Rin Rin killings net life

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007

KOBE (Kyodo) The Kobe District Court sentenced a woman to life in prison Wednesday for ordering accomplices to set fire to two Rin Rin House telephone dating club premises in Kobe in 2000, killing four people.

Kayoko Nakai, 66, operator of a rival telephone dating club, issued the order to disrupt the business of Rin Rin House, according to the court.

Prosecutors had demanded a death sentence, but presiding Judge Makoto Okada mitigated the penalty to a life sentence, saying Nakai aimed at disrupting the business, not harming people, and she was unaware of the method taken to disturb the rival.

During court sessions, Nakai consistently denied the charges, claiming there was no evidence that she conspired with those who committed the crime and that she did not ask them to do anything against the two Rin Rin House telephone dating clubs.

The court ruled that Nakai conspired with Akihiro Sakamoto, 47, a leader of a Hiroshima-based drug trafficking group who led the individuals who carried out the arson-murder in an effort to obstruct the business of the Rin Rin House group, which had expanded into the Kobe area.

Under Nakai's orders, the accomplices threw Molotov cocktails into the two Rin Rin House telephone clubs on March 2, 2000, resulting in the fires and deaths of the four male customers, it said.

Woman gets life over fatal arson attack on rival dating club

Mainichi Japan

November 28, 2007

KOBE -- An elderly woman was ordered Wednesday to spend the rest of her life behind bars for setting fire to two outlets of a rival telephone dating club, killing four customers.

The Kobe District Court convicted Kayoko Nakai, 66, of murder and arson to inhabited structures. Prosecutors had demanded that Nakai be hanged.

But the presiding judge responded, "We cannot say that the degree of her murderous intent was high."

At the request of Nakai, a former operator of a telephone dating club, 47-year-old Akihiro Sakamoto and several accomplices threw Molotov cocktails into two outlets of the rival telephone dating club chain, "Rin Rin House," in Kobe's Chuo-ku on the morning of March 2, 2000, according to the ruling. In the incident, four customers were killed and four others were injured.

Sakamoto is separately being tried over the case.

Prosecution seeks death for elderly woman in Kobe arson-murder case:
Defendant denies all charges

Kyodo News

Friday, August 3, 2007

KOBE — Prosecutors sought the death sentence Thursday for a 66-year-old woman in connection with an arson-murder case in which four customers died in fires at two telephone dating clubs in Kobe in 2000.

The prosecutors filed the demand at the Kobe District Court against Kayoko Nakai, who ran a rival dating club at the time, saying that she masterminded the "extremely heinous" arson-murder scheme and asked other people to execute it.

During court hearings, Nakai has consistently denied the charges, saying there is no evidence that she conspired with those who committed the crime and that she did not ask them to do anything against the two Rin Rin House telephone dating clubs.

According to the prosecutors, Nakai conspired with Akihiro Sakamoto, 47, a leader of a Hiroshima-based drug trafficking group who led the people that actually carried out the arson-murder in an effort to obstruct the business of the Rin Rin House group.

On March 2, 2000, Nakai ordered them to throw Molotov cocktails into the two Rin Rin House telephone clubs, killing four male customers.

  

Police arrest ex-date club manager in 2000 Kobe arson case

Japan Economic Newswire

February 9, 2006

Police investigating the March 2000 arson at a building housing a telephone dating club in Kobe's Chuo Ward arrested Thursday a 65-year-old woman, who at that time managed competing date clubs, on suspicion of committing murder and arson, police officials said.

The suspect was identified as Kayoko Nakai, who allegedly committed arson that led to the death of four customers early in the morning on March 2, 2000. Nakai is the third person to be arrested in the case.

Also on Thursday, investigators transferred the custody of three other suspects, including a 45-year-old drug trafficker, Akihiro Sakamoto, from Hiroshima and other detention centers. Sakamoto is seen as a main culprit in the arson-murder case.

The police plan to arrest the three on Friday, investigative sources said.

The police said Nakai was running two telephone date clubs in Kobe at the time of the arson. The telephone club that was set on fire, "Rin Rin House," was fast growing with a total of four outlets which were intensifying competition against Nakai's dating clubs.

The investigators believe Nakai felt threatened by the advance into Kobe of the major telephone dating club, and offered a huge reward to Sakamoto to carry out the attack.

In the attack on March 2, 2000, fire bombs were thrown into two stores in Kobe's Motomachi district, including the Rin Rin House. The attack left four customers dead from carbon monoxide poisoning and four employees with light to serious injuries.

The investigators arrested in 2000 a heavy-machine operator, Kazuyuki Sano, 44, and an unemployed man, Shinya Kameno, 30, on suspicion of arson.

The Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office indicted the two on arson charges but later added murder and attempted murder to the list of charges after deciding that the accused were "consciously negligent" -- a situation in which the perpetrators were aware of the consequences of the criminal acts but did nothing to forestall them.

The two have been appealing the district and high court rulings that sentenced them to life imprisonment.

Another suspect, a former gangster and one who is believed to have acted as a driver in the case, Kenichi Hori, 37, has been on a wanted list and is still on the lam.