The Mie Prefectural Police have just launched a murder investigation following the grisly discovery of the body of a high-level member of the newly troubled Yamaguchi-gumi organized gang in Yokkaichi City, Japan.
According to police reports, 59 year-old Tatsuyuki Hishida, a gang boss of the second-tier group, Aio-kai which is part of Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate of Japan, was bludgeoned to death on Sunday. The reports state that at about 5:40 p.m. local time, Hishida’s wife and a close gang member found him collapsed and bleeding profusely from his head. He was found in the entranceway of one of Hishida’s residences in the Hamadacho area.
Earlier on Sunday afternoon, the fellow gang member was having no luck contacting Hishida after arriving by car outside of the secondary residence of his boss. Concerned about his safety, the gang member and Hishida’s wife both entered the house together and found the gruesome discovery.
According to reports of the Mie Prefectural Police, Hishida’s hands, legs and feet were roughly tied and the marks left were deep and bloody. His head showed several wounds consistent with being hit multiple times with a blunt object. Upon the discovery of Hishida’s body, he was rushed to a local hospital where he was confirmed dead by medical staff.
The Yamaguchi-gumi is Japan’s largest organized crime syndicate, recently breaking up in September. Many law enforcement agencies have since raided the headquarters of the group’s affiliate gangs and the headquarters of its newly emerged rival gang, which calls itself the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. Law enforcement indicated that Hishida’s killing was very likely related to the split.
Severe, deep-seated tensions have run high between the two rival groups since the split this fall, so much so that the the Yamaguchi-gumi gang was forced to cancel this year’s famous Halloween party for children held annually in Kobe. Perhaps this is only the beginning of escalating tensions.
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