Japanese Gangsters’ Link to Killing Explored : Camarillo: Investigators stress that there is no indication so far of any organized crime ties to the slain businessman.

Along with investigating whether the slaying of a Japanese businessman from Camarillo was a hate crime, detectives are also exploring whether he may have been killed by Japanese gangsters because of business dealings, authorities said Wednesday.

While pursuing the possibility that Yasuo Kato’s killing was committed by a motorcyclist who threatened his life two weeks earlier, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Pat Buckley said detectives also are trying to find any connection to the yakuza , as members of Japanese organized crime syndicates are commonly known.

Buckley’s comment came as other law enforcement officials outside Ventura County observed that the method of Kato’s execution--two clean, swiftly delivered stab wounds to the heart--bore some resemblance to a typical yakuza contract killing instead of a wanton hate crime.

While saying that the possibility of an organized crime killing is being explored, Buckley stressed that he has no indication so far of any organized crime tie to Kato.

“We have not narrowed this down in any direction,” Buckley said. “Until we understand why he was killed, then maybe we can find out who did it.”

Other investigators said Wednesday that the investigation is at a preliminary stage and is focused on trying to identify anyone with a possible motive other than the unidentified motorcycle rider who reportedly confronted Kato, 49, with threats and anti-Japanese remarks at his home two weeks before his murder.

“Mainly, we’ve just been interviewing family members at this point, trying to determine if the father had any enemies,” Detective Will Hammer said. “So far we haven’t found any. Sounds like he was a very likable individual.”

Kato was found in the garage of his Arabian Place home Monday morning by his housekeeper, with an eight-inch, bloodstained hunting knife lying nearby. He was apparently killed while unloading groceries from his Toyota 4-Runner Sunday between 9:30 p.m. and midnight.

In an incident report that Kato had filed with sheriff’s deputies four days before he was killed, Kato said a motorcyclist confronted him at his front door Feb. 9, claiming to be “an unemployed American worker who lost his job because of the Japanese.”

The motorcyclist, accompanied by a second man who stood nearby, demanded money from Kato and then threatened to kill him after Kato shoved the man out of his house and locked the door, according to the report.

Although that confrontation sparked initial theories that the killing may have been a hate crime, several investigators outside Ventura County, who are not directly involved in the investigation, said details of Kato’s death have led them to question whether the case could be so easily characterized.

The apparent lack of a struggle, the clean wounds reportedly inflicted on the victim and the apparent absence of robbery as a motive raised their curiosity, they said. Indeed, the ambush killing bore some resemblance to a contract killing, they said, raising speculation that possible financial problems related to Kato’s real estate business, Y & M Corp. of Oxnard, may have something to do with his death.

Kato started the company after coming to California from Japan in 1988, said his 25-year-old son, Toshiyuki Kato, the secretary of the corporation. The elder Kato received about $4 million in capital from six other Japanese businessmen, which he used to purchase several parcels of land in the Antelope Valley for residential and commercial projects.

The younger Kato said the company was surviving despite the real estate slump that started shortly after his father’s arrival.

One possible slaying scenario, investigators outside Ventura County said, is that Japanese organized crime, believed by federal investigators to have encroached on legitimate California real estate investment in recent years, may have attempted to make use of Kato or one of his business partners, and that a business deal had gone awry.

Federal and local law enforcement officials have warned that the yakuza have been spreading across the United States and increasing their activities in real estate, development and other legitimate businesses.

Long active in the tourist trade with prostitution and gambling, the yakuza have followed the boom of Japanese investment that has swept the West Coast since the late 1980s, investigators believe. Extortion of legitimate businessmen is widely practiced by the yakuza in Japan, investigators say, adding that this has spread to Hawaii and possibly to the U. S. mainland.

“Any mysterious death of a Japanese businessman of (Kato’s) particular circumstances would certainly warrant at least a cursory look at organized crime connections,” said a law enforcement official specializing in Asian organized crime intelligence, who asked not to be named. “If that angle isn’t investigated, somebody’s not doing their job.”

Sheriff’s officials in Ventura County said they are not ruling out a contract slaying, but Buckley questioned why a hired killer would choose to come right up to his victim.

“Frankly, if it was a professional hit, why risk a close encounter, rather than just shoot from across the street?” Buckley said.

Meanwhile, the slaying continued to receive widespread attention in the Japanese news media. Japan’s most popular tabloid took up half its Wednesday morning front page to cover the story under the headline: “Japanese murdered--is anti-Japanese feeling the motivation?” A smaller headline trumpeted a “sense of crisis among 1.09 million Japanese and Japanese-Americans.”

The Asahi Shimbun, a respected Japanese daily, played the story at the top of its Page 3 section. But the only mention of anti-Japanese feeling came from a police spokesman who said that anti-Japanese sentiment cannot be excluded as a possible motive.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan’s largest business daily, ended its account of the slaying with a comment on rising anti-Japanese sentiment: “Since the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor at the end of last year, the anti-Japanese mood in America has increased, exacerbated by American-bashing comments of Japanese politicians.”

Times staff writers Karl Schoenberger in Los Angeles and Leslie Helm in Tokyo contributed to this story.