Facts and Details: Yakuza, Tepco and Entertainment Industry

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YAKUZA, TEPCO AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
1. SHODDY WORK DONE BY YAKUZA-AFFILIATED WORKERS AT FUKUSHIMA

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
2. Shoddy Work Related to the Fukushima Meltdown
3. Yakuza and Questionable Labor Practices at TEPCO
4. Yakuza and TEPCO
5. Yakuza and Hiring People to Do the Dirty Work at Nuclear Plants
6. Yakuza-Hired Workers at Fukushima
7. Work Done by Yakuza-Hired Workers at Fukushima
8. How Yakuza Uses Subcontractors to Hire People to Work at Fukushima
9. Yakuza and the Media and Entertainment Industry
10. Organized Crime and Entertainment Figures
11. TV Host Retires over Gangster Ties
12. Yakuza's Favorite TV Host
13. Beginning of Shinsuke Shimada’s Involvement with the Yakuza
14. Shinsuke Shimada and Crime Boss Goto Tadamasa
15. Shinsuke Shimada’s Yakuza Real Estate Deals
SHODDY WORK DONE BY YAKUZA-AFFILIATED WORKERS AT

FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=2304&catid=22&subcatid=147 2012/06/14
Kei Sugaoka, a Japanese engineer who worked at the Unit 1 site, told Adelstein he saw yakuza
tattoos on many of the cleanup crew staff. When interviewed on May 23 he stated, “The plant had
problems galore and the approach taken with them was piecemeal. Most of the critical work:
construction work, inspection work, and welding were entrusted to sub-contracted employees with
little technical background or knowledge of nuclear radiation. I can’t remember there ever being a
disaster drill. The TEPCO employees never got their hands dirty.” [Source: Jake Adelstein and
David McNeill, The Atlantic, July 2, 2011]
Katsunobu Onda, author of TEPCO: The Dark Empire , Onda said: “I’ve spent decades
researching TEPCO and its nuclear power plants and what I’ve found, and what government
reports confirm is that the nuclear reactors are only as strong as their weakest links, and those
links are the pipes.”
During his research, Onda spoke with several engineers who worked at the TEPCO plants. One
told him that often piping would not match up the way it should according to the blueprints. In
that case, the only solution was to use heavy machinery to pull the pipes close enough together to
weld them shut. Inspection of piping was often cursory and the backs of the pipes, which were
hard to reach, were often ignored. Since the inspections themselves were generally cursory and
done by visual checks, it was easy to ignore them. Repair jobs were rushed; no one wanted to be
exposed to nuclear radiation longer than necessary. Onda adds, “When I first visited the
Fukushima power plant it was a web of pipes. Pipes on the wall, on the ceiling, on the ground.
You’d have to walk over them, duck under them—sometimes you’d bump your head on them. It
was like a maze of pipes inside.”
Shoddy Work Related to the Fukushima Meltdown

Jake Adelstein and David McNeill wrote on The Atlantic Online: Onda believes it’s not very
difficult to explain what happened at Unit 1 and perhaps the other reactors as well. “The pipes,
which regulate the heat of the reactor and carry coolant, are the veins and arteries of a nuclear
power plant; the core is the heart. If the pipes burst, vital components don’t reach the heart and
thus you have a heart attack, in nuclear terms: meltdown. In simpler terms, you can’t cool a
reactor core if the pipes carrying the coolant and regulating the heat rupture—it doesn’t get to the
core.” [Source: Jake Adelstein and David McNeill, The Atlantic, July 2, 2011]
Tooru Hasuike, a TEPCO employee from 1977 until 2009 and former general safety manager of
the Fukushima plant, also notes: “The emergency plans for a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima
plant had no mention of using sea-water to cool the core. To pump seawater into the core is to
destroy the reactor. The only reason you’d do that is no other water or coolant was available.”
Problems with the fractured, deteriorating, poorly repaired pipes and the cooling system had been
pointed out for years. In 2002, whistle-blower allegations that TEPCO had deliberately falsified
safety records came to light and the company was forced to shut down all of its reactors and
inspect them, including the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. Kei Sugaoka, a GE on-site inspector
first notified Japan’s nuclear watch dog, Nuclear Industrial Safey Agency (NISA) in June of 2000.
Not only did the government of Japan take more than two years to address the problem and
collude on covering it up, they gave the name of the whistleblower to TEPCO.
In September of 2002, TEPCO admitted to covering up data concerning cracks in critical

