Two top members of a crime syndicate agreed Friday to pay about ¥97.5 million to the relatives of a man fatally shot by yakuza in Gunma Prefecture, acknowledging their liability as employers in a court settlement.
The victim was among three customers at a bar who died in the shooting in Maebashi on Jan. 25, 2003, when three yakuza tried to kill the former boss of a rival group.
The relatives filed a lawsuit with the Maebashi District Court in November 2006, seeking about ¥198 million in compensation from the three gangsters involved in the attacks and the two top executives of the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate — Shigeo Nishiguchi and Hareaki Fukuda.
In the settlement, Nishiguchi and Fukuda agreed to acknowledge their liabilities as employers and apologize to the relatives while promising to prevent similar incidents from happening, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs.
The shooting also killed a former gangster and seriously injured the rival group's former boss and another ordinary citizen.
Two of the three gangsters are appealing death sentences handed down by district courts, while the remaining one is appealing his death sentence to the Supreme Court.