Overview

• Tokyo’s metropolitan police announced the arrests of two leaders of the scouting group Natural and a Yamaguchi-gumi affiliate under the anti-yakuza ordinance, saying they are probing alleged monthly protection payments of about ¥600,000.
• JR West said Nozomi 54 struck a person near Higashi-Hiroshima around 6:25 p.m., temporarily suspending Sanyo Shinkansen service in both directions between Shin-Osaka and Hakata with a projected restart around 9 p.m.
• Chiba prefectural police sent election-impersonation case files to prosecutors with an ‘appropriate disposition’ recommendation after a man allegedly gave his wife’s voting ticket to a university student; both admitted the allegations as the election-violation task force was dissolved.
• Mie prefectural police arrested a 53-year-old prefectural employee on suspicion of refusing an alcohol test, confirming the on-the-spot detention under the Road Traffic Act.
• At Koshien, Gifu Commercial fell to Nichidai Third 4–2 in a 10th-inning tiebreak; outfielder Haruto Yokoyama, who was born without fingers on his left hand, logged a tying sac fly, and cleanup hitter Roa Sakaguchi said he plans to study in the United States.