Naoto Kametani

Naoto Kametani was the head of the Rokkorengo gang, an organization within the Yamaguchi-gumi. His defining appearance in the book is the shooting of Eiju Kim, another Yamaguchi-gumi leader and, despite their opposing positions, Kametani’s close friend. The later account leaves the motive unexplained and makes the case a point of reflection on how violence within the yakuza world was treated differently from violence against civilians.

Position and Associations

Kametani led Rokkorengo, which belonged to the same larger yakuza organization as Kyoyou-kai, the Osaka group headed by Eiju Kim. Their shared affiliation did not prevent a violent confrontation: the two men were friends, yet Kametani would shoot Kim as Kim’s car pulled away from the Fujiya Hotel.

The Shooting Outside the Fujiya Hotel

Kim had been in a heated conversation with Kametani outside the hotel. Kim was accompanied by his underling and driver, Kenichi Takanuki. After the conversation broke off, Kim got into the backseat of a large black car, while Takanuki took the wheel and Kametani remained beside the vehicle. As the car entered traffic, Kametani drew a handgun and fired into the backseat, killing Kim. Takanuki jumped out and was also shot; the account does not state his eventual fate.

Kametani ran from the scene but got only about two hundred feet before police, who happened to be nearby, tackled him and arrested him for attempted murder. Although the sequence appeared straightforward, the book stresses that violence between factions of the same organization was unusual.

Motive and Sentence

The book later revisits what the shooting did not resolve: why Kametani killed Kim. In a conversation with the narrator, the question is raised that Kametani never explained his reason. No motive is supplied in the account, so the killing remains starkly unexplained even as its circumstances are recounted.

The same retrospective exchange draws attention to the punishment: Kametani received twenty years rather than life. The narrator had assumed a life sentence would have followed if the victim had been a civilian. The response—that nobody cares when yakuza kill yakuza—frames the sentence as part of a wider indifference to violence when its victims belong to organized crime.

Narrative Significance

Kametani’s role is concentrated in one abrupt reversal: a heated exchange between close friends ends with Kim dead and Kametani fleeing. The later return to the case shifts attention from the mechanics of the shooting to the unanswered motive and the distinction made between yakuza victims and civilians. Kametani remains defined less by an explained intention than by the consequences of his act and the questions the book leaves open.