An apparently underworld member gunned down another yakuza in a crowded Denny's eatery in Togane, Chiba Prefecture, and then fled, police said. The shooter, thought to be a gangster in his 60s, remains at large. The victim, Yoshiaki Furukawa, 62, from Kujyukuri, also apparently a yakuza, was shot in the chest. The gunman fled by car from the Denny's Togane Bypass outlet at around 10:05 a.m. Police, who suspect the killing stemmed from money troubles, set up checkpoints on key routes.

Furukawa entered the Denny's with four others at 8:45 a.m. He started talking with the gunman, who came in shortly before 10 a.m., at another table near the door before he was shot. "I heard a loud bang real close, just a few meters away from me," said one customer. "When I looked over my shoulder, a man was lying on the floor, bleeding."