Photo/Illutration Makoto Kawai, right, chairman of the cooperative association of street vendors in eastern Aichi Prefecture, announces the decision to break off relations with gangsters on July 26. (Kento Matsushima)

NAGOYA--Street vendors here vowed not only to make a clean break with organized crime but also decided to demand the return of 10 million yen ($72,000) paid to the local syndicate in “mikajimeryo” protection money.

The cooperative association of outdoor vendors in eastern Aichi Prefecture told a July 26 news conference that a third-party committee of lawyers would be set up to handle the matter.

“Announcing plans to break off relations with gang organizations requires a considerable level of courage, no matter what the association did in the past,” said lawyer Yasushi Utsuki, who is well-versed in anti-yakuza campaigns, in the news conference.

Headquartered in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, the merchant association was told by the prefectural public safety commission in 2020 to stop providing mikajimeryo to the Hirai family under the prefecture’s anti-yakuza ordinance.

The Hirai family is affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation’s largest designated underworld group.

Prefectural police named and shamed the association this past February because it ignored the guidance and paid 5 million yen in protection money in 2021. 

The group’s merchants were driven out of festivals organized by municipalities nationwide, depriving them of their main source of revenue.

The cooperative association will demand that 10 million yen be paid back from the 80 million yen believed to have been provided in mikajimeryo to the Hirai family between 2020 and 2022.

It has been confirmed that the 10 million yen went to the yakuza organization.

The association notified the Hirai family of its intentions by registered mail on July 26. If the crime organization does not return the funds, the merchant group will consider filing a lawsuit, according to the association’s lawyer, Keiichiro Sekiya.

It also touched upon the third-party panel to be set up shortly to prevent a recurrence.

“We continued paying the fee as part of our traditional custom,” Makoto Kawai, 56, chairman of the association, told the news conference. “We have decided to cut ties completely to prevent such an incident from transpiring again.”

Utsuki called on the cooperative association to “make its organizational structure healthy so it can rebuild trust with local residents.”

Aichi prefectural police arrested the head of the Hirai family in September 2022 on suspicion of blackmail following reports it forced the association to pay mikajimeryo.

The crime syndicate had rejected the merchant group’s request for a reduction or exemption of protection money even though street vendors were suffering from a dramatic decline in sales stemming from the cancellation of a succession of festivities nationwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The association decided to contact the police.

The chairman of the cooperative association told investigators, “We provided money to help the Hirai family because it is our guardian.”

The prefectural police decided the association voluntarily presented mikajimeryo to the yakuza organization, prompting them to publicly disclose the association’s name in accordance with the anti-gang ordinance.

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