Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department arrested two men on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury after a passerby was attacked and robbed in Shinjuku, the MPD's Shinjuku Police Station said. The station has not disclosed whether either suspect admits or denies the charge.
The suspects are Naoki Watanabe, 26, and Ryusuke Fujita, 26. Both are of no fixed address and unknown occupation, police said.
According to the station, the two are accused of conspiring in the early hours of September 26 on a sidewalk in Shinjuku, Tokyo. They allegedly choked a man in his 20s from behind and pulled him to the ground, taking two smartphones and a coin purse with a combined value of about ¥350,000. The man's injuries took two weeks to heal.
Suspects met around Toyoko
The two suspects met while spending time around Toyoko — the area beside the Tokyu Kabukicho Tower in Kabukicho, a gathering spot for young people — in the same ward, according to the station.
Investigators believe Watanabe was assaulting the man while Fujita and another accomplice took the phones and purse. Police are searching for the third man, who fled.