Two 26-year-old men have been arrested on suspicion of choking a man in his 20s on a sidewalk near JR Shinjuku Station and stealing his wallet and smartphones, police said.
Naoki Watanabe and Ryusuke Fujita are suspected of conspiring with others to choke the man and push him to the ground near the station's east exit, then taking two smartphones from his pocket and his wallet. The man suffered a sprained neck.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, Watanabe choked the man from behind and directed two accomplices with the words "tore tore" — roughly "grab it, grab it." Police have not disclosed whether the suspects admit or deny the charge.
Watanabe and the others frequent the area around "Toyo," a stretch of Kabukicho in Shinjuku where young people gather, and police are searching for another man who fled, treating him as an associate.
A nightlife district in the spotlight
The arrest adds to a run of violent street crime around Shinjuku's east side. Kabukicho, Tokyo's best-known entertainment district, sits just north of the station and draws large crowds late into the night.