A Fukuoka Prefectural Police protective measures office drill, revealed for the first time in November 2015, is conducted in Kitakyushu's Kokurakita Ward. (Mainichi)
Police in Fukuoka Prefecture have boosted security for civilians who could be targeted by the Kudo-kai -- Japan's only designated dangerous crime syndicate -- after a local court sentenced the yakuza gang's boss to death in August.
The enhanced measures were put in place after 75-year-old Kudo-kai head Satoru Nomura threatened the presiding judge after sentencing, and are part of an overall push to wipe out the Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture-based crime syndicate.
The protective measures office of the prefectural police's organized crime division consists of about 100 officers expert in martial arts. The police have not disclosed details of their assignments, but they keep a 24-hour watch on protected individuals, including informants, victims, and former Kudo-kai members. They also give them GPS-equipped devices with a reporting system.
The protective measures office, the first of its kind in Japan, was established in March 2013 after a series of suspected Kudo-kai-related attacks on civilians. Between August and September 2012, a person in the restaurant sector was slashed in the face in Kitakyushu's Kokurakita Ward, while a taxi driver suffered the same fate. But police had trouble investigating the assaults, as witnesses fearful of Kudo-kai retaliation refused to cooperate. The need for a specialized protection unit was obvious.
A joint emergency vehicle drill conducted by the Fukuoka Prefectural Police's protective measures office and the Fukuoka detention center is seen in Fukuoka Prefecture on July 1, 2021. (Mainichi)
However, police efforts got off to a rocky start. Unable to get to the people under police protection, the yakuza gang targeted their family and friends instead.
In May 2014, a 29-year-old dentist was stabbed multiple times in a Kokurakita Ward parking lot, seriously injuring him -- one of four attacks on civilians where Nomura's involvement was suspected. The dentist was a relative of the head of the city's fisheries cooperative shot to death in December 2013. The dentist's father, a senior cooperative official, was under police protection, but the dentist was not.
"The incident occurred because (the gang) outsmarted police before we had built up enough knowhow," a senior prefectural police official reflected. "We were made painfully aware that protection measures cannot be implemented without taking various possibilities into account."
The Fukuoka Prefectural Police have been committed to building trusting relationships with people who have refused protection for fear their privacy will be invaded. The force has also worked with its various stations to strengthen patrols around protected individuals' homes, to keep their families and acquaintances safe and make the police presence known.
"It seemed like there were always police near the people under protection," a former Kudo-kai member said.
A ceremony for the establishment of the Fukuoka Prefectural Police's protective measures office is held at the force's headquarters in March 2013. (Mainichi)
Since September 2014, when Nomura and others were arrested at the start of a sweeping crackdown against the crime syndicate, the protective measures office has been striving to keep witnesses in Kudo-kai-related trials safe. A total of 62 court hearings were held for Nomura and other gang figures between October 2019 and March 2021, and former members, investigators and others testified a total of 91 times. The head of a Kudo-kai-affiliated group was arrested in August 2020 on suspicion of threatening a former member so he wouldn't give testimony disadvantageous to Nomura and others.
After being handed a death sentence in August this year, Nomura told the presiding judge, "You'll regret this for the rest of your life." The next day, the Fukuoka Prefectural Police ordered related departments to bolster protection for people affiliated with the judiciary, and has continued to share information with police headquarters nationwide to protect judges and prosecutors transferred to different areas of the country.
In fiscal 2021, police also introduced 70 battery-powered surveillance cameras to keep an even closer watch on people under protection. They have been set up in a wide range of areas, and are believed to help keep yakuza groups in check. Kazuhiko Maeda, head of Fukuoka Prefectural Police's protective measures office, commented, "There will be more hearings in Kudo-kai trials moving forward. We will take every possible measure to ensure the safety and security of our residents."
(Mainichi)
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