TOKYO – A Japanese court sentenced Monday an 18-year-old man to four years and six months in prison for his involvement in the robbery of a Rolex specialty store in Tokyo’s posh Ginza shopping district.
According to the ruling, Shoma Torii and four others, some masked, conspired to break into the store at around 6:20 p.m. on May 8, stealing 74 items worth about 308.6 million yen ($2.1 million). Prosecutors had sought seven years’ imprisonment for the defendant.
In handing down the ruling, Judge Madoka Hiruta of the Tokyo District Court said it was an organized and premeditated crime in which the offenders covered their faces and violently smashed display cases to steal the items.
The judge determined Torii played a subordinate but vital role in the robbery as he threatened store employees with a knife.
It was the first ruling over the high-profile Ginza heist. Of the five arrested, four have been indicted, while the Yokohama Family Court has decided to send the remaining one to a juvenile reformatory.
Among the four indicted, three are aged 18 and 19, but their names have been made public following a revision to Japan’s Juvenile Law in 2022 along with the lowering of the legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18 that allows the media to reveal the names and faces of 18- and 19-year-old offenders accused of committing serious crimes in Japan.
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