Tag - organized-crime

 
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September 07, 2025
 

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ORGANIZED CRIME

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. walks to the ring for his fight against Jake Paul in Anaheim, California, on June 28.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 25, 2025
Boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. released from prison pending trial
U.S. authorities arrested Chavez in July for being in the United States illegally.
Signs for fast-fashion factories in Prato, Italy, on Friday. Chinese crime groups in the district thrive on the "Prato system" rife with corruption in the fast-fashion sector.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 4, 2025
Italy's fast fashion hub becomes Chinese mafia battlefield
Gangs are battling to control Prato's production of clothes hangers — a market estimated to be worth €100 million ($115 million) — and the bigger prize of transporting apparel.
The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday sentenced Tomohiro Koyama, who is believed to be the third-highest-ranking member of the "JP Dragon" crime ring, to three years and six months in prison for fraud.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 29, 2025
Senior 'JP Dragon' crime ring member jailed for 42 months
Tomohiro Koyama, 51, is believed to be the third-highest-ranking member of the ring comprising Japanese nationals.
Buildings inside the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone along the Mekong river in the Bokeo province of Laos on May 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 15, 2025
'Las Vegas in Laos': the riverside city awash with crime
With the initial aim of attracting tourists with casinos and resorts, the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone quickly became a center for money laundering and trafficking.
A video by the National Police Agency warns about fake scams.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 8, 2025
Scams involving police impersonation surge
Victims lost over ¥30 billion to such fraud cases in the first five months of 2025.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 25, 2025
Foreigners rescued from scam centers still stuck along Thai-Myanmar border
The Karen National Army, a rebel group, said it was currently housing 216 people, including citizens of Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
The International Border Checkpoint of Poipet, Banteay Meanchey province, Cambodia
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 24, 2025
Thailand targets Cambodian scam centers amid border dispute
As part of the crackdown, Thailand will ban foreign tourists from crossing over to Cambodia and curb air travel to Siem Reap for gambling purposes, Paetongtarn said.
A police car in Manila. Philippines authorities have detained the suspected leader of the "JP Dragon" crime ring based in the Southeast Asian country.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 6, 2025
Philippines detains leader of 'JP Dragon' crime ring
The criminal organization, which includes former Japanese gang members, allegedly worked with another Philippines-based fraud group led by a suspect known as "Luffy."
Authorities in northwestern Cambodia have detained around 50 foreign nationals, including more than 20 Japanese, in a raid targeting online gambling and fraud operations in Poipet.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 29, 2025
Over 20 Japanese reportedly detained in Cambodia in online scam raid
Cambodian investigative authorities conducted a search following a tip-off alleging the presence of Japanese nationals involved in fraud.
Members of Spanish Guardia Civil, supported by Europol, arrest a man (right) during an operation against drug trafficking in Mijas, near Malaga, in June 2024.
WORLD
May 28, 2025
Sun, sand and suspects: Spain tackles fugitives seeking a haven
Criminals from around the globe flock to Spain, but police stress that their chances of evading justice are slim.
Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested two men for allegedly stealing a safe containing roughly ¥100 million ($702,500) from the home of a company president last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 27, 2025
Osaka police arrest two men in ¥100 million home burglary
Investigators believe the suspects may have had advance knowledge of both the cash and the location of a spare key inside the home for the safe they stole.
Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department headquarters. Along with the National Police Agency, the MPD will carry out a major reorganization to beef up investigations into tokuryū groups.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 22, 2025
Japan police to launch team targeting tokuryū masterminds
The new police office is set to gather and assess information on tokuryū leaders around the country and identify targets for crackdowns.
Trafficking experts have raised concerns over how satellite internet technology may hamper efforts to crack down on scam centers in Asia.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 25, 2025
Portable internet helps Asia scam centers bypass blackouts
Trafficking experts have raised concerns over how satellite internet technology may hamper efforts to crack down on scam centers.
Tokyo police have arrested three individuals, including 37-year-old Takuya Higuchi, a member of a money laundering group, on suspicion of fraud.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 22, 2025
Tokyo police arrest three believed to have been laundering money for 'Luffy'
One of the three arrested is Takuya Higuchi, 