circulation pipes in addition to previously revealed falsifications. In their analysis of the cover-up,
The Citizen’s Nuclear Information Center writes: “The records that were covered up had to do
with cracks in parts of the reactor known as recirculation pipes. These pipes are there to siphon off
heat from the reactor. If these pipes were to fracture, it would result in a serious accident in which
coolant leaks out. From the perspective of safety, these are highly important pieces of equipment.
Cracks were found in the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant, reactor one, reactor two, reactor three,
reactor four, reactor five.” The cracks in the pipes were not due to earthquake damage; they came
from the simple wear and tear of long-term usage. On March 2, nine days before the meltdown,
the Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) gave TEPCO a warning on its failure to inspect
critical pieces of equipment at the plant, which included the recirculation pumps. TEPCO was
ordered to make the inspections, perform repairs if needed and give a report to the NISA on June
2. The report is not confirmed to have been filed as of this time.
The problems were not only with the piping. Gas tanks at the site also exploded after the
earthquake. The outside of the reactor building suffered structural damage. There was some chaos.
There was no one really qualified to assess the radioactive leakage because, as the Nuclear
Industrial Safety Agency admits, after the accident all the on-site inspectors fled the site. And the
quake and tsunami broke most of the monitoring equipment so there was little information
available on radiation afterwards.
Yakuza and Questionable Labor Practices at TEPCO
decontamination room Jake Adelstein and Stephanie Nakajima wrote on the The Atlantic Online:
After an expose in the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun, TEPCO admitted in June 2011 that 69
of its plant workers can’t be located for radiation checks—30 of them were found not even to have
had their names recorded. This raises questions about how these workers were recruited, paid,
monitored for radiation exposure, or vetted before entering the site of the nuclear disaster. Former
and current workers within the plant testify that many of the hired hands are yakuza or ex-yakuza
members. One company supplying the firm with contract workers is a known Japanese mafia front
company. TEPCO when questioned would only say, “We don’t have knowledge of who is
ultimately supplying the labor at the end of the outsourcing. We do not have organized crime
exclusionary clauses in our standard contracts but are considering it.” The Nuclear and Industrial
Safety Agency (NISA) has asked the company to “submit a report” on the matter. [Source: Jake
Adelstein and Stephanie Nakajima, The Atlantic, June 28, 2011]
Kei Sugaoka, a Japanese-American engineer who had worked at the Fukushima reactor one site,
says he saw signs of yakuza ties among his colleagues at the facility. “When we’d enter the plant,
we’d all change clothes first. The cleanup crews were staffed with guys covered with typical
yakuza tattoos, a rough bunch,” he says. Police sources confirm that one of the companies
currently supplying the plant with workers, M-Kogyo, headquartered in Fukuoka Prefecture is a
front company for the Kudo-kai, a designated organized crime group. A former yakuza boss notes,
“we’ve always been involved in recruiting laborers for TEPCO. It’s dirty, dangerous work and the
only people who will do it are homeless, yakuza, banished yakuza, or people so badly in debt that
they see no other way to pay it off.” The regular employees were given better radiation suits than
the often uneducated yakuza recruits, although it was the more legally vulnerable yakuza and day
laborers who typically performed the most dangerous work.
A TEPCO executive, speaking on conditions of anonymity, described the TEPCO working

