It’s illegal for yakuza to go to professional baseball games in Japan, Tokyo arrests remind us

Life of crime or live baseball fan? You can only choose one.

There are a whole lot of reasons to not make the decision to lead a life of crime. Aside from the moral implications of profiting via harmful or otherwise unscrupulous means, there’s the legal repercussions one faces if caught and convicted.

And even if you aren’t bothered by any of those, choosing to be a gangster in Japan also means you won’t be able to go to any professional baseball games.

This is something that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police recently reminded everyone of, announcing the arrest on February 9 of Nobuo Kusuno, a 62-year-old resident of the city of Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, which is about 30 minutes east of downtown Tokyo. On the night of September 10, Kusuno, along with three other men, attended a game between the Yomiuri Giants and Hiroshima Carp professional baseball teams at Tokyo Dome, sitting in season ticket seats along the third base-side of the stadium. The game was a tight one, with the two teams locked in a 3-3 tie through the middle innings, but Kusuno and his companions would not get to see the end of it. Part-way through the game they were approached by stadium staff who had seen tattoos of the type associated with yakuza organized crime organizations on at least one of the men. When asked, Kusuno admitted to being a member of a yakuza group, and the four men were then told that they would have to leave the stadium, which they did.

However, leaving didn’t undo the fact that the four men had entered the stadium in the first place, and that means that Kusuno had committed a crime, as it’s illegal for members of organized crime organizations to attend professional baseball games in Japan. This isn’t a new wrinkle that’s just been added to the criminal justice system, either, as since 2003 Nippon Professional Baseball, Japan’s professional baseball league, has barred yakuza members from attending games, and in the case of Tokyo Dome, the ban extends to the entirety of the venue itself. “Those who belong to an organized crime group or any type of antisocial forces, or any individuals associated with those groups” are listed in the section labeled “Those not admitted to enter” on the Tokyo Dome website, and even when the stadium hosted Major League Baseball’s opening games of the 2025 season, the event’s official site included the warning that “Members of organized crime groups or similar antisocial organizations, or individuals closely associated with such groups” would be denied entry. Signs to that effect are also posted at professional baseball stadiums.

▼ The Tokyo Dome rules would ostensibly mean that yakuza members are banned from attending idol concerts that take place at the venue as well.

In addition to Kusuno, his three baseball-watching companions were also arrested. A 53-year-old man, also a resident of Funabashi, admitted to being a yakuza member, while the other two men, aged 51 and 57, are company employees who are accused of being yakuza affiliates, though they are currently denying the accusation. In addition, the season ticket seats that the men were sitting in are registered to a Chiba Prefecture-based industrial waste management business, which may also be in legal trouble if found to have acted as a front in the tickets’ purchase.

Of course, one could argue that, what with modern technology, there’s no need for sports-loving yakuza to go to the ballpark in the first place, as they could just stream the game on their phone…except that it’s illegal for yakuza to make mobile phone contracts too.

Incidentally, the third-base side of baseball stadiums in Japan is customarily where fans cheering for the away team sits, suggesting that the four men were rooting for the Carp, but Hiroshima ended up losing the game 4-3, meaning that nothing went their way that night.

Source: Kyodo via Livedoor News via Hachima Kiko, Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo Dome, MLB, NPB
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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