THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
August 26, 2025 at 15:07 JST
The Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Tokyo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Multiple Japanese accomplices are now suspected in the fatal shooting of two fellow countrymen in Manila, a Japanese investigative source said, based on local police probes into two Philippine suspects.
Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department initiated an investigation into the case on Aug. 25 since the victims resided in the capital, the source said.
Philippine police authorities earlier hinted at the involvement of a Japanese national residing in Japan who had financial trouble with the victims.
According to police in the two countries and other sources, Hideaki Satori, 53, and Akinobu Nakayama, 41, were shot and killed by a man around 10:40 p.m. on Aug. 15 immediately after stepping out of a taxi on a street in Manila.
Local authorities have detained two Philippine brothers, aged 63 and 50, as suspects. They have indicated that the pair were hired in a hit orchestrated by a Japanese mastermind.
However, the suspects’ lawyers have maintained that neither of the two was involved.
Japanese police will work with their local counterpart to investigate the crime.
The MPD will examine the victims’ personal relationships and any potential disputes.
It plans to dispatch officers to the Philippines, with the National Police Agency coordinating the investigation.
The Penal Code allows police to investigate cases in which Japanese nationals are involved in murders and other crimes committed outside Japan or fall victim to such crimes.
Police can dispatch investigators to the scene abroad to gather information from local authorities or perform autopsies on bodies once they are repatriated to Japan.
When a 71-year-old Japanese woman was shot and killed on the Philippine island of Cebu in 2018, Hyogo prefectural police investigated the case by applying Penal Code provisions.
The following year, police arrested the victim’s husband on suspicion of murder, alleging that he had instructed a Philippine national to carry out the killing.
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