<figure id="attachment_201391" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-201391" style="width: 342px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="79536ff8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/08/ab561f35ca1f37c1b2596ab2a872d358.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-201391" class="wp-caption-text">Nomura Accompanied by investigators during a raid on the Kudo-kai. Photo taken in April &#8217;10 (Image: Kyodo News)</figcaption></figure>
<p> The gangster&#8217;s office that shook citizens has been removed.</p>
<p> On April 6, the Fukuoka Prefectural Police&#8217;s Organized Crime Division announced the removal of the offices of Tanaka-gumi, the core organization of the Kudo-kai, a designated dangerous crime syndicate. The location was a room in a nine-story apartment building in Kokura, Kitakyushu City. The Tanaka-gumi had been using it as an office since February 2000.</p>
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<p><strong> Since February &#8217;15, the prefectural police had issued an order restricting the use of the building based on the Anti-Gang Law and requested the Kudo-kai, which owns the building, to voluntarily remove the building. Kudo Kai accepted the request last February. Maintenance costs, such as property taxes, must have become a major burden.</strong></p>
<p><strong> Tanaka-gumi is a special organization for Kudo-kai. Its president, Satoru Nomura, 76, who was sentenced to death in the first trial for murder and other crimes, and its number two, Fumio Taue, 66, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the same crime, served as its leader (both defendants are currently appealing). (Both defendants are currently appealing their cases.) It is also the birthplace of many Kudo-kai leaders.</strong></p>
<p> In an article distributed on August 25, 2009, FRIDAY Digital reported that both defendants intimidated the presiding judge at the trial in which they were sentenced to death. We would like to recount the tense courtroom scene in this article (some corrections have been made).</p>
<h2> (This article has been partially corrected.) &#8220;You&#8217;re terrible, you know. &#8230;&#8230;</h2>
<p> Fukuoka District Court, Legal Division 101.</p>
<p> The top gang leader, who had been calmly listening to the presiding judge&#8217;s remarks, suddenly changed when the main sentence was announced. He stood up from the long chair near the witness stand and threatened the presiding judge, saying, &#8220;I was asking for a fair trial.</p>
<p><strong> I was asking for a fair trial. I don&#8217;t know if there is such a thing as a fair trial. You will regret this for the rest of your life!</strong></p>
<p> The number two defendant, who was also being tried, said immediately after leaving the courtroom.</p>
<p><strong> You&#8217;re terrible, you &#8230;&#8230;. Mr. Adachi!&#8221;</strong></p>
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<p> On August 24, 2009, the Fukuoka District Court (Tsutomu Adachi presiding) handed down a serious verdict. Nomura, the head of the Kudo-kai, was sentenced to death as requested. The defendant Tague was sentenced to life imprisonment.</p>
<p><strong> The trigger was the &#8220;Operation Summit,&#8221; a campaign launched by the Fukuoka Prefectural Police in September 2002 to arrest Nomura and other Kudo-kai leaders en masse. The top Kudo-kai officials were found to be involved in four heinous incidents in 1998, including the shooting death of a former fishing union head and the stabbing of a dentist. A 3,800-strong team of investigators arrested Nomura and others.</strong></p>
<p><strong> The trial will begin in October 2007. The Fukuoka District Court excluded the case from the jury trial on the grounds that there was a risk of harm to the elected officials. Nomura spent nearly seven years in detention, but he had expressed confidence in his innocence. There was no clear evidence to support his involvement as the perpetrator of the crime,&#8221; said a reporter from a national newspaper.</strong></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Prying will get you in trouble."></div>
<p>Kudo-kai is headquartered in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture. Its existence is special. It is known and feared locally as a &#8220;violent organization. A resident of Kitakyushu City tells us, &#8220;There have been incidents of injury related to the Kudo-kai.</p>
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<p><strong> I once asked a victim of a Kudo-kai-related injury what happened. He patted me on the shoulder and said, &#8216;It&#8217;s for your own good. He patted me on the shoulder and said, &#8216;It&#8217;s for your own good. It&#8217;s better for you not to know anything. Your parents and siblings are in your hometown. If you pry into them too much, you&#8217;ll get into trouble.</strong></p>
<p><strong> If a problem arose, he would sometimes touch ordinary people. It was a long time ago that a bar in Kitakyushu City put a sign on its front door that said, &#8216;No gangs allowed. After a while, the bar was in such a shambles that it had been destroyed by firearms. It is said that the Kudo-kai warehouse stored weapons that would surprise even the Self-Defense Forces, such as anti-tank rocket launchers. It seems that they will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, no matter what the means.&#8221;</strong></p>
<h2> The Reason for Dismissing All Defense Lawyers</h2>
<p> As Nomura expressed confidence, there was no clear evidence of the involvement of the Kudo-kai top management in the four incidents that the police considered problematic. However, the unity of the Kudo-kai is so strong that every morning, Nomura is greeted by senior Kudo-kai members sitting on their haunches. Chief Judge Adachi ruled that it was &#8220;unthinkable that a gang member would initiate an incident alone without the permission of the two defendants,&#8221; and thus he made the heavy decision to sentence the defendants.</p>
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<p> There are special circumstances behind the protracted trial.</p>
<p><strong> The defendant was confident of his innocence due to the lack of clear evidence. The defense team is said to have explained to him that he could win an acquittal.</strong></p>
<p><strong> However, when the case was opened, the defendant was sentenced to death. Nomura&#8217;s expectations were disappointed, and in July 2010, just before the deadline for filing a notice of appeal, he dismissed all 10 members of his defense team.</strong><strong> Thanks to this, the schedule was once and for all cancelled. Nomura contacted a talented lawyer who had handled many major cases. He is expected to form a new defense team and plead not guilty at the appeal trial.</strong></p>
<p> The tense trial will begin again this fall.</p>


 Kyodo News

 The head of the Kudo-kai gang was sentenced to death. The defendant said, "I'll regret it! he said, threatening the presiding judge and pleading not guilty. Finally, about a year and a half after the verdict, the date for the appeal hearing was set. The office of the gang he headed was removed from the premises.

You&#8217;ll regret it for the rest of your life! and cursed at the presiding judge&#8230; President of the Kudo-kai, &#8220;Removal of the office where he served as the head of the Kudo-kai,&#8221; at the tense courtroom scene.

You’ll regret it for the rest of your life! and cursed at the presiding judge… President of the Kudo-kai, “Removal of the office where he served as the head of the Kudo-kai,” at the tense courtroom scene.

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