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Yakuza debt collector arrested for threatening taxi chief
By Tokyo Reporter on May 21, 2015No Comment
The suspect berated the victim over the non-payment of a loan
      Jiro Sato
TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Thursday announced the arrest of an organized crime member for threatening the head of a taxi firm in Nerima Ward, reports TV Asahi (May 21).
In March, Jiro Sato, 47, is alleged to have sprayed water from a plastic bottle on the head of the president while berating him over the non-payment of a loan.
Sato has reportedly denied the allegations.
Due to financial difficulties, the company resorted to borrowing funds from an organized crime group. After the incident involving Sato, the president was too frightened to return home and stayed in a hotel for over a month.

Yakuza, bosozoku members arrested for Tokyo brawl
By Tokyo Reporter on May 21, 2015No Comment
7 Yamaguchi-gumi and Dragon members were arrested for a fight that broke out near JR Akabane Station
     
TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Wednesday announced the arrest of multiple organized crime and motorcycle gang members for participation in a brawl that erupted last year in Kita Ward, reports the Sankei Shimbun (May 20).
Officers took three Yamaguchi-gumi members, including 46-year-old Kiyokazu Sugiyama, and four members of the bosozoku gang Dragon into custody on charges of infliction of physical violence during a fight that broke out on a street near JR Akabane Station on the night of July 29.
Sugiyama suffered a skull fracture that required six months to heal due to being struck by an eight-kilogram wood plank. Four other participants were also injured.
All of the suspects have reportedly denied the allegations.
Police used security camera footage to identify the combatants, and are still seeking the apprehension of three other participants in the incident.
In 2013, the National Police Agency began classifying bosozoku gangs as “pseudo-yakuza” groups to better reflect the true state of their activities.
Dragon is comprised of second- and third-generation returnees from China who came to Japan after the end of World War II.
According to police, a 36-year-old member of Dragon who was arrested heads a separate group that has recently increased its activities in collecting “protection money” from shops in entertainment areas in Akabane and Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, reports public broadcaster NHK (May 20).
Police are now strengthening efforts to ensure that further problems do not result between the two groups.


Ibaraki cops arrest yakuza member in stabbing death at hostess club
By Tokyo Reporter on January 29, 2014No Comment
      
TSUKUBA (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police on Tuesday arrested an organized crime member in the stabbing death of a shipping company employee at a hostess club in Tsukuba City earlier this month, reports public broadcaster NHK (Jan. 28).
At 8:00 a.m., Koji Nagahama, a 41-year-old member of the Matsuba-kai organized crime group, surrendered to officers at the Chuo Police Station. The suspect, whose photo and description was released to the public on Monday, was taken into custody on murder and assault charges.
On January 18 at 10:30 p.m., the gang member is alleged to have entered Club Happiness, located in the Amakubo area, and stabbed Koji Ueno three times with a 20-centimeter kitchen knife. The victim, 42, who was seated in a lounge seat, suffered wounds to his chest. He was confirmed dead at a local hospital the following morning.
Ueno entered Club Happiness by himself at around 10:00 p.m. At the time, there were five or six groups of customers and several employees.
About 30 minutes before the incident, an eyewitness observed the victim arguing with the alleged attacker in front of another establishment.

Yamaguchi-gumi top boss sued in Nagoya court for extortion
By Tokyo Reporter on January 9, 20153 Comments
      NAGOYA (TR) – A male restaurant manager in Toyohashi City on Thursday filed a claim in Nagoya District Court against the head of the Yamaguchi-gumi organized crime group for alleged extortion, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Jan. 8).
The manager is seeking 32.2 million yen in repayment and compensation from top boss Shinobu Tsukasa, 72, who is also known as Kenichi Shinoda, and two other defendants from an affiliate gang for being forced to pay approximately 24 million yen over a five-year period beginning in January of 2008.
“The mental burden that has been inflicted on this man is great,” said Ippei Watanabe, the head lawyer of the defense. “The responsibility for compensation lies with the top of the (Yamaguchi-gumi) organization.”
The funds paid were deemed to be for the protection of the business — a practice termed mikajimeryo — and exceeded one million yen per month.
An organized crime group will typically fund its operation through the collection of such money, which is then funneled upward within the gang to elite members, a process known as jonokin.
In this case, the protection money was paid to members of the Kodo-kai, which is a subsidiary of the Yamaguchi-gumi.
Revisions made to the Anti-Organized Crime Law in 2008 allow civilians to seek damages from gang members for harmful incidents in civil court.
In July of 2013, a female restaurant manager filed a similar claim seeking 17.35 million yen against Tsukasa in Nagoya District Court for alleged extortion that took place over the course of a decade. The case is still in litigation.


Yakuza members defraud Osaka firm in March 11 reconstruction scam
By Tokyo Reporter on February 7, 20131 Comment
      TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Wednesday arrested three suspects, including two members of the Yamaguchi-gumi criminal syndicate, allegedly involved in a fraud scheme related to reconstruction following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 6).
In April of 2011, one month after the Tohoku area was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, Yamaguchi-gumi members Satoru Sasaki, 52, and Toshiyuki Fukai, 54, and one other suspect allegedly offered a business opportunity to the 52-year-old president of a construction company based in Osaka while posing as employees from a big-name contractor.
“We’ve got a demolition job in Miyagi Prefecture,” the suspects allegedly said while presenting business cards and a contract from the large contractor, which is listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. “In the hard-hit areas, there’s the smell of decomposing bodies which are scattered about, and local workers have fled.”
The suspects subsequently received 10 million yen from the president of the Osaka firm as a deposit during a meeting inside a coffee shop in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. They have been charged with fraud.
All three suspects have reportedly denied the allegations.

The Osaka firm assembled 30 workers for the job. But when the work never commenced, the company alerted the police. 

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