago through the Mormon church. I wasn’t a Mormon, but he was an avid church attendee. Apparently, when he was short of money, he happened to meet an American Mormon in his 20s who treated him to curry rice, which was what prompted him to join.
“He was an avid participant in religious activities, and even did manual labor and odd jobs that people didn’t like. The wife of the head of the district where he lived liked him so much that she said, “I want him to study abroad in America someday.’”
But, based on the person, Ito “did things like a yakuza” earlier than becoming a member of Mormonism.
“He was a street vendor, managing festival stalls, and collecting loan shark debts in Shinjuku,” he continues. “But one time, while collecting loan shark debts, he forced one of his clients to [sell] his daughter [into prostitution]. The client’s wife committed suicide due to the pain. It must have been a huge shock to [Ito]. So he left the organization and apparently attempted suicide himself. That’s probably why he turned to the Mormons for help.”
The man met Ito at a Mormon church, and Ito grew near him. Soon after they met, they started sharing their private tales.
“He got here to my home many occasions. He would say issues like, ‘I have no parents, I was abandoned,’ ‘I was raised by the yakuza from a young age and barely went to high school,’ ‘I’ve had intercourse with many ladies however I didn’t know love,’ ‘When I was a teenager, my yakuza comrade took me to the Philippines.’”
“He couldn’t break the trail of evil”
The man tells Bunshun that Ito was a really sincere and pleasant man, which brought about him to really feel sorry for him when he discovered about his circumstances.
“I volunteered to be his father. I even became his guarantor when he signed contracts that were necessary for his life,” he says.
Ito was mentioned to have been very energetic in his spiritual actions, however one thing occurred that led to him being kicked out of the sect. Mormonism prohibits premarital relationships, and his relationship with a divorced girl 5 years his senior was found.
“He was expelled when he was 21 or 22 years old,” continues the person. “After that, he went back to his bad ways and started working at the bar in Kawaguchi. I was worried and I contacted him. ‘Are you doing fine?’ I asked. But he said, ‘I have the ability to know whether I’m a bad guy, so I’m fine.’ But I never heard from him again.”
The man says the state of affairs is unlucky.
“But I was prepared for it,” he says. “I heard from the police [in the spring of 2021] that [Ito] was missing. So, I thought he might not be here anymore.
“I wanted him to experience a normal, ordinary happiness. He never talked about dreams or anything like that. He was so focused on living in the present that his perspective was narrow. What was the point of his 24 years of life? He had a complicated family life, he didn’t go to school, I can’t help but feel sorry for him.”
The man then muttered to the journal, “He couldn’t break the path of evil.”
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