Photo/Illutration The Misonoza theater in Nagoya (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

NAGOYA--Misonoza Inc., renowned for its Kabuki and other theater productions, took around 18 months to heed a police warning to sever its ties with a sokaiya corporate racketeer.

Even more shocking is that Takeshi Ogasawara, the 68-year-old chairman of Misonoza, is a member of the Aichi Prefectural Public Safety Commission. In fact, he even headed the body for a year.

Police urged the company to protect its reputation by canceling its subscription to a magazine published by a group headed by the sokaiya, according to multiple investigative sources. Even Ogasawara acknowledged this was so.

Sokaiya buy up shares in companies so they can attend shareholders’ meetings, which they are happy to disrupt by asking embarrassing questions unless they are paid off.

Sokaiya also receive money from companies in the form of consultant fees, magazine subscriptions and donations.

They rank in Japanese society alongside yakuza gangsters.

Many financial institutions and real estate companies have taken steps to prevent sokaiya and individuals like them from opening an account or buying or selling properties. This is done by inserting an exclusion clause in contracts that requires complete disclosure.

Legislative measures in recent decades have led to a decline in the number of sokaiya.

“We repeatedly considered cutting ties with the publisher, as we were aware it is led by a sokaiya,” Ogasawara told The Asahi Shimbun. “But we needed time to sever the tie.”

Ogasawara became chairman of Misonoza in 2017 after working as deputy president at a “megabank.”

He became a member of the Aichi Prefectural Public Safety Commission in July 2019. His term ends July 20.

He was a chairman of the commission for one year until July 9.

Aichi prefectural police found that Misonoza paid money to the sokaiya in the form of the magazine subscription as well as in other ways, according to investigative sources.

While a case could be made that the magazine was worth the subscription fee, police concluded the sum amounted to supporting sokaiya activities.

The chief of the prefectural police’s organized crime bureau met with Ogasawara in fall 2020 and urged him to sever the transactional relationship with the sokaiya.

In another meeting with the bureau chief two weeks later, Ogasawara expressed his intention to continue the magazine subscription, saying the sokaiya always bought tickets for the theater.

“We benefit more (from the relationship with the sokaiya),” he said.

In March 2021, officers from the prefectural police again urged officials at Misonoza’s general affairs section to cut all ties with the sokaiya.

According to Ogasawara, Misonoza paid around 140,000 yen ($1,013) to the sokaiya in 2021.

The sum consisted of the 7,500-yen annual magazine subscription, fees for advertisements printed in the magazine and entrance fees for two lectures organized by the sokaiya.

The company finally told the sokaiya it would sever ties with him in February before doing so at the end of March, citing the company’s financial situation as a reason.

It explained that the company would fall into the red in fiscal 2021 for the third consecutive fiscal year.

Ogasawara told The Asahi Shimbun that the company felt indebted to the sokaiya because he helped it years earlier as a “pro-business sokaiya” and that the relationship simply just dragged on.

The man who heads the publishing company told The Asahi Shimbun: “I don’t own Misonoza’s shares. I retired as a sokaiya 40 years ago. We are just an ordinary publishing company.”

The president and other key Misonoza officials were questioned by the prefectural police on suspicion of paying money to another sokaiya racketeer in or around February. The case was referred to prosecutors, but it was decided in March not to mount legal proceedings.

(This article was written by Kento Matsushima and Eiji Shimura.)



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