TOKYO: Japanese authorities applied an 1889 anti-duelling law to arrest a man over a fight that resulted in his opponent's death in Tokyo's red light and entertainment district, police said Friday (Jan 9).
The face-off took place on a street in September in the Kabukicho area of the capital after the suspect "and the dead man agreed to fight each other", police spokesman Mitsuhiro Hirota told AFP.
Tokyo police on Wednesday arrested Fuzuki Asari, 26, unemployed, on suspicion of having "conspired with someone else" to have a duel and causing injury resulting in the death of his 30-year-old adversary, Hirota said.
The suspect "committed acts of violence such as throwing" the opponent, Naoya Matsuda, who "died on October 12 at a hospital in Tokyo... of multiple organ failure" caused by head injuries, the spokesman said.
The crime was investigated and announced by the Tokyo police's organised crime control division, he said.
It was not specified whether any weapons were involved in the fight.
The 1889 law stipulates that "anyone who has engaged in a duel shall be punished by imprisonment for no less than two years and no more than five years".
The suspect's other alleged crime -- causing death from involuntary injury -- would lead to no less than three years in prison, according to Japan's criminal law.
Although it is rare to apply the anti-duelling statute in Japan, there was a case in October when police in Gunma prefecture north of Tokyo arrested a high-school student and a man on suspicion of duelling, the Asahi Shimbun reported. - AFP
