“I’m the most famous thug in Saitama!” Japanese kids’ social media beef leads to beating, arrests

Never get into pointless arguments on the Internet, especially if the other person is friends with a yakuza member.

Social media can be a great way for connecting with people in your community that you share values and interests with. For example, back in the fall two junior high school kids in Saitama who became acquainted through social media learned that they both thought of themselves as the most famous thug in the prefecture.

It was a 14-year-old boy who got the ball rolling, posting “I’m the most famous Yankee in Saitama,” using the Japanese slang term for juvenile delinquents. A 15-year-old junior high school girl then replied with, “I’m a more famous Yankee than you are!”

However, Japan has yet to institute an official ranking system for delinquent fame even at the national level, much less prefectural standings. The two self-proclaimed famous delinquents decided to settle the matter by meeting up in person, with each of them bringing a group of supporters with them. It’s unclear what exactly transpired at the meeting, but apparently the girl and her group were outnumbered. Rather than accept this as a sign of her inferior level of Yankee renown, though, on a later date the girl reached out to another acquaintance of hers, a 25-year-old man who’s a member of the Sumiyoshi-kai yakuza.

The organized crime syndicate member mobilized a crew, estimated at 28 people strong and requiring six cars. In the predawn hours of October 2, the group then abducted the 14-year-old boy from his home in the town of Kawaguchi and dragged him into a car. Over the next four hours, the boy was driven to three locations, including a riverside and parking lot, where he was punched, kicked, and beaten with a metal pipe, suffering broken ribs, a broken nose, and other injuries which doctors say will take three months to heal.

Police reports say that both male and female perpetrators were involved in the abduction and beatings, and have now arrested 11 people, with those arrested ranging in age from 15 to 25 and including at least one junior high and senior high school student. The identity of the 25-year-old yakuza member has been revealed as one Naoto Oguchi, a personal acquaintance of the 15-year-old girl. However, as the two teens whose social media beef started the whole chain of events are both still minors, their names have not been released to the public, so the ordeal hasn’t really helped with either of their claims to fame.

Sources: NHK News Web, Nitele News via Hachima Kiko, Mainichi Shimbun via Yahoo! Japan News
Top image: Pakutaso
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