Nagoyo restaurant manager files legal claim against feared gang for extortion

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Nagoyo restaurant manager files legal claim against feared gang for extortion

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 13 January, 2015, 1:02am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 13 January, 2015, 1:02am

Julian Ryall in Tokyo

Membership of yakuza groups such as the Yamaguch-gumi is not illegal, and they exist openly in Japan. Photo: SCMP

The manager of a restaurant in Nagoya has filed a legal claim against the head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, one of more feared underworld groups in Japan, for extortion.

The man, who has not been named, claims that the underlings of Shinobu Tsukasa, the head of the gang, extorted some Y24 million (HK$1.56 million) out of his business over five years from January 2008. He is demanding Y32.2 million as a repayment and compensation.

"The mental burden that has been inflicted on this man is great," Ippei Watanabe, the lead lawyer in the case, told the Sankei newspaper. "The responsibility for compensation lies with the top of the organisation."

Japan's organised crime groups largely fund their operations through protection rackets, known as mikajimeryo, but there are indications of a backlash from business owners who are increasingly struggling to pay because of the economic slowdown that has afflicted Japan.

Changes to the anti-organised crime law in 2008 have also played a significant part in encouraging ordinary people to stand up to organised crime. A further revision in the law, in October 2011, made it a crime for anyone to pay protection money to a gang member.

"To me, this is another clear sign that businesspeople are resisting pressure from yakuza groups and that the police are getting across the message that they will be able to protect them when they to resist," said Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan and an expert on Japan's underworld groups. A movie adaptation of the book is expected to begin filming later this year.

And this case, along with a similar lawsuit filed last July by a female restaurant manager seeking damages for extortion and again targeting Tsukasa, means that underworld groups that have been extorting with impunity for decades may face a growing backlash backed up by the threat of court action, Adelstein said. "I think these two cases we are seeing here will be settled out of court as the Yamaguchi-gumi will see going to court as having just too many disadvantages."

Membership of yakuza groups such as the Yamaguch-gumi is not illegal, and they exist openly in Japan.

As well as alerting other business owners to the fact that they can get their money back, plus damages, the underworld group will realise that court proceedings would be a public relations disaster, Adelstein said. Similarly, further threats against anyone involved in legal action, let alone an attack on a plaintiff, would further damage their already tarnished reputation, he added.