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Fear and regret: Japan shop owner recalls paying for gang 'protection' for years
MAINICHI   | Januari 7, 2025
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FUKUOKA -- Gangs for many years collected "protection money" from businesses in the suburbs between the major cities of Fukuoka and Kitakyushu, an investigation by Fukuoka Prefectural Police has revealed.
It was a decade and some odd years ago when a man visited the store run by a woman in the city of Koga. She heard that he was a member of a group under the umbrella of one of the largest crime organizations in the country. He offered to make arrangements with her business, but she knew it'd come at a cost. "I did my best to protect the shop and female staff," she recalled.
At the time, the region was plagued with violence by organized crime, such as staff at an uncooperative restaurant being slashed and a shooting targeting a construction company. Out of fear, the woman began giving envelopes containing payments to visiting group associates at regular intervals, eventually totaling close to 1 million yen (about $6,340 as of January 2025).
The woman recalled feeling guilty once she began paying the syndicate, which is prohibited by prefectural ordinance, saying, "I didn't even know whom I should consult."
The woman's perception shifted after the February 2024 arrests of the group's 76-year-old leader and a 49-year-old executive, among others, for allegedly violating the Banking Act's article on doing unlicensed business. According to one or more sources close to the investigation, items such as memos listing 30 or more businesses paying protection money in the cities of Koga, Fukutsu and Munakata and receipts disguising the funds as "driver fees" were found in home searches.
Fukuoka Prefectural Police investigators and others are seen entering the home of the leader of an organized crime-affiliated group, in Koga, Fukuoka Prefecture, on July 4, 2024. (Mainichi)
The woman realized that she was not the only one paying protection money when other shop owners in the area said things such as "the police came here, too," and "I spoke with the police about that."
Trusting a detective's strong words that they would "definitely crush" organized crime syndicates, the woman also spoke with the police. The investigation concluded that she and others had no choice but to pay up out of fear. While the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutors Office dropped charges of suspected violations of the Banking Act, it issued summary indictments with fines against the group's leader and others for violating the anti-organized crime law, with the leader and executives reportedly afterward promising to stop the practice.
It was reportedly rare for protection money on this scale to be paid in suburban communities as opposed to urban areas with entertainment districts like the city of Fukuoka's Nakasu. A source stated, "In this region, the ties between residents are stronger than in urban areas, and it may have been more difficult for them to speak up."
After a series of investigations wrapped up this past September, the prefectural police explained that the protection money had been forwarded up to the organized crime group and possibly spent on purchases of weapons and other things. In a past incident in the prefecture, a civilian was murdered after being mistaken for a gang member during a feud.
"I regret so much that someone might have been hurt by our money," the woman said. Last month, she placed a wooden card with the phrase "We refuse gang protection!" distributed by Koga's commerce and industry chamber on the counter. "If gangsters come to the store in the future, we'll show them the wooden card and say, 'We're involved with the police,'" she said resolutely.
Protection money
Organized crime groups, or yakuza, collect protection money from restaurants and other businesses within their territory in exchange for "accepting" their operation. The practice is banned under the anti-organized crime law.
Fukuoka Prefectural Police has since 2010 operated a support counter that counsels those who are caught up in paying protection money. The annual number of cases it hears of has been declining, down to nine in 2023, since hitting a peak of 120 in 2014, when an operation was carried out to take down the leadership of the Kudo-kai gang, headquartered in Kitakyushu. However, police believe there are further cases which have not surfaced from victims who are unable to reach out.
(Mainichi)
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