She didn’t tell him that she’d invited some mobster friends too.

I’ve always liked that going to see a “night view,” or yakei, as it’s called in Japanese, is one of the standard date plans in Japan. Some might say it’s a little cliché, but I think there’s something sweet and romantic about gazing up at the stars or looking out at the lights of the city while you and the object of your affection hold hands in the secluded shadows.

So I’m guessing a 35-year-old building painter from Fukuoka Prefecture thought it was his lucky day, or actually his lucky night, when a young lady he’d grown quite fond of invited him out on a date to see the night view in the town of Kurume back on May 8. He agreed, and so they hopped in his car, with the 21-year-old woman giving him directions as they drove towards a local spot called “Glider Mountain” at around 9:30 p.m.

▼ Glider Mountain

There’s something that should have set off some warning bells in the man’s head, though. The woman who’d invited him on this late-night date was a hostess at a hostess club that he’d been frequenting for the past year, paying the additional fee customers are charged to specify which hostess they want to sit and drink with them. While not part of the official services offered by hostess clubs, there are times when customers and hostesses will meet outside the club for “dates,” with the expectation that the guy will be covering all wining-and-dining expenses and also most likely throwing in some extra gifts or spending cash for the hostess. However, it’s generally the customer who floats this idea, so the hostess herself inviting the painter on a date was unusual, but maybe it was a sign that she had feelings for him?

Sure, except that those feeling weren’t “I love you,” but instead “I, and my gangster associates, want your money.”

As mentioned above, the woman was giving the painter directions on which roads to take to get to the date spot she’d recommended. This wasn’t to ensure the fastest or most convenient route, though, but to make sure they’d arrive at the spot where a local yakuza lieutenant and his cronies had, in collusion with the hostess, planned an ambush. According to the Fukuoka Prefectural Police, the mobsters confronted the man, punching him in the face and stomach and stabbing him in the leg multiple times with an awl.

▼ An awl, for those not regularly involved in woodworking, leatherworking, or working over robbery victims, is an ice pick-like hand tool used for punching holes in things.

The beating continued long enough that at some point in the middle of it, the gangsters stuffed the painter in the trunk of their car, drove him to a different location, and then started assaulting him again, not stopping until around 30 minutes after midnight, at which point they’d broken the victim’s teeth and stolen his phone and around 30,000 yen (US$202) in cash he’d had on him.

The painter’s injuries took about two months to heal, and apparently it took slightly longer for investigators to determine their suspects and build a case against them. On September 4, though, the Fukuoka Prefectural Police announced that they have arrested a total of six people, including the yakuza lieutenant and hostess, on charges of assault and robbery.

The whole incident serves as a reminder that if an invitation seems too good to be true, it probably is, so hopefully the painter will make safer night view choices in the future.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun via Yahoo! Japan News via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Wikipedia/File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske)
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