TOKYO - The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki was shot to death in a
brazen attack Tuesday by an organized crime chief apparently enraged that
the city refused to compensate him after his car was damaged at a public
works construction site, news agencies reported.

The shooting was rare in a country where handguns are strictly banned and
only four politicians are known to have been killed since World War II.
Mayor Iccho Ito, 61, was shot twice in the back at point-blank range outside
a train station Tuesday evening, Nagasaki police official Rumi Tsujimoto
said.

One of the bullets struck the mayor's heart and he went into cardiac arrest,
according to Nagasaki University Hospital spokesman Kenzo Kusano. Kyodo News
agency and national broadcaster NHK said Ito died of his wounds early
Wednesday.

Tetsuya Shiroo, a senior member of Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest organized
crime syndicate, was wrestled to the ground by officers after the attack and
arrested for attempted murder, police said.

He later admitted to shooting Ito with a handgun with the intent to kill,
Nagasaki chief investigator Kazuki Umebayashi said at a news conference.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a "rigorous investigation."

It was the second attack in the last 20 years against a mayor of Nagasaki,
which was destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945 and whose leaders have
actively campaigned against militarism.

In 1990, Mayor Hitoshi Motoshima was shot and seriously wounded after saying
that Japan's emperor, beloved by rightists, bore some responsibility for
World War II.

Tuesday's attack appeared to involve a more trivial matter, however.

Shiroo reportedly clashed with Nagasaki city officials in 2003 after his car
was damaged when he drove into a hole at a public works site. He tried
unsuccessfully to get compensation from the city after his insurance company
refused to pay up, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Shiroo also sent a letter to broadcaster TV Asahi to protest recent money
scandals linked to Ito, including hidden accounts and public works
contracts, Kyodo reported.

Backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Ito was campaigning for his
fourth term in office before Sunday's elections. He was an active figure in
the movement against nuclear proliferation, heading a coalition of Japanese
cities calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

"Mayor Ito had a strong and boundless passion for peace," said Sunao Tsuboi,
leader of a survivors' group based in Hiroshima, a city also flattened by a
U.S. atomic bomb in 1945. "We all pray for his recovery."

Commonly known as yakuza, Japan's organized crime groups are typically
involved in real estate and construction kickback schemes, extortion,
gambling, the sex industry, gunrunning and drug trafficking.

The yakuza also have had a long-standing political alliance with right-wing
nationalists in Japan, although authorities did not indicate that Tuesday's
attack was politically motivated.

Organized crime groups are behind most shootings in Japan, with two-thirds
of the country's 53 known shootings last year being gang-related, according
to the National Police Agency. Police estimate there are about 84,500
gangsters across Japan.

Attacks on politicians in post-war Japan are extremely rare.

In 1960, Socialist leader Inejiro Asanuma was killed in an attack by a
sword-wielding 17-year-old that riveted the nation.

In 2002, a ruling party politician was fatally stabbed in a dispute over
political funds. In the 1990s, a Liberal Democrat lawmaker was killed at his
home by his daughter and an opposition lawmaker was stabbed to death by a
mental patient.

Last year, a right-wing extremist burned down the house of ruling party
lawmaker Koichi Kato after the politician criticized then-Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi's pilgrimage to a controversial Tokyo war shrine. No one
was home at the time.

"Jeff" wrote in message
. ..
* NE Sailboat wrote, On 4/17/2007 3:47 PM:
Boston eh?

You got a killing every other day in the Black neighborhoods of Boston.
Recently, one Black girl was shot in the middle of the day.

I see you still have trouble with basic math. I even gave you the exact
numbers a few months ago, but apparently it is beyond your comprehension.
Its true that Boston is in the midst of a major murder spree, but the
number is more like 70 murders a year. While this is clearly high for the
state, it is actually fairly low compared to similar cities. Also, only
about half of these are in the so called "Black neighborhoods," so the
gang related murders are less than one a week.

Massachusetts, of course, has a very low murder rate compared to the rest
of the country. The city I live in is rated as the safest city in the
country.


Ever see any of the yachtsman here post about that? Nope,, can't be
bothered.

None of the the yachtsmen bring up that point. You, on the other hand
seem obsessed about it; this is the second time this year you've blatantly
misrepresented the truth.