hierarchy:staff employees working at the nuclear reactors enjoy special benefits, safer conditions,
and more stringent radiation level checks, while hired workers at the power plants were
considered sub-human. “If you voice concerns about the welfare of temporary workers at the
plants, you’re labeled a troublemaker, or a potential liability. It’s a taboo to even discuss it.”
TEPCO. Shigeaki Koga, a bureaucrat at METI was asked on July 15 to step down over his
persistent calls for TEPCO to be forced into bankruptcy and undergo a wholesale restructuring of
the company. His recently released book, The Collapse of Japan’s Central Administration, which
also details plans for dismantling TEPCO has become a national best-seller. Tadashi Maeda,
advisor to the prime minister, has also called for all nuclear energy to be nationalized.
The Tokyo Prosecutor Office Special Investigative Division has begun a preliminary
investigation into TEPCO on charges of criminal negligence resulting in death and/or injury.
Meanwhile, the Labor Standards Bureau is investigating them for violations of the Labor Laws. A
Ministry of Justice source close to the investigation said on conditions of anonymity, “It seems
very clear that TEPCO knew that an earthquake would probably damage the reactors and result in
a meltdown. They failed to take preventive measures and their response in after-math was
negligent, insufficient, and under Japanese law, they will be held criminally responsible. The
question is who will take the fall and how far the investigation will go.”
Adelstein wrote: As for the yakuza, the police are beginning to investigate their front companies
more closely. “Yakuza may be a plague on society,” says Suzuki, “but they don’t ruin the lives of
hundreds of thousands of people and irradiate the planet out of sheer greed and incompetence.”
Suzuki says he’s had little trouble from the yakuza about his book’s allegations. He suspects this
is because he showed they were prepared to risk their lives at Fukushima – he almost made them
look good.
Yakuza and TEPCO
Jake Adelstein wrote on The Atlantic Online: Unofficially, TEPCO has such long-standing ties to
anti-social forces, including the yakuza—that some members of the Diet, Japan’s national
legislature, feel the firm is beyond salvation and needs to be taken over and cleaned up. A
Japanese Senator with the Liberal Democratic Party stated on background, "TEPCO's involvement
with anti-social forces and their inability to filter them out of the work-place is a national security
issue. It is one reason that increasingly in the Diet we are talking de facto nationalization of the
company. Nuclear energy shouldn't be in the hands of the yakuza. They're gamblers and an
intelligent person doesn't want them to have atomic dice to play with."[Source: Jake Adelstein,
The Atlantic, December 30, 2011]
When asked what were the major differences between the yakuza and TEPCO the same Senator
paused for a minute. “The primary difference between TEPCO and the yakuza is they have
different corporate logos.” He explained, “They both are essentially criminal organizations that
place profits above the safety and welfare of the residents where they operate; they both exploit
their workers. On the other hand, the yakuza may care more about what happens where they
operate because many of them live there. For Tokyo Electric Power Company, Fukushima is just
the equivalent of a parking lot.”
In January of 2003, it was reported that TEPCO had been making pay offs to the Sumiyoshi-kai
for over twenty years via leasing plants and buying green tea from them. TEPCO also allegedly
paid an Yamaguchi-gumi associate and former member, Takeuchi Yoichi, several thousand
dollars to stop writing about safety problems at the Fukushima nuclear reactor in the 1990s. As
Isao Mori reports in the recently published book Dirty Money, after Mizutani Construction was
named a sub-contractor on TEPCO's Fukushima nuclear reactor waste disposal project, it paid
Takeuchi's front company "consulting fees" of around ¥120 million (roughly $1.5 million). The
same firm also allegedly paid over a million dollars in under the table political donations to Ichiro
Ozawa, former “kingpin” of Japan’s ruling party, the Democratic Party of Japan. (Ozawa is
currently on trial for violations of the political funds control law.) Mizutani Construction
executives have admitted in court that it was standard practice to pay off local yakuza groups and
politicians to obtain construction contracts, including those in the nuclear industry.
One National Police official responsible for the Fukushima District said Takeuchi and his
involvement with TEPCO were well known among law enforcement. "I know the name very well.
There are credible reasons to believe that he shook down TEPCO in the past and he has certainly
been the beneficiary of contracts related to Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant construction. Whether
TEPCO was victimized by him or the relationship was more symbiotic, I can’t say.”
Adelstein wrote in The Telegraph: It might surprise the Western reader that gangsters are
involved in Japan’s nuclear industry and even more that they would risk their lives in a nuclear
crisis. But the yakuza roots in Japanese society are very deep. In fact, they were some of the first
responders after the earthquake, providing food and supplies to the devastated area and patrolling
the streets to make sure no looting occurred. [Source: Jake Adelstein, The Telegraph, February 21,
2012]
A gangster Adelstein refers to as Miyamoto, Peter Hessler wrote in The New Yorker, pointed
Adelstein towards a possible connection between TEPCO and the Matsuba-kai, a criminal
organization. Adelstein published a number of articles in The Atlantic online, the London
Independent, and some Japanese publications, exposing corruption and criminal links at TEPCO.
Yakuza and Hiring People to Do the Dirty Work at Nuclear Plants
emergency response room Kei Sugaoka, a Japanese engineer who worked at the Unit 1 site
before the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, told Adelstein he saw yakuza tattoos on many of
the cleanup crew staff. When interviewed he stated, “The plant had problems galore and the
approach taken with them was piecemeal. Most of the critical work: construction work, inspection
work, and welding were entrusted to sub-contracted employees with little technical background or
knowledge of nuclear radiation. I can’t remember there ever being a disaster drill. The TEPCO
employees never got their hands dirty.” [Source: Jake Adelstein and David McNeill, The Atlantic,
July 2, 2011]
Adelstein wrote on The Atlantic Online: It is not that the industry ties to anti-social forces were
previously unknown. Engineers who worked for the firm noted the practice dated of employing
yakuza members at nuclear plants dates back to the 1990s. Police sources also recognize that
yakuza having been supplying labor to the area for decades. In the Japanese underworld, the
nuclear industry is the last refuge for those who have nowhere to go. One yakuza explains it as
folk wisdom, “Otoko wa Genpatsu, Onna was Seifuzoku”--, in other words, “When a man is has
to survive doing something, it’s the nuclear industry; for a woman, it’s the sex industry.” [Source:
Jake Adelstein, The Atlantic, December 30, 2011]
Tomohiko Suzuki, author of The Yakuza and the Nuclear Industry , told Adelstein: “Almost all
nuclear power plants that are built in Japan are built taking the risk that the workers may well be
exposed to large amounts of radiation. That they will get sick, they will die early, or they will die
on the job. And the people bringing the workers to the plants and also doing the construction are
often yakuza.” Suzuki says he’s met over 1,000 yakuza in his career as an investigative journalist
and former editor of yakuza fanzines. [Source: Jake Adelstein, The Telegraph, February 21, 2012]
Adelstein wrote in The Telegraph: Suzuki discovered evidence of TEPCO subcontractors paying
yakuza front companies to obtain lucrative construction contracts; of money destined for
construction work flying into yakuza accounts; and of politicians and media being paid to look the
other way. More shocking, perhaps, were the conditions he says he found inside the plant.
Suzuki went under cover and worked at Fukushima (See Below). “His fellow workers, found
Suzuki, were a motley crew of homeless, chronically unemployed Japanese men, former yakuza,
debtors who owed money to the yakuza, and the mentally handicapped. Suzuki claims the regular
employees at the plant were often given better radiation suits than the yakuza recruits. (TEPCO
has admitted that there was a shortage of equipment in the disaster’s early days.) The regular
employees were allowed to pass through sophisticated radiation monitors while the temporary
labourers were simply given hand rods to monitor their radiation exposure.
A former yakuza boss tells me that his group has “always” been involved in recruiting labourers
for the nuclear industry. “It’s dirty, dangerous work,” he says, “and the only people who will do it
are homeless, yakuza, or people so badly in debt that they see no other way to pay it off.” Suzuki
found people who’d been threatened into working at Fukushima, but others who’d volunteered.
Why? “Of course, if it was a matter of dying today or tomorrow they wouldn’t work there,” he
explains. “It’s because it could take 10 years or more for someone to possibly die of radiation
excess. It’s like Russian roulette. If you owe enough money to the yakuza, working at a nuclear
plant is a safer bet. Wouldn’t you rather take a chance at dying 10 years later than being stabbed to
death now?” (Suzuki’s own feeling was that the effects of low-level radiation are still unknown
and that, as a drinker and smoker, he’s probably no more likely to get cancer than he was before.)
Yakuza-Hired Workers at Fukushima

