Photo/Illutration A police vehicle carrying Yukio Tanaka, center, leaves Fukuoka Prison at around 5 p.m. on Oct. 28. (Jun Kaneko)

Police from Fukuoka and Kyoto prefectures set up a joint investigative team to look into the slaying nine years ago of a businessman known across Japan as the “Gyoza King.” 

The murder occurred in Kyoto city’s Yamashina Ward on Dec. 19, 2013.

DNA analysis of a cigarette butt left at the crime scene led police Oct. 28 to arrest Yukio Tanaka in the shooting death of Takayuki Ohigashi, president of national restaurant chain Ohsho Food Service Corp. that specialized in serving gyoza dumplings.

Tanaka, 56, is a high-ranking member of a gang affiliated with the Kudo-kai syndicate, often referred to as the most dangerous gang in Japan because its members are known to violently attack civilians.

Kudo-kai is based in Fukuoka Prefecture, so Kyoto prefectural police asked their colleagues in Fukuoka to join the investigative team.

In the absence of an obvious connection between Ohigashi or Ohsho and Tanaka, investigators were looking into whether “anti-social groups or individuals” were involved in an organized attempt to murder Ohigashi, sources said.

Specifically, the focus will likely be on who ordered the killing or if Tanaka was accompanied by co-conspirators at the crime scene.

Since his arrest, Tanaka has refused to respond to police questioning. He was driven in a five-car caravan from Fukuoka Prison, where he is serving time for another shooting. The 11-hour trip brought Tanaka to Yamashina Police Station in Kyoto around 4 a.m. on Oct. 29.

Fukuoka police also searched Tanaka’s home in Fukuoka Prefecture.

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