Photo/Illutration The invitation to a cherry blossom viewing party in 2015 hosted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that was used by Japan Life to lure potential investors (Provided by Mikishi Daimon)

The owner of a bankrupt company under investigation by police apparently used an invitation to the annual cherry blossom viewing party hosted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to raise his firm's credibility among potential customers.

Japan Life at one time sought out investors for magnetic medical products that the owners would then rent out to gain a return on their investments.

The company, headed by Takayoshi Yamaguchi, was twice ordered by the Consumer Affairs Agency in 2014 to improve its operations because of inadequacies in the documents used in its transactions.

Later after the orders, a 68-year-old self-employed woman living in Fukushima Prefecture remembers attending a sales meeting in which Yamaguchi said, "The invitation has come."

He showed slides of the invitation to the cherry blossom viewing event for 2015 in central Tokyo hosted by Abe.

Yamaguchi told the participants at the meeting that he dines with the prime minister.

The Fukushima woman said, "Everyone thought that he knew some powerful politicians and never doubted him."

The woman and her daughter together invested about 21 million yen ($192,000) in Japan Life magnetic products, but so far has only received about 90,000 yen in dividends.

Yamaguchi did not attend the gathering in 2015 because he was away on a business trip.

Hideki Sugiura is a lawyer who works for a group of individuals claiming to be victims of Japan Life's dodgy sales practices.

He said a client who consulted with him told him that Japan Life officials used documents that included a copy of the invitation to try to sign up new investors.

"The invitation was used to gain trust," Sugiura said. "There were quite a few people who signed up because of those documents."

The Japanese Communist Party has been active in determining who was involved in making recommendations for invitations to the cherry blossom viewing event.

Mikishi Daimon, an Upper House JCP lawmaker, has posted the documents used by Japan Life on his Twitter account.

He explained that he obtained the documents from a former Japan Life employee who said the documents were used to lure new investors at sales meetings.

Japan Life ran into further trouble with the Consumer Affairs Agency. Between 2016 and 2017, the company received four separate orders to cease operations because of various legal violations. Japan Life effectively went bankrupt in December 2017, and various investors have submitted lawsuits around Japan seeking compensation for their losses.

In April 2019, the Metropolitan Police Department searched about 30 locations, including Yamaguchi's home, for evidence of suspected violations of the Specified Commercial Transactions Law by not adequately notifying potential customers about all the facts behind the transactions.

(This article was written by Chihaya Inagaki and Noriyuki Kaneta.)