Everyone knows the yakuza don’t take any crap.

It was a cold winter’s morning in the mean streets of Asahikawa City, Hokkaido Prefecture. While many were still huddled in their homes safe against the elements, a lone figure’s footsteps echoed across the windswept pavement as dawn began to crack over the gritty suburban skyline.

The man was a member of the Kyokudokai division of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza family, and behind him was the beloved pet dog of one of his fallen yakuza bosses. During his daily walk, he stopped for a moment outside a home in the Higashi 5-5 district of the city and surveyed his surroundings with his steely eyes before continuing on his way… and it was this simple act that led to his arrest for violation of the Waste Management Law months later.

Image: Pakutaso

On 17 May, the 57-year-old yakuza member was arrested and charged with not picking up the poop that his dog had left on the property of a home in the aforementioned district. According to police, there are at least two incidents of this happening at 7 a.m. on 28 December and the same time on 9 January.

Although the yakuza member is known to take the same dog-walking route every morning, he denies the charges against him, telling police that he doesn’t think his dog pooped at that time and place.

Since it would seem easy enough to link the poop with the dog through surveillance footage and DNA analysis, the crux of this case is whether he really was aware of his dog pooping on someone’s property or not to establish intent, and police said they are continuing to investigate the matter. This investigation will probably involve looking into all of the yakuza member’s daily business and affairs to learn more about whether he truly was too busy with organized crime activity to notice a dog pooping beside him.

▼ And if they find incriminating evidence of any other crimes along the way, they’ll surely put it to good use.

Image: Pakutaso

Meanwhile, readers of the news were left pondering just how intensive the dog-poop investigation was while others were full of opinions about organized crime and not cleaning up after one’s pet.

“Do the police have the turd in a vault somewhere as evidence?”
“Forget yakuza, normal people should be arrested for not picking up poop too.”
“The police have really been going after the yakuza hard recently.”
“They just arrested a couple of yakuza members just for watching a baseball game last month.”
“He brought shame to his clan.”
“Those villainous yakuza destroying our cities with dog poop…”
“He seems like a senior member and his job is walking a dog?”
“At least he was very punctual about his work.”
“Was the dog arrested too?”

As far as reports have revealed, the dog was not arrested or detained, which would stand to reason as the act of pooping itself isn’t the offense rather than the negligence in not cleaning it up.

It’s just one more way – from using supermarket point cards to upgrading from 3G – that Japanese police have been cracking down on even the most minor infractions committed by gangsters nationwide recently.

Source: HBC News, Golden Times
Top image: Irasutoya
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