Japan | 'You will regret this': Yakuza boss's chilling threat to judge after being sentenced to death

Satoru Nomura, the 74-year-old head of the Kudo-kai yakuza group which has some 220 active members, denied accusations he masterminded the grisly crimes.

A Japanese crime boss issued a sinister warning to a judge after he was sentenced to death for ordering a murder and attacks on citizens.

Satoru Nomura, the 74-year-old head of the Kudo-kai yakuza group which has some 220 active members, denied accusations he masterminded the grisly crimes.

Fukuoka District Court confirmed it had sentenced Nomura to death, however, Japanese media said there was a lack of evidence directly linking him to the crimes.

"I asked for a fair decision… You will regret this for the rest of your life," Nomura ominously told the judge after his sentencing, the Nishinippon Shimbun newspaper reported.

The Kudo-kai is the largest yakuza mafia in the Kitakyushu area and is famed for its military style approach, using the likes of machine guns and hand grenades in its activities.

Yakuza - the English equivalent for the term gangster - have been long-tolerated in Japan as a necessary evil to ensure order on the streets - but a crackdown on gangs, along with waning social tolerance and a weak economy have resulted in falling numbers of yakuza.

"The criminal acts [of Nomura] were extremely vicious, and the decision of capital punishment is unavoidable," presiding Judge Ben Adachi said in the ruling.

It is believed to be the 1st death penalty handed to the leader of a crime syndicate specified by law - and could have an effect on police investigations into crime gangs in the future.

Nomura was found guilty of ordering the fatal shooting of a former boss of a fisheries cooperative, major news outlets reported.

He was also said to be behind a 2014 attack on a relative of the murder victim, as well as a 2013 knife attack against a nurse at a clinic where Nomura was seeking treatment.

The mafia boss was also accused of being behind the 2012 shooting of a former police official who had investigated the Kudo-kai. The victim survived, but with serious injuries to his waist and legs.

Fumio Tanoue, Nomura's number two, was jailed for life on Tuesday.

Unlike the Italian Mafia or Chinese triads, yakuza are not illegal and each group has its own headquarters known to the police.

Japan is one of the last countries in the developed world to retain the death penalty and has more than 100 inmates on death row.

Source: Sky News, Staff, August 26, 2021

Yakuza Boss First to be Sentenced to Death in Japan

Satoru Nomura, the 74-year-old head of the Kudo-kai Yakuza syndicate in the Fukuoka prefecture of Japan, was handed the death penalty on Wednesday for ordering 4 civilian attacks, including one murder.

It is reportedly the first time that the head of a Yakuza group — an organized crime syndicate in Japan — has been sentenced to death.

Nomura’s second-in-command, Fumio Tanoue, was given a life sentence. Prosecutors had requested a death sentence for Nomura and a life sentence for Tanoue on top of a US$180,000 fine.

In all 4 attacks, the direct assailants and co-conspirators have already been convicted, so the main purpose of Nomura’s trial was to establish whether the crimes were carried out with his approval.

The presiding judge of the Fukuoka District Court, Ben Adachi, decided the case despite lacking direct evidence that Nomura ordered the attacks. He agreed with the prosecutors’ argument that the coordinated attacks could not have taken place without Nomura and Tanoue’s orders, given the tightly controlled chain-of-command hierarchy within the Kuda-kai.

Nomura and Tanoueu have maintained their innocence throughout the proceedings and will both likely appeal the court decision.

According to local news reports, Nomura told Judge Adachi after the ruling, “You'll regret this for the rest of your life."

The assault victims included the head of a fishing cooperative, a nurse, and a dentist. The 4th victim was a former police officer who was shot dead in an attempt to put pressure on local law enforcement. All were attacked between 1998 and 2014.

Operating in southwest Japan, the Kudo-kai is one of the largest and most nefarious of Japan’s organized crime groups and the only to be officially designated as a dangerous crime syndicate.

The Yakuza often engage in so-called ‘protection rackets’ with local parlors and bars who pay them to eject rowdy customers. Operating frequently under a legitimate business front, they’re also known for extortion and blackmail schemes and participating in drug and human trafficking.

It’s not illegal in Japan to be in a Yakuza group, although in recent years the government has tried to more severely crack down on their activities. The severity of both sentences may influence future legal proceedings with gang members.

Source: occrp.org, Staff, August 29, 2021

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Cartoons about Capital Punishment

More cartoons about capital punishment HERE

Hanging of Osaka Arsonist is Japan’s First Execution Under Takaichi Government

As a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that put people to death. The execution of Takami Sunao—an arsonist whose 2009 attack in Osaka killed five—on August 21, 2026, was Japan’s first use of capital punishment in just over a year. Over a Decade from Sentencing to Execution Takami Sunao was executed on August 21, 2026 , for a 2009 arson attack at an Osaka pachinko parlor that killed five people. In July 2009, Takami poured gasoline on the floor of a pachinko parlor in Osaka and set it alight, killing 5 customers and staff members and injuring 10 more. While the defense argued that he was in a state of diminished capacity, the Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in February 2016. The execution took place 17 years after the initial crime and 10 and a half years after the death sentence was finalized.

Japan executes man convicted of killing five in 2009 Osaka pachinko parlor arson

Japan on Friday announced the execution of a man convicted of killing five people after setting fire to an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009, the first execution by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi 's government as the country faces growing calls for more transparency and the abolition of capital punishment. The Justice Ministry said Sunao Takami, 58, was hanged to death earlier Friday. Takami in 2009 set fire to the crowded pachinko parlor in Osaka by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building, killing five and injuring 10 others, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.

Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101 after 76 years behind bars

Francis Clifford Smith was given his last meal eight times. But after being spared execution each time, he went on to be regarded as the longest-serving prisoner in the US before dying in June at 101 years old. Convicted of murder in 1950 when he was 25, he always maintained his innocence, those who knew him told the BBC. Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut's Department of Correction, recounted how Smith used to feed the birds while in Osborn Prison, earning him the nickname The Birdman of Osborn.

Florida | Jury recommends death sentence for Jeffrey Crum in killing of 12-year-old girl

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — A Hernando County jury has recommended the death penalty for a 65-year-old man who was found guilty last week of raping and killing 12-year-old Jennifer Odom. Sentencing for Jeffrey Crum was held this week. Crum abducted Odom in 1993 after she stepped off her school bus in Pasco County. Her body was found in a Hernando County orange grove six days later.

Israel builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

Florida executes William Frances Silvia

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up. He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

Alabama is trying a death penalty bait-and-switch

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

Israel’s Ben-Gvir posts video of gallows site for hanging Palestinian terrorists

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted a video of the construction of a gallows complex where Palestinians convicted of terror offenses will be hanged. Ben-Givr said the new execution site would be equipped with viewing booths for families of victims to watch the hangings. He posted the video on social media of a visit he had made to the unidentified location, where he can be seen pointing at foundations being laid and saying it was where “terrorists will be executed." Photographs in the Israeli media showed a bulldozer and heavy construction work in a cordoned-off area, reportedly close to a prison.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog