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The Yomiuri Shimbun A house in Aoba Ward, Yokohama, where a man was found dead on Wednesday
The Yomiuri Shimbun
18:02 JST, October 18, 2024
One person or group is believed to have given instructions as the ringleader of freelance criminals in at least five robbery cases in Tokyo and the prefectures of Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, according to investigative sources. Many of the cases, carried out by individuals recruited for so-called “dark part-time jobs,” involved injuries to victims.
In four of the five cases, instructions were sent from the identical account registered under a name written in characters that could be pronounced “Koyama” or “Oyama” on the Signal messaging app, which is known for its high level of confidentiality. Developed in the United States, Signal has been used in past criminal cases because of its ability to automatically delete messages.
The Metropolitan Police Department and the Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba prefectural police have established a cooperative investigation headquarters on the cases, which they upgraded to a joint investigation headquarters on Friday.
There have also been incidents in Tochigi Prefecture and Sapporo that are similar to those in the Tokyo metropolitan area. At least 17 similar incidents have been reported in six prefectures since August, including one murder-robbery case.
Police have so far arrested about 25 individuals who are suspected to have been involved in seven of the cases.
Investigative sources said instructions to those who carried out robberies in four of the cases were sent from an account under the Koyama or Oyama name. The robberies in those four cases targeted a secondhand designer goods shop in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Aug. 31; a pawnshop in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Sept. 3; a house in Nishi Ward, Saitama City, on Sept. 18; and a house in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 28.
A 24-year-old man who was arrested over his alleged involvement in the Atsugi case was rearrested on suspicion of preparation for the robbery of a pawnshop in Yachiyo, Chiba Prefecture, on Aug. 29. Investigators suspect that the same person or group gave instructions in both cases.
The main culprit giving the orders in many of the cases is believed to use multiple account names. In seven cases that happened in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures since August, about 20 accounts registered with various names, such as “Natsume Soseki” and “Jojo,” were confirmed to have been used.
Police suspect the involvement of “tokuryu,” or anonymous and fluid criminal groups in which members contacted via social media repeatedly come together to commit crimes and then disperse.
In the metropolitan area, a total of 11 cases, including robberies involving assaults targeting houses, took place between Aug. 29 and Oct. 16.
On Wednesday, a man was discovered dead in his home in Aoba Ward, Yokohama, with his hands and feet bound. About ¥200,000 was missing from his residence. And on Thursday, a woman was kidnapped from her house during a burglary in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. A suspect who was arrested in the Chiba case that night is also suspected of involvement in the Yokohama case.
Similar crimes in Tochigi Pref., Sapporo
In Sapporo, a robbery resulting in injuries occurred in Toyohira Ward in the predawn hours of Oct. 5. According to investigative sources, a man in his 70s was injured, and his hands and feet were tied with adhesive tape, a pattern that matches other recent robberies elsewhere in Japan.
In Tochigi Prefecture, an attempted trespassing occurred at the house of an elderly man in Haga County on Sept. 11. The suspected perpetrators were arrested, and it was found that they had received instructions via a texting app featuring high confidentiality from accounts bearing names such as “Oda Nobunaga,” “Akechi Mitsuhide” and “Tokugawa Ieyasu.”
From the “Oda Nobunaga” account, instructions were also given to the perpetrators in an incident in which a man in his 40s was confined in a car in a parking lot in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward from late at night on Sept. 10 to the predawn hours of Sept. 11.