According to Suzuki three of the heroic “Fukushima Fifty” were yakuza members. Jake Adelstein
wrote in The Telegraph: For his book, The Yakuza and the Nuclear Industry , Suzuki went
undercover at Fukushima to find first-hand evidence of the long-rumoured ties between the
nuclear industry and the yakuza. First he documents how remarkably easy it was to become a
nuclear worker at Fukushima after the meltdown. After signing up with a legitimate company
providing labour, he entered the plant armed only with a wristwatch with a hidden camera.
Working there over several months, he quickly found yakuza-supplied labour, and many former
yakuza working on site themselves. [Source: Jake Adelstein, The Telegraph, February 21, 2012]
The initial work, directly after a series of hydrogen explosions in March, was extremely
dangerous. Radiation was reaching levels so high that the Japanese government raised the safety
exposure levels and even ordered scientists to stop monitoring radiation levels in some areas of the
plants. TEPCO sent out word to their contractors to gather as many people as possible and to offer
substantial wages. Yakuza recruited from all over Japan; the initial workers were paid 50,000 yen
(£407) per day, but one dispatch company offered 200,000 yen (£1,627) per day.
Even then, recruits were hard to find. Officials in Fukushima reportedly told local businesses,
“Bring us the living dead. People no one will miss.” The labour crunch was eased somewhat when
the Japanese government and TEPCO raised the “safe” radiation exposure levels at the plant from
pre-earthquake levels of 130-180cpm (radiation exposure per minute) to 100,000cpm.
The work would be further subcontracted to the point where labourers were being sent from sixth
-tier firms. A representative from one company told Suzuki of an agreement made with a TEPCO
subcontractor right after the accident: “Normally, to even enter the grounds of a nuclear power
plant a nuclear radiation personal data management pocketbook is required. We were told that
wasn’t necessary. We didn’t even have time to give the workers physical examinations before they
were sent to the plant.”
One mid-level executive in the Sumiyoshi-kai yakuza group even defends the role of his
members in the Fukushima disaster. “The accident isn’t our fault,” he said. “It’s TEPCO’s fault.
We’ve always been a necessary evil in the work process. In fact, if some of our men hadn’t stayed
to fight the meltdown, the situation would have been much worse. TEPCO employees and the
Nuclear Industry Safety Agency inspectors mostly fled; we stood our ground.” [Source: Jake
Adelstein, The Atlantic, December 30, 2011]
Adelstein wrote: “While the symbiotic relationship between TEPCO and the yakuza has existed
for decades, the relationship is officially “unacceptable.” The controversy became so great after
the accident that TEPCO pledged on July 19 to try to keep yakuza members from participating in
the reconstruction of the power plant and related projects. They have been working with the
Japanese National Police Agency (JNPA) to accomplish this but sources inside that agency are
dubious as to whether there have been any real results. TEPCO officials met with the National
Police Agency and 23 subcontractors in July and created a conference group on organized crimes
issues according to government sources and they have met several times since. TEPCO explained
at the time, “we want to people to widely know our exclusionary stance towards organized crime.”
Work Done by Yakuza-Hired Workers at Fukushima
Jake Adelstein wrote in The Telegraph: When Suzuki was working in the plant in August, he had
to wear a full-body radiation protective suit and a gas mask that covered his entire face. The hot
summer temperatures and the lack of breathability in the suits ensured that almost every day a
worker would keel over with heat exhaustion and be carried out; they would invariably return to
work the next day. Going to the bathroom was virtually impossible, so workers were simply told
to “hold it”. According to Suzuki, the temperature monitors in the plant weren’t even working, and
were ignored. Removing the mask during work was against the rules; no matter how thirsty
workers became, they could not drink water. After an hour fixing pipes and doing other work,
Suzuki says his body felt like it was enveloped in flames. Workers were not checked to see if they
were coping, they were expected to report it to their supervisors. However, while TEPCO officials
on the ground told the workers not to risk injury, it seemed that anyone complaining of the
YAKUZA, TEPCO AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY - Japan | Facts and Det... Page 10 of 17
working conditions or fatigue would be fired. Few took their allotted rest breaks. [Source: Jake
Adelstein, The Telegraph, February 21, 2012]
Those who reported feeling unwell were treated by TEPCO doctors, nearly always with what
Suzuki says was essentially cold medicine.The risk of radiation exposure was 100 per cent. The
masks, if their filters were cleaned regularly, which they were not, could only remove 60 per cent
of the radioactive particles in the air. Anonymous workers claimed that the filters themselves were
ill-fitting; if they accidentally bumped their masks, radiation could easily get in. The workers’
dosimeter badges, meanwhile, used to measure an individual’s exposure to radiation, could be
easily manipulated to give false readings. According to Suzuki, tricks like pinning a badge on
backwards, or putting it in your sock, were commonplace. Regular workers were given dosimeters
which would sound an alarm when radiation exceeded safe levels, but it made such a racket that,
says Suzuki, “people just turned them off or over and kept working.”
A recent report in Japan’s Mainichi newspaper alleged that workers from southern Japan were
brought to the plant in July on false pretences and told to get to work. Many had to enter
dangerous radioactive buildings. One man was reportedly tasked with carrying 20kg kilogram
sheets of lead from the bottom floor of a damaged reactor up to the sixth floor, where his Geiger
counters went into the danger zone. One worker said, “When I tried to quit, the people employing
me mentioned the name of a local yakuza group. I got the hint. If TEPCO didn’t know what was
going on, I believe they should have.” Former TEPCO executives, workers, police officials, as
well as investigative journalist, Katsunobu Onda, author of TEPCO: The Dark Empire, all agree:
TEPCO have always known they were working with the yakuza; they just didn’t care. However,
the articles Suzuki wrote before his book was published, and my own work, helped create enough
public outcry to force TEPCO into action. On July 19, four months after the meltdowns, they
announced that they would be cutting ties with organised crime.
“They asked the companies that have been working with them for years to send them papers
showing they’d cut organised crime ties,” Suzuki says. “They followed up by taking a survey.”
TEPCO has not answered my own questions on their anti-organised crime initiative as of this date;
they’ve previously called Suzuki’s claims “groundless”.
How Yakuza Uses Subcontractors to Hire People to Work at Fukushima
Adelstein wrote on The Atlantic Online: The Fukushima plant is located in the turf of the
Sumiyoshi-kai, which is the second largest yakuza group in Japan with roughly 12,000 members.
According to TEPCO and police sources, since the reconstruction project has picked up speed, the
number of workers has dramatically increased to several thousand. The JNPA has directed
TEPCO from as early as June, to keep the yakuza out—although many of the subcontractors of the
subcontractors are known yakuza front companies. [Source: Jake Adelstein, The Atlantic,
December 30, 2011]
Even before the meltdown, it was very common for TEPCO to use temporary staffing firms that
that would ultimately outsource work to organized crime front companies such as M-Kogyo in
Fukuoka Prefecture and Yokohama which is backed by the Kudo-kai. Organized crime groups
from Kyushu are bringing workers as well. Many of the workers are homeless people, debtors to
yakuza loan sharks, or former yakuza who have been expelled from their group.
In fact, in May, TEPCO’s Public Relations Department, when asked by this reporter, if TEPCO’s
contracts with subcontractors have what are now standard “organized crime exclusionary clauses,”
a spokesperson replied, “We don’t have them standardized into our contracts. We don’t check or
demand that our subcontractors have them in their contracts. We are considering doing so in the
future.”
TEPCO has not responded to recent requests for clarification on any changes. or whether they
have fully implemented the Japanese government issued guidelines for corporations who wish to
avoid doing business with organized crime. TEPCO also refused to name the companies they use
for outsourcing labor, background security checks, and general security at the nuclear power
plants, “because to do so would be in non-compliance with personal privacy information
protection laws.”
TEPCO will probably not be held responsible for the second or third tier firms to which the work
is further subcontracted. A senior National Police Agency officer, speaking on grounds of
anonymity said, “ TEPCO has a history of doing business with the yakuza that is far deeper than
just using their labor.” The same source noted that a TEPCO employee was arrested for insurance
fraud along with a Sumiyoshi-kai member in May of this year but there was no evidence that
TEPCO itself or any other TEPCO employees were involved in the crime. It only indicated that at
least one TEPCO employee had organized crime connections.
Police and underworld sources also allege that a Matsuba-kai related front company is handling
waste disposal at TEPCO plants and that TEPCO executives as recently as this summer were
going on golfing jaunts with Matsuba-kai members. The Matsuba-kai is one of the ten largest
yakuza groups in Japan with a strong presence in Tokyo but not a major powerhouse.
The Inagawa-kai, the third largest organized crime group in Japan, with offices across from the
Tokyo Ritz Carlton has also been involved in the reconstruction efforts. Most of the yakuza
involvement is in procuring workers to do the jobs of laying pipes and cleaning up debris while
being exposed to high levels of radiation. The yakuza bring the laborers there but do not labor
there. However, heavy constructions and other work is being done by yakuza front companies or
firms with strong yakuza ties.
Yakuza and the Media and Entertainment Industry

