Photo/Illutration Yukio Tanaka, center and a senior member of a gang, arrives at Yamashina police station in Kyoto on Oct. 29 after he left Fukuoka Prison, where he is serving a prison term, the previous day. (Toshiyuki Hayashi)

A 56-year-old man taken into police custody as the primary suspect in the 2013 murder of a business entrepreneur known as the “Gyoza King” has a “unique background” as a high-ranking member of a yakuza gang, according to sources familiar with his background.

Yukio Tanaka was arrested Oct. 28 on suspicion of involvement in the shooting death of Takayuki Ohigashi, president of Kyoto-based Ohsho Food Service Corp., a nationwide restaurant chain serving gyoza dumplings.

Tanaka holds a senior position in a gang affiliated with the Kudo-kai syndicate, a Kita-Kyushu-based organization described as the most dangerous gang in Japan because its members don’t hesitate to violently attack ordinary citizens.

Before joining the gang, Tanaka worked at several companies, including a travel agency, mostly in the Kansai Region, after dropping out of a university in Tokyo, according to the sources.

When Ohigashi, 72, was gunned down in front of his company’s office building in Kyoto’s Yamashina Ward on Dec. 19, 2013, Tanaka was a senior official of the Kudo-kai’s key organ.

The year before, the Kudo-kai became the nation’s first crime syndicate to be designated as such due to its reputation for brutality against citizens and businesses following a string of attacks by affiliated gangsters.

Tanaka was renowned for being “tight-lipped” during questioning, according to former officials of the Fukuoka prefectural police. He always refused to cooperate with police, repeatedly saying that any statements he made could jeopardize his organization.

One of the former police officials said such an attitude must have earned trust from other members of his group. 

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

When Tanaka was arrested in connection with Ohigashi’s slaying, he was serving time at Fukuoka Prison following his conviction in a separate crime.

In that case, Tanaka was arrested on suspicion of violating the gun control law for a January 2008 attack when four shots were fired from an automatic weapon at a company car carrying employees of major general contractor Obayashi Corp. on a street in Fukuoka. The front bumper of the car was destroyed.

Tanaka’s arrest in the Obayashi case came about 10 years after the assault. He was charged with committing the attack, but he had denied the charges.

In a ruling in November 2019, the Fukuoka District Court found him guilty and sentenced him to a 10-year prison term.

The court proceedings exposed meticulous preparations made by Tanaka and his accomplices over a month prior to the attack and the use of motorcycles to flee the crime scene.

In the ruling, the court said that although their immediate motive for the assault was “unclear,” the act “deserved severe condemnation as an anti-social crime as it suggests the accused’s intention was to intimidate the leading general contractor to promote their own interests.”

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Ninety or so media representatives jostle to capture the moment a police vehicle carrying Yukio Tanaka arrives at Yamashina Police Station in Kyoto city around 4 a.m. on Oct. 29. (Kenta Sujino)

In Kyoto, Ohigashi took four shots in the chest and abdomen from an automatic weapon fired as he got out of a car he drove himself. He was widely known for his daily morning routine of sweeping the area around his office building.

Police say they are certain Tanaka carried out the attack on Ohigashi, citing the result of DNA analysis of a cigarette butt left at the crime scene as well as the use of an automatic weapon and stolen motorcycles, a pattern mirrored in the previous case, according to the sources.

But police apparently have no clues as to how the two men’s paths crossed, the sources added.



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