Tracking the Deepening Mystery of the Gyoza no Ohsho President’s Shooting

File ①: The shooting murder of the president of “Gyoza no Ohsho”
Occurred on December 19, 2013
Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture

The Courtroom Strategy of the Man Believed to Be the Gunman—and the Existence of Another Suspect
Reporting & Writing: Hironori Jino

“What do you mean, not guilty?! What the hell is the Kudo-kai?!”

Shouts of rage and sobbing echoed through the large courtroom of the Kyoto District Court. The first hearing of the “Gyoza no Ohsho president shooting case,” held on November 26, began in dramatic fashion. The victim’s daughter, who was attending the trial, ignored the judge’s attempts to restrain her and shouted out, forcing the court to adjourn temporarily.

It was in the early morning of December 19, 2013, that Takayuki Daito, then 72, president of the company that operates “Gyoza no Ohsho,” was shot four times in the abdomen and other parts of his body in front of the company’s headquarters in Yamashina Ward, Kyoto City, and killed. Amid rumors of involvement by people connected to a Kyushu-based corporate group, the man arrested in 2022 was defendant Yukio Tanaka (59), head of the Ishida-gumi, a secondary organization of the Kyushu-based designated particularly dangerous crime syndicate Kudo-kai.

On the day of the first hearing, many people hoping to attend the trial, reporters, and detectives specializing in organized crime gathered from early morning. An unusually strict security setup was imposed at the district court, with even pens prohibited from being brought in. The courtroom and the gallery were separated by acrylic panels.

At 1:30 p.m.—defendant Tanaka, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a black suit, entered the courtroom still restrained with a waist rope and handcuffs. He bowed to the judges and others.

“I am absolutely not the perpetrator. As someone who aspires to the way of chivalry, I can accept one or two false accusations without complaint. However, I cannot possibly accept being blamed for such a sensational incident.”

Looking somewhat haggard, Tanaka spoke loudly and confidently, firmly asserting his innocence. Meanwhile, in its opening statement, the prosecution referred to the detection of Tanaka’s DNA on cigarette butts left at the scene. It was also revealed that after the incident, Tanaka had written a memo on his smartphone stating, “Do not lower your guard. Lie low and move like a deep-sea fish.”

The defense countered head-on. “Even if DNA was detected on the cigarette, that does not constitute proof that the defendant Tanaka carried out the shooting,” they argued. They dismissed the prosecution’s evidence—such as gunshot residue allegedly detected on a motorcycle believed to have been used in the escape—as science tailored to the prosecution’s convenience, calling it junk science, and warned of the danger of treating it as decisive proof in identifying the perpetrator.

“It’s hard to deny the impression that the circumstantial evidence built up by the prosecution is too weak. The defense has argued that there is a possibility Tanaka was in Fukuoka on the day of the incident, and stated that they will seek to prove this through witness examinations going forward,” said a reporter from a national newspaper’s social affairs desk.

Possibility of a different person

Immediately after defendant Tanaka’s arrest, this magazine published two investigative pieces. In one, it questioned media descriptions of Tanaka as a professional hitman, highlighting, based on testimony from Kudo-kai affiliates, that the reported image of him was significantly different from reality.

The other article pointed out the dubiousness of advanced forensic methods such as gait recognition. This technique analyzes an individual’s walking style—including posture and stride—to identify them. Kyoto Prefectural Police outsourced part of this analysis not to the usual forensic lab but to a small private company specializing in traffic accident investigations. The company acknowledged conducting the examination, yet at the first trial, the prosecution made no mention of gait recognition.

A source involved in the case revealed:

“During pretrial proceedings, the topic of the Hirano mother-and-child murder case came up. That 2002 Osaka case, like the Ohsho incident, had DNA from cigarette butts at the scene attributed to the defendant. The first trial resulted in a life sentence, the second in the death penalty, but in 2010 the Supreme Court remanded it, and in 2017 the conviction was overturned to acquittal. The Supreme Court noted that even if DNA matches, it alone cannot prove the defendant committed the crime. Conviction requires circumstances in which no one else could have committed it. This precedent could heavily influence how evidence is evaluated in the current trial.”

In the 2008 Kyoto Maizuru high school girl murder case, surveillance camera footage submitted as evidence was also criticized for its low reliability, highlighting the limits of scientific verification. Tanaka’s defense team includes a lawyer who previously handled that Maizuru case.

Furthermore—according to the same source:

“At one point, another man closely tied to the Kudo-kai surfaced in the investigation. He apparently disliked Tanaka, who had risen quickly, and this individual is said to already be deceased. If there is a possibility that the real perpetrator exists elsewhere, it could have a non-negligible impact on the district court’s judgment.”

Importantly, Tanaka and the victim had no known connection, and the opening statement did not address any motive.

“The trial’s key issue is Tanaka’s culpability. If he is acquitted, the mystery of the real perpetrator remains; if convicted, it suggests a mastermind orchestrated the event.”

The verdict is scheduled for October next year, yet the case is already showing signs of becoming a labyrinthine mystery.

Strongly Asserting Innocence in Court
Will the full truth behind this bizarre case ever come to light?

From the December 19 and 26, 2025 issue of “FRIDAY”