Tokyo: Cops nab 10 over brawl involving rival street touts in Ueno

tokyoreporter.com -- Feb 15

Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Wednesday announced the arrest of two men who are suspected of participating in a brawl in Taito Ward three years ago that involved nearly a dozen members of two rival street touting groups, reports Nippon News Network.

In May, 2015, Satoshi Nakamura, 42, and Daisuke Yamana, 38, are alleged to have been among the participants in the 10-person brawl that included punches to the head and kicks to the abdomen on a road in the Ueno business district.

Nakamura, who has been accused of assault resulting in injury, admits to the allegations, while Yamana says he was involved only to help an associate who became entangled in the fray, according to police. Police have arrested eight other persons in the case.

The two suspects no longer work as street touts. The two touting groups had been continually battling one another for turf at around the time of the incident. Three months later, a member of one of the groups was sprayed in the face with sulphuric acid, police said.