NIPPON



 

Japanese police Wednesday launched special teams to reinforce their fight against "tokuryu" ad hoc crime groups made up of anonymous members.

The National Police Agency and Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department took the action with no sign of decline seen for crimes by tokuryu groups, whose members are connected through social media for illegal activities such as fraud and robbery.

The new teams will gather and analyze information across organizational boundaries to spot core tokuryu members and concentrate their investigative power on arresting and eradicating such groups.

At a ceremony to mark the launch of the NPA's information analysis office, agency Commissioner-General Yoshinobu Kusunoki stressed:
"Whether our countermeasures prove successful will have a significant impact on the country's public safety. We are at a crucial stage."

"We must find out core group members, arrest them in an intensive and strategic manner and break down their illegal business models," Kusunoki also said.