Belgian Tourist Office Intimidated By Yakuza

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Workers with gang-affiliated firm nabbed for pressuring tenants to vacate property
The president of a construction company with an alleged link to a gang and nine employees were arrested Tuesday for pressuring tenants of a Tokyo office building to vacate their rooms at the request of its owner, police said. Hiroshi Asaji, 59, president of the Osaka-based Koyo Jitsugyo, and nine employees stand accused of violating the Lawyers Law. Only qualified lawyers can negotiate with tenants to leave property on behalf of the owner...The owner of the building, Yokohama-based Suruga Corp., paid Koyo about 4 billion yen for forcing tenants to leave its properties in a bid to sell the land...Asaji and his accomplices negotiated with Belgian tourism authorities and other tenants of Shuwa Kioicho TBR Building in the Kojimachi district of Chiyoda-ku that Suruga owned over a one-year period from the autumn of 2005, and persuaded them to leave the building...Investigators suspect that Koyo has a close link to a high-ranking member of the Takumi-gumi, which is affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate...more...

A TV news report featured an interview with one of the tenants who said that empty rooms in the building filled up with thugs who slept on futons. As the contract renewal period drew closer, furniture began mysteriously disappearing. They decided it was time to clear out.

[Catoneinutica]

Above link doesn't seem to work; here's another:

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080304p2a00m0na031000c.html

I'd like to pay a bunch of homeless to camp out around Asaji's house in Osaka. A 1000-yen bonus every time they piss in his garden.

[TennoChinko]

Mainichi: Workers with gang-affiliated firm nabbed for pressuring tenants to vacate property
The president of a construction company with an alleged link to a gang and nine employees were arrested Tuesday for pressuring tenants of a Tokyo office building to vacate their rooms at the request of its owner, police said. Hiroshi Asaji, 59, president of the Osaka-based Koyo Jitsugyo, and nine employees stand accused of violating the Lawyers Law. Only qualified lawyers can negotiate with tenants to leave property on behalf of the owner...The owner of the building, Yokohama-based Suruga Corp., paid Koyo about 4 billion yen for forcing tenants to leave its properties in a bid to sell the land...Asaji and his accomplices negotiated with Belgian tourism authorities and other tenants of Shuwa Kioicho TBR Building in the Kojimachi district of Chiyoda-ku that Suruga owned over a one-year period from the autumn of 2005, and persuaded them to leave the building...Investigators suspect that Koyo has a close link to a high-ranking member of the Takumi-gumi, which is affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate...more...

A TV news report featured an interview with one of the tenants who said that empty rooms in the building filled up with thugs who slept on futons. As the contract renewal period drew closer, furniture began mysteriously disappearing. They decided it was time to clear out.

Doesn't the rule or law that "Only qualified lawyers can negotiate with tenants to leave property on behalf of the owner..." sound awfully strange?

I seem to recall there was a case in the expat community a few years ago about some self-styled 'negotiator for hire' who got busted for trying to collect debts. A big fat guy or something like that...

Also, Steven Gan:

http://stellarrisk.com/en/about/sgan.aspx
http://www.japanentrepreneur.com/200403.html

who was eventually arrested on charges brought about by the Japanese bar association (or something like that) and forced out of Japan:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20041113f2.html

[quote]Lawyers go after reformist debt collector

Is arrest of U.S. CPA who fought industry's yakuza taint just a turf war?
By TOMOKO OTAKE

Staff writer

An American businessman who tried to improve the way debts are collected in Japan from the oft yakuza-linked intimidation route was arrested last week amid growing pressure by lawyer groups to crack down on unauthorized parties encroaching on their turf.

Steven Gan, president of Advance &]

[dimwit]

The story makes it sound like the company Suruga who initialed the crime will walk.