Takahiro Tashima was running a successful equipment installation company in Oita when he became a casualty in the police-yakuza war.

However, he said he was victimized by the so-called good guys in the battle.

Tashima, 54, said a bogus “guilt by association” case four years ago has ruined his livelihood and shut all doors for a way back to normalcy.

It all started in March 2021, when Fukuoka prefectural police questioned Tashima about an acquaintance.

“You knew he was a yakuza gangster, didn’t you?” an officer asked.

The acquaintance had been arrested in February on suspicion of violating the entertainment business law for running a hostess club under another person’s name.

The man was introduced to Tashima as a bar owner at a cross-industry networking event around 2019.

Tashima saw the man at the monthly event and went to his bar. The acquaintance’s establishment carried a signboard saying gangsters were banned.

“I never thought he was a gangster himself,” Tashima recalled.

He told police that he learned the man was a gangster only after his arrest.

But police didn’t buy his story and continued to question him.

Tashima said he was so desperate to go home that he signed a “confession” admitting to having known the man was a gangster.

Everything then changed.

DE FACTO ‘DEATH SENTENCE’

Based on Fukuoka Prefecture’s organized crime exclusion ordinance, police sent a report to local governments that said Tashima’s company was a “business operator associated with a crime syndicate.”

When a local government receives such a report, it generally issues a notice that publishes the name of the business operator and excludes it from public works projects.

The day after police sent the report to the local governments, Tashima got a phone call from a bank.

“We froze your account,” a bank official said.

His clients refused deliveries of materials, and his company with 70 employees went bankrupt less than one month later.

Although Tashima and the gang member are no longer in contact, the former corporate president still suffers from the consequences of the publication of the company’s name.

The bank still refuses to offer a consultation about refinancing his personal loan.

With no access to his account, Tashima cannot set up a new company.

He now works as a day laborer hired by a construction company run by an acquaintance.

“The publication of the company’s name was a de facto ‘death sentence,’” Tashima lamented. “I don’t know when things will get back to the way they were before, and I have no future prospects.”

WHY ACCOUNTS REMAIN FROZEN

Tashima’s case reflects the speed in which yakuza gangs have been excluded from society.

In 2007, the central government released guidelines requiring private companies to sever ties with anti-social forces, including organized crime syndicates.

In 2011, organized crime exclusion ordinances took effect in all 47 prefectures.

According to the National Police Agency, all prefectural governments introduced a provision by the end of 2016 to exclude companies and individuals associated with anti-social forces from public works projects after their names are reported to local governments by police.

The provision was adopted by 1,734 cities, wards, towns and villages as of the end of 2024.

Between 2020 and 2024, about 50 companies and individuals were excluded from public works projects or received other disciplinary measures under the provision.

In some cases, banking institutions froze accounts after local governments published measures that could be taken.

However, some companies’ accounts remained frozen even after they severed ties with gangs or other anti-social organizations, according to lawyer Kazuhiro Taniguchi, a member of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ Committee on Anti-Racketeering.

A representative of a megabank said financial institutions have been put in a bind.

Banks have no way to verify if the account holder has cut ties with yakuza gangs, the representative said. And if banks comply with requests from companies without careful consideration, the accounts could be used for criminal activities.

“It is difficult to reopen accounts or take other measures unless police and other public authorities give us a seal of approval,” the representative added.

Since about five years ago, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ Committee on Anti-Racketeering has been conducting fact-finding surveys on companies with frozen accounts. It also set up a consultation counter in February this year.

“They won’t be motivated to cut ties with organized crime syndicates or other anti-social groups if their transactions remain excluded,” Taniguchi said. “It is necessary to accumulate cases in which their transactions are reactivated.”