Killed in Roppongi - anyone heard anything

[mercutio]

Several times last week I heard from different people that I know who work in Roppongi that there was a killing near Gas Panic on sat the 3rd.

The story goes that an American serviceman got in a argument with a Japanese guy in Gas Panic.... but the Japanese guy was actually a yakuza... the yakuza went someplace and came back with a katana. He apparently killed the American as he and his buddies came out and then jumped in a waiting car and made his escape. Now i have this story from a number of completely different sources (including some marines who came over from Korea the following week. They had only been in Japan a few hours but had heard the same details from the base in korea)

I was out that night and did see a bunch of police all of the sudden out and emergency vehicles at about 4am

Has anyone heard anything about this?

[kamome]

Has anyone heard anything about this?

No, but I'd like to learn more. It sounds like a scene straight out of "Black Rain". If true, it's also a good lesson for gaijin hanging out at the bars in 6 trees: don't f--- with people if you're drunk.

[sillygirl]

Look at the 'Dead Gaijins' post~ I think there's something there

[cstaylor]

Wouldn't this make Stars and Stripes or some other U.S. service-related newspaper?

I'd say this sounds like B.S. to me, but TIJ.

[jingai]

I think I glimpsed the bastard who killed the poor serviceman. He blended into the crowd pretty well, but I spotted him when he stopped to pose.

[mercutio]

Lastnight I met a guy who works at Gas Panic, when I asked him about this supposed killing outside there last week he looked notably worried and like he didnt want to talk about it. After some coaxing from me and the bartender we found out that this guy apparently saw some of the action....which was more protracted than I had heard before... he really looked pretty worried talking about it until he realized there was only one japanese person around and she looked corporate enough that she probably wasnt involved.

So apparently there may have been more than one group involved. Something about yakuza from Osaka being up here and the local group being involved... the guy with the sword had a buddy who was swinging a golf club (apparently they only had one sword with them in the car)...something about the cops showing up...the body being dragged off...and then brought out again... oh and then about 8am some guys showing up with a water truck and suits that looked like decontamination suits and spraying the whole area down to wash all the blood away

A lot of this sounds too "Quintin Tarentino" to be true, considering I cant find any mention of it in the media (of course TIJ), but the fact that I met that group of marines based in Korea and they had heard about it from there leads me to believe that *something* must have happened

I suppose keeping it out of the japanese press is easy enough with the right connections and considering the fact that the US wants to keep everything tight and freindly with Japan would mean they wouldnt want the bad press of smoething like this... so who knows

[Captain Japan]

Wouldn't this make Stars and Stripes or some other U.S. service-related newspaper?

I'd say this sounds like B.S. to me, but TIJ.

I don't know about that. Whenever a serviceman gets nabbed for rape how long after the incident is it when the story breaks? Quite a while, right?

Then again, I've heard of this sort of thing before at Gas Panic. It was a few years ago someone told me about a yak getting in a verbal fight with a foreigner. Later the foreign guy "jumped" from a building near Gas Panic in a "suicide." Did it happen? No idea. Was it in the news? Nope. Also heard other similar stories about foreigners offing other foreigners for various things.

But this story has quite a bit of detail to it. So it does make you wonder.

[Taro Toporific]

[cstaylor]

[Taro Toporific]

[It sounds like a scene straight out of "Black Rain"....

Mo' wild rumors via "Stange Days Blog"

Fucked up + 09/04/04

Well, the story continues and once everything seems to be going ok, it becomes fucked up again....

Ohh, there was this thing this week on Tuesday I think, when Yakuza's from Osaka and Tokyo had a big clash here in Roppongi, and people who've seen it said that they were fighting with samurai swords and there was blood everywhere and apparently 8 of them were killed. Fun. And right now there's a big possibility of a terrorist attack on Tokyo because Japan helped the USA with war and Spain did as well and look what happened in Madrid some time ago. It doesn't sound very safe. There's police everywhere in the streets of Roppongi and I'm assuming that in other areas as well and they're eyeing anyone who looks suspicious and are checking documents and stuff like that. Damn, this world is crazy. LOL.

Marina's writing me crazy emails, I think she's a nymphomaniac. OMG people beware.

- Anna's been pimpin' @ 4/9/2004 11:59:27 AM + Provance - Drifting Away

[mr. sparkle]

[jingai]

It sounds more like "Rising Sun" than "Black Rain" to me. Honestly, I think the sensational nature of the attack would make it newsworthy. Sword fights on the streets of Tokyo really don't happen much anymore... knives and guns are a lot more normal.

A few years back a group of bosozoku attacked some GIs out in Hiroshima-ken and that hit all the papers, though nobody was killed. The yakuza don't have kisha clubs to protect their interests, and their crimes are reported on pretty regularly these days- the burst of the bubble and the anti-gang laws in the early '90s changed a lot. The Japanese press may not be good at taking on the powerful and well-connected, but the yakuza really aren't in that league anymore, so I would not expect a coverup, but rather a denunciation from the police and politicians.

[mercutio]

Fucked up + 09/04/04
Ohh, there was this thing this week on Tuesday I think, when Yakuza's from Osaka and Tokyo had a big clash here in Roppongi, and people who've seen it said that they were fighting with samurai swords and there was blood everywhere and apparently 8 of them were killed.

Actually that is in line with what the guy from gas panic said... he said it he *thought* it was actually yaks from Osaka that were in an argument with some locals yaks and he didnt understand how the American guy wound up in the middle of... he also said that several people were cut up bad enough that they probably didnt make it but he only saw the one body.

According to one bar owner I know, there is apparently some pretty heated conflict going on right now between the family that controls the nw quadrant of roppongi (aligned with the local Iranian mafia) and the family who controls the southern half (aligned with the local Nigerian mafia)....

[Taro Toporific]

It sounds more like "Rising Sun" than "Black Rain" to me. Honestly, I think the sensational nature of the attack would make it newsworthy. Sword fights on the streets of Tokyo really don't happen much anymore... .

I agree that the local papers would loooooove this story and we should be hearing more about it.
Marvin, at the MDN ain't answering his email so while I was hunting for clues I found this...

Roppongi falls upon hard times
Japan Today, Apr 14
.... Nikkan Gendai (Apr 14) reports that the hordes of people who used to converge on Roppongi every day seem to have all but vanished. Of late, the glitzy Tokyo district is taking on the semblance of a ghost town.
As evidence, take the strip along Gaien Higashi Dori between the main Roppongi intersection and the familiar Roi Building. A year ago on a Wednesday evening, one couldn't walk this 250-meter stretch without encountering 20 or more street touts, mostly Africans. But when Gendai's reporter made the stroll last week, he encountered two or three touts at the most.

[kamome]

I found this...

Roppongi falls upon hard times
Japan Today, Apr 14
.... Nikkan Gendai (Apr 14) reports that the hordes of people who used to converge on Roppongi every day seem to have all but vanished. Of late, the glitzy Tokyo district is taking on the semblance of a ghost town.
As evidence, take the strip along Gaien Higashi Dori between the main Roppongi intersection and the familiar Roi Building. A year ago on a Wednesday evening, one couldn't walk this 250-meter stretch without encountering 20 or more street touts, mostly Africans. But when Gendai's reporter made the stroll last week, he encountered two or three touts at the most.

I don't know about this. I've strolled that area on Mondays-Wednesdays many times this year and usually needed to wade through a bunch of touts. It's especially bad when it's raining; there are fewer people on the street and the touts really work the hard sell with the few gaijins they spy on the road. Thursdays and Fridays are still real nightmares with the touts.

[Captain Japan]

Anyone heard anything new about this story?

[Antropica]

This is old news but I used to be the DJ at Gas Panic club shortly after it opened and for several years after that...
I was there once when an Iranian with a katana attacked a marine outside of gas spliting his back open in a nasty gash maybe two inches deep and a foot or so in length. The iranians wanted in the club and the bouncers and Matsuoka and the whole gang were fighting the attacker and his buddys off with tables and chairs. I had come down the elevator with a couple of girls and found ourselves in the middle of an all out war. I escorted the Marine back up the elevator and out the back way to the hostpital...
And of course there was the time that the Yakuza killed the guy on the roof of DejaVu while my roomate was sleeping on the roof only yards away... Some brazilian I heard wrote a book about that incedent but I never was able to get a copy.... Rumer has it that since the dead guy was dating the wrong girl and worked for Matsuoka, Matsuoka had to give up his Merc to pay or to appologize for the incedent...

I miss roppongi...

[kamome]

This is old news but I used to be the DJ at Gas Panic club shortly after it opened and for several years after that...
I was there once when an Iranian with a katana attacked a marine outside of gas spliting his back open in a nasty gash maybe two inches deep and a foot or so in length. The iranians wanted in the club and the bouncers and Matsuoka and the whole gang were fighting the attacker and his buddys off with tables and chairs. I had come down the elevator with a couple of girls and found ourselves in the middle of an all out war. I escorted the Marine back up the elevator and out the back way to the hostpital...
And of course there was the time that the Yakuza killed the guy on the roof of DejaVu while my roomate was sleeping on the roof only yards away... Some brazilian I heard wrote a book about that incedent but I never was able to get a copy.... Rumer has it that since the dead guy was dating the wrong girl and worked for Matsuoka, Matsuoka had to give up his Merc to pay or to appologize for the incedent...

I miss roppongi...

Who is Matsuoka?

[jingai]

[emperor]

maybe it was a little bit before April and perhaps it happens all the time?

but i do remember there being a ridiculous amount of Police vans and Coppers on the beat in Roppongi around that time.