Jake Adelstein wrote on The Atlantic online: The yakuza's dominance in Japan’s entertainment
industry is a subject that has long been a taboo. The Japanese police have long known about the
strong ties between the yakuza and the entertainment industry. In 2007, Tokyo Metropolitan
Police files leaked onto the Internet listed Burning Productions, Japan’s most powerful talent
agency, as a Yamaguchi-gumi front company—information ignored by the Japanese media. The
files leaked did label a famous actress as a mistress of Goto. The Japanese press reported that
story, but it remained largely unwilling to delve further and lose access to celebrities. Shimada’s
corporate backers Yoshimoto Kogyo itself in its early days had strong ties to the Yamaguchi-
gumi, with Yamaguchi-gumi associates owning large shares of its stock. [Source: Jake Adelstein,
The Atlantic, August 26, 2011]
Peter Hessler wrote in The New Yorker, “When Adelstein worked for the Yomiuri, Japan’s
largest newspaper he said there was a tacit understanding that investigative reporting on the
yakuza shouldn’t go too far. Media companies, like many big Japanese corporations. [Source:
Peter Hessler, The New Yorker, January 9, 2012]
Organized Crime and Entertainment Figures
yakuza turf at 4:30am On the connection between organized crime and celebrities, the Yomiuri
Shimbun reported: “Troubles in their off-screen lives can seriously damage celebrities' careeers,
and the desire to resolve such troubles discreetly can be an opportunity for crime syndicates to
take advantage of them.” "It seems many famous showbiz types' first interaction with crime
groups comes when they ask the gangs to solve problems for them, such as collecting unpaid
appearance fees or breaking off relationships with members of the opposite sex," a senior police
official who specializes in organized crime investigations told the Yomiuri Shimbun. [Source:
Yomiuri Shimbun, August 30 2011]
Once a relationship is established, gang members repeatedly remind the celebrity of their "debt,"
making it difficult for the celebrity to cut ties. Some situations of this kind see the debt repaid with
cash. For example, a leading talent agency that was investigated in a tax-evasion case in 2001 was
found to have made regular payments of several million yen to an organized crime group the
agency had asked to handle a problem involving an artist on the agency's books.
The links between organized crime and show business go back to the years after World War II,
when gangs began arranging musical and theatrical events, according to showbiz journalist Yuji
Watanabe. Even if organized crime groups could be stopped from forming new relationships in
the entertainment world, many show business people would still be carrying an outstanding "debt"
to a crime syndicate.
Gang members have long invited celebrities to their golf tournaments and parties "to boast and
show off their influence," a senior police officer said. But in recent years, gang members have
used celebrities' name recognition to benefit their business deals. A man with professional ties to
the entertainment world said he was asked to invest in a Dubai-based business by a veteran actor
whom he had met through the head of a crime syndicate. The man declined to invest. "I thought
the syndicate was using a face from showbiz to give the project some credibility. I thought the
gangsters were planning to manage the business in the end," the man said.
TV Host Retires over Gangster Ties
Asano-gumi In August 2011 popular TV personality Shinsuke Shimada announced his

