KYOTO –
A ranking gang member pleaded not guilty to the charge of fatally shooting the head of the Gyoza no Osho restaurant chain in Kyoto in 2013, at the first trial hearing on Wednesday.
“I’m definitely not the culprit” in shooting Osho Food Service President Takayuki Ohigashi, 72, said Yukio Tanaka, the 59-year-old executive of an affiliate of Kudokai, a legally designated dangerous yakuza group.
The trial at Kyoto District Court, presided over by Judge Atsushi Nishikawa, will focus on whether Tanaka actually killed Ohigashi, as no direct link between the two has been confirmed and as the motive for the murder is unclear.
Prosecutors are expected to build up circumstantial evidence and try to establish the background, people familiar with the matter said.
According to the indictment and other sources, Tanaka is believed to have fatally shot Ohigashi in his chest and stomach with a hand gun in front of the Osho Food Service headquarters in the city’s Yamashina Ward in the early morning of Dec. 19, 2013.
With the defense side’s special appeal for a lay judge trial rejected by the Supreme Court in November last year, the homicide shooting case will be examined solely by professional judges.
AloJapan.com