Spicy tactics used in attempted theft of over 7 million yen, police say.

In many societies, food is one of the fist touchpoints people have with foreign cultures, and so in Japan mentions of India will almost always bring to mind thoughts of curry and other aromatic examples of Indian cuisine. So it’s both startling, and yet also sort of within imagination, that an Indian resident of Japan has been arrested on assault charges in which the weapon used was cooking spices.

At around 3:20 in the afternoon on March 14, a 52-year-old Japanese man was walking on the street in the town of Yoshikawa, Saitama Prefecture, when he was approached by a group of four Indian and Nepalese men who, according to the Saitama Prefectural Police, attempted to steal the business bag he was carrying. Rather than brandish a knife, baseball bat, or any other of the melee weapons used by criminals in firearms-strict Japan, the attackers instead smeared powdered cooking spices “of the sort used in curry” according to reports, on the man’s face and into his eyes, in an attempt to blind and incapacitate him. The victim was able to fight back, though, hanging on to his bag and yelling loudly until the attacker gave up and fled the scene.

It was a pretty brazen plan, but the would-be robbers apparently had reason to think this could be a very big score for them. The man they attacked is the president of dispatch worker staffing services company, which one of the attackers, a 31-year-old Indian man who lives in Ibaraki Prefecture, was an employee of at the time. On that day, the president was in Yoshikawa to make salary payments to workers dispatched by his company, and apparently makes such payments in cash, and so had roughly 7.8 million yen (US$54,000) in cash in his bag. Investigators believe the attackers knew the man would have a substantial amount of money on him while he was in Yoshikawa, which is why they decided to make their move in the middle of the afternoon.

The victim was taken to the hospital where he received medical treatment for conjunctiva (inflammation of the eyes), but does not appear to have suffered permanent vision damage in the attack. The Saitama Prefectural Police, using security camera footage, have identified and arrested the four men they believe were involved in the attack on charges of assault and attempted robbery.

Sources: Yomiuri Shimbun via Livedoor News via Jin, NHK News Web, Sankei Shimbun via Hachima Kiko
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