retirement from the entertainment business, effective immediately, due to his relationship with a
member of an organized crime group. His abrupt departure has forced TV stations to cancel or
adapt programs on which Shimada featured regularly as a host. Shimada had appeared regularly as
host of six different programs aired by Tokyo and Osaka broadcasters including the variety show
"Legal Advice" and the program "One-Minute Deep Stories."[Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, August
25, 30 2011]
According to an informed source, Shimada, 55, mentioned a senior member of an organized

crime group in cell phone text messages he sent to Jiro Watanabe, 56, a former boxing world
super flyweight champion. Watanabe is now in the process of making a final appeal against a
prison sentence handed to him by the Osaka High Court for attempted extortion related to
prefloatation shares.
In the messages, sent between June 2005 and June 2007, Shimada expressed his concern for the
gang member, who had been arrested by Osaka police on suspicion of obstructing a public tender
process and obstructing law enforcement authorities' attempts to execute their duties. Shimada
also wrote about his gratitude to the gang member for having placed expensive orders at a bar run
by Shimada, the source said.
"I didn't feel I was doing something wrong. To me it [the relationship with the gang member]
was 'safe,' but I was told by my agency the day before yesterday that it was 'out' and against the
rules of the [entertainment] industry," Shimada said at the press conference. The gang member's
name was not disclosed at the press conference.
According to investigators, several years ago Shimada made a comment on TV that offended
members of a right-wing organization, who began to harass him. Shimada met the senior gang
member through Jiro Watanabe, a former boxing world super flyweight champion who is
currently making a final appeal against a prison sentence for attempted extortion.The gang
member resolved Shimada's problem with the right-wing organization, and became close to the
TV celebrity.
"There are about 800 people at Yoshimoto who are junior to me. As I shouldn't set a bad
example for them, I've decided to retire to take the most severe punishment," Shimada said. "I was
facing a problem that I couldn't solve on my own more than 10 years ago, and I told this to a long-
time friend [Watanabe], who asked the person [the gang member] to help me," Shimada said.
Shimada said he had actually met the gang member only four or five times, but "I felt obligated
to him for having helped me solve the problem." Shimada said that when he was fined 300,000
yen for assaulting a female Yoshimoto Kogyo employee in 2004, the gangster provided him
support through Watanabe. Shimada said he sent a text message to Watanabe, saying, "I feel
reassured by the friendship of both of you." He said he last met the gang member 4-1/2 years ago.
As for Watanabe, a Yoshimoto official said he was also "currently related to a yakuza
organization." However, Shimada said, "He denied it to me, and I believed he wasn't [associated
with organized crime]."
Yakuza's Favorite TV Host

Jake Adelstein wrote on The Atlantic online: Before his announcement, Shimada hosted six
different programs, aired in Osaka and Tokyo. The scandal would be the equivalent of Jay Leno or
Regis Philbin confessing to being in cahoots with Mexican kingpins. His abrupt departure has
forced TV stations to cancel or adapt programs on which Shimada featured regularly as a host. But
much more than: it has brought to public attention the yakuza domination of the entertainment
industry. [Source: Jake Adelstein, The Atlantic, August 26, 2011]
Shimada’s undoing came after cell phone text messages he had sent to Jiro Watanabe, 56, a
former boxing super flyweight world champion and currently out on bail appealing a prison
sentence for extortion, spelling out some financial dealings with crime figures landed in the hands
of the press. According to police sources, the messages, which had been sent between June 2005
and June 2007, mentioned Hirofumi Hashimoto, the head of the Kyokushin Rengo, a second-tier
group with several hundred members in the Yamaguchi-gumi (a designated crime group) that has
40,000 total members and so much wealth that it has been called Japan’s largest private equity
fund. Both police and underworld sources recognize Watanabe as a consigliore to the Kyokushin
Rengo.
yakuza at Sanja matsuri At his press conference, Shimada said of his relationships with the gang
member at his late-night press conference, “To me it was ‘safe.’ But I was told by my agency the
day before yesterday that it was 'out' and against the rules of the industry." As for how he had
gotten to know the crime boss in the first place, Shimada said somewhat cryptically, "I had a
problem that I couldn't solve myself more than 10 years ago, and I told this to a long-time friend
[Watanabe], who asked the person [Hashimoto] to help me.” Shimada added that he had only met
Hashimoto four or five times. But, he said, "I felt obligated to him for having helped me solve the
problem."
His messages to Watanabe are much more explicit about those obligations. In one message,
Shimada had expressed his concern for Hashimoto, shown in police surveillance footage at left,
after Hashimoto was arrested in Osaka on suspicion of obstructing a public bidding process and
obstructing law enforcement’s attempts to execute their duties. Organized crime sources, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Shimada sent a cash gift of more than ¥40 million
(which, at current exchange rates, is about $520,000) to the boss as jinchumimai. Jinchumimai
traditionally was the practice of visiting a soldier in a war zone and giving them a gift of cash or
other goods to cheer them up. In the yakuza world, the practice refers to giving money to a
gangster facing possible prison time to offer support and help with legal expenses. In police raids
of Kyokushin Rengo offices, photos and letters showing the close relations between Hashimoto
and Shimada have surfaced several times, according to sources at the National Police Agency
which supervises all police departments in Japan.
Shimada also wrote about his gratitude to the gang member for having placed expensive orders at
a bar he runs, according to a source close to the Yamaguchi-gumi. At one point, Hashimoto and
six of his underlings visited Shimada’s bar and paid for the evening by leaving a stack of bills,
wrapped neatly in a bow, on the counter totaling ¥1 million ($13,000).
Shimada himself has a criminal history of assault. In 2004, he dragged a 40-year-old female
employee into his dressing room by her hair, and slapped her repeatedly. She had failed to show
him the proper respect, he would later explain. He was summarily prosecuted and ordered to pay a
fine. And his organized crime ties appear to be the reason for his current troubles. In fact, Japanese
police sources, speaking on grounds of anonymity, say, “We have considered Shimada Shinsuke
to be an associate member of the Yamaguchi-gumi for several years. He has invoked the name of
the Kyokushin Rengo to menace people and in business dealings, possibly without the group’s
knowledge. In our eyes, we have more respect for Hashimoto than Shimada. At least Hashimoto
doesn’t beat up women.”
Beginning of Shinsuke Shimada’s Involvement with the Yakuza

Shimada’s ties to the yakuza appear to stem from an angry exchange that he had roughly a decade
ago with members of a Kansai-based right-wing group popularly known as Jingisha who were in
the middle of a demonstration. Shimada demanded they move their vans out of the way so he
could get to work on time. One of the right wing group members told him, “You should know that
we have the mark of the emperor behind us.” To which Shimada replied, “That’s no big deal, I
have the mark of the emperor on my ass too,” comparing the imperial crest to his anus. According
to the TMPD Public Security Bureau that deals with radical left and right-wing groups, when
Shimada related this episode on a television program, Ningen Mandala, in the spring of 2005,
Taikosha, Japan’s third largest right-wing party, staged demonstrations in front of his house and at
the Yoshimoto Kogyo Offices. According to Osaka Police Department sources, Shimada turned to
the yakuza for help in dealing with the situation and that is when his relationships with them
became extremely close. Many right wing groups in Japan are often backed by or financially
supported by yakuza. The Yamaguchi-gumi Kyokushin Rengo was able to stop the
demonstrations and Shimada responded with a large cash donation to their leader, Hirofumi
Hashimoto, as a gesture of thanks.
Shinsuke Shimada and Crime Boss Goto Tadamasa
According to organized crime group members, the emails recently surfaced because Shimada
made the mistake of angering former Yamaguchi-gumi crime boss, Goto Tadamasa, who obtained
the mails and released them to the press. Goto was once the most powerful crime boss in Tokyo,
but was kicked out of the Yamaguchi-gumi in October of 2008, because he had previously called
unwanted attention to the group by hosting an elaborate birthday party attended by Japanese
celebrities. News had also broken that he had made a deal with the FBI to obtain a visa into the
United States, where he received a liver transplant at UCLA. “Shimada was looked after by Goto-
kumicho in the past,” said a former gang member. “But after he fell from power, Shimada insulted
him by referring to Goto-san without any honorific in conversations with others, as just Goto.” In
Japan, referring to an individual with no honorific is called yobisute and is considered highly rude
and insolent.
In May of 2009, Goto wrote in his best-selling autobiography Habakarinagara that Shimada was
“nothing more than a tiny chinpira”—slang for the lowest and stupidest members of the yakuza.
On March 15 this year, Goto’s publisher Takarajima released another book, an anthology by
several authors called Heisei Nihon Tabu Daizen in which Atsushi Mizoguchi, Japan's most well-
known yakuza writer devotes a chapter on Shimada’s cozy relationships with gang boss
Hashimoto. The release of the text messages to the press was Goto’s parting shot at Shimada, say
police sources and former Yamaguchi-gumi members. Goto himself is under investigation for the
2006 murder of a real estate agent and has been cooperating with the police in the investigation of
Shimada’s organized crime ties, perhaps in an attempt to get more lenient treatment in his own
investigation. One former member of his group was already convicted for the murder and is
serving jail time. Another member of the group involved in the killing who was under an
international arrest warrant, Takashi Kondo, was shot and killed in Thailand in April of this year.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department sent officers to Thailand to investigate the possibility
that Goto had his former subordinate assassinated. As the Japanese say, “The dead have no
mouths.”
Shinsuke Shimada’s Yakuza Real Estate Deals
yakuza participating in a local festival Jake Adelstein wrote on The Atlantic online: Following
the retirement from show business of Japan's most ubiquitous television comic and host,Shinsuke
Shimada, law enforcement is now unraveling the details of the star's dealings with yakuza groups,
which investigators believe include profiting from suspicious property auctions. The Tokyo
Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) began an investigation into Shimada’s business dealings
with organized crime members and began questioning the management of Yoshimoto Kogyo Co.,
the talent agency that guided Shimada’s sprawling entertainment career. [Source: Jake Adelstein,
The Atlantic, August 31, 2011]
In recent years, Shimada has bought up expensive properties in Tokyo and the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police Department is investigating whether or not organized crime played a role in
those purchases and whether Shimada has broken any laws, or used his organized crime backing
in acts of extortion or blackmail.
Investigators with the TMPD’s Organized Crime Control Division working with the Osaka Police
Department, have obtained information that Shimada worked with a retired boss of the Yamaguchi
-gumi, Tadamasa Goto, to purchase auctioned properties in Tokyo at suspiciously low rates from
roughly 2004 to 2008, reaping high profits by reselling the properties and developing them. In
addition, Shimada also is suspected of working with a subsidiary of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the
Kyokushin Rengo, to buy auctioned properties at low prices within the Osaka area and possibly
Okinawa. According to Osaka Police Department sources, Shimada was successful in getting a
rival crime group from Tokyo, the Sumiyoshikai, to move out of their offices in Osaka, and
acquired their building with the aid of Yamaguchi-gumi members.
Yoshimoto Kogyo, the holding company of the Kansai-based entertainment giant Yoshimoto
Group, which manages Shimada through its Yoshimoto Creative Agency, has tasked their
compliance committee with trying to eliminate any ties between the company and organized
crime. The recent scandal has drawn significant scrutiny from law enforcement. Further scandal
could result in serious problems for the firm in the future. Yoshimoto Kogyo was listed on the
stock exchange for several years but voluntarily and mysteriously delisted themselves in January
of 2010 with little public explanation. Police sources say the delisting was done to obscure
problematic ties with organized crime, though Yoshimoto Kogyo has never admitted this.
See Sumo Scandals
Image Sources: Wikipedia, Wiki Commons, YouTube, TEPCO
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Daily Yomiuri, Times of
London, Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), National Geographic, The New Yorker,
Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various
books and other publications.
Page Top
© 2009 Jeffrey Hays
Last updated April 2012
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YAKUZA, TEPCO AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY - Japan | Facts and Details Page 1 of 17

Facts and Details

Global Top > Japan > 02Crime...

YAKUZA, TEPCO AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

1. SHODDY WORK DONE BY YAKUZA-AFFILIATED WORKERS AT FUKUSHIMA

SHODDY WORK DONE BY YAKUZA-AFFILIATED WORKERS AT

Shoddy Work Related to the Fukushima Meltdown

In September of 2002, TEPCO admitted to covering up data concerning cracks in critical

Yakuza and Questionable Labor Practices at TEPCO

A TEPCO executive, speaking on conditions of anonymity, described the TEPCO working

Yakuza and TEPCO

Yakuza and Hiring People to Do the Dirty Work at Nuclear Plants

Yakuza-Hired Workers at Fukushima

Work Done by Yakuza-Hired Workers at Fukushima

How Yakuza Uses Subcontractors to Hire People to Work at Fukushima

Yakuza and the Media and Entertainment Industry

Organized Crime and Entertainment Figures

TV Host Retires over Gangster Ties

Asano-gumi In August 2011 popular TV personality Shinsuke Shimada announced his

According to an informed source, Shimada, 55, mentioned a senior member of an organized

Yakuza's Favorite TV Host

Beginning of Shinsuke Shimada’s Involvement with the Yakuza

Shinsuke Shimada and Crime Boss Goto Tadamasa

Shinsuke Shimada’s Yakuza Real Estate Deals

See Sumo Scandals

Image Sources: Wikipedia, Wiki Commons, YouTube, TEPCO

© 2009 Jeffrey Hays

Last updated April 2012

Questions or comments, e-mail ajhays98@yahoo.com | About This Project | Support and

You might also like