JAPAN. YAKUZA HITMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR GANGLAND MURDERS

Kaiichi Yamamoto, a gang boss who gunned down five rivals in a Saitama Prefecture city was sentenced to death by the Saitama District Court, Japan. Yamamoto, 58, the gang boss, was convicted on five counts of murder and for firearms violations following the shooting deaths of rival gang boss Genichi Hosoda and four of his underlings in Iruma, Saitama Prefecture, during December 2003. "It was a crime committed through the anti-social behavior particular to organized crime gangs and with a motive leaving no room for leniency," Presiding Judge Shinichiro Fukuzaki said as he ordered Yamamoto to the gallows. Yamamoto had been charged with bursting into the office of 69-year-old Hosoda on the afternoon of December 14, 2003, and firing 11 shots with a revolver, killing the rival gang boss and four other members of Hosoda's gang.