Nagasaki mayor dies after being shot by gangster

[Archaic]

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070418p2a00m0na002000c.html

NAGASAKI -- Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito, who was seeking re-election, died early Wednesday after being shot by a gangster in front of his campaign office, police said.

Ito, 61, died at Nagasaki University Hospital at 2:28 a.m. from loss of blood.

Police arrested Tetsuya Shiroo, 59, a senior member of the Suishin-kai, affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate, on suspicion of attempted murder because Ito was alive at the time. Police are poised to upgrade the charges to murder.

Shiroo admitted to the allegations during questioning. "I intended to kill him. It's true that I shot him," he was quoted as telling investigators.

Investigators are grilling him over the motives behind his crime, suspecting that he was in a dispute with the municipal government and had a grudge against Ito.

Ito's predecessor, Hitoshi Motoshima, 85, who was seriously injured 17 years ago after being shot by a right-winger for his remarks that Emperor Showa was partially responsible for Japan's involvement in World War II, expressed anger over the incident.

"Violence is unacceptable without exception. Calls by the atomic-bombed city Nagasaki for nuclear disarmament are based on the principle that murder and violence are impermissible," Motoshima said. "It's a shame that the two successive mayors of the city were shot."

The incident occurred at about 7:50 p.m. on Tuesday. Ito returned to his campaign office in front of JR Nagasaki Station after delivering campaign speeches, and got out of his campaign car when Shiroo shot him twice from behind, investigators said.

He was rushed to Nagasaki University Hospital and underwent treatment in an intensive care unit.

Shiroo got into a dispute with the Nagasaki Municipal Government several years ago after his car got damaged on a municipal road where repair work was under way, local police said. He filed a criminal complaint against Ito over the accident, but prosecutors did not indict the mayor.

Moreover, he harbored a grudge against Ito after a construction company run by an acquaintance was unable to receive loans from the municipal government under a program to support smaller businesses in the city.

A graduate of Waseda University, Ito was elected to his first term as Nagasaki mayor by beating Motoshima in the April 1995 election and was running in the April 22 mayoral election to seek a fourth four-year term. Before becoming mayor, he had served two terms as a municipal assembly member and three terms as a prefectural assembly member. (Mainichi)