The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling ordering the leaders of two gangster organizations in Okinawa Prefecture to pay roughly 57.5 million yen to the parents of a youth who was fatally shot in 1990 after being mistaken as a rival gangster.
The nation's top court supported the ruling of the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court, saying the gang leaders bore joint responsibility for the actions of their group members.
It is the first Supreme Court ruling to confirm the responsibility of kingpins in gang warfare.
At issue was the extent of responsibility to be borne by Kiyoshi Shimabukuro, head of underworld group Okinawa Kyokuryukai, and Tameo Shimabukuro, the leader of an affiliated group, for the death of Takeshi Kamiya, who was a 19-year-old high school student at the time.
According to the high court ruling, Kamiya was building a fence part-time at a gang office in Naha on Nov. 22, 1990, when he was gunned down by members of Okinawa Kyokuryukai, who thought he belonged to the rival group.
Presiding Judge Hideo Chikusa of the Supreme Court's No. 3 Petty Bench said Tuesday that the high court ruling was "fair and acceptable" and rejected appeals by both sides.
The Naha District Court ruled in 1996 that the gang war was "a type of business" to maintain strength and ordered five defendants to pay 58 million yen on the grounds that group leaders were responsible for the actions of their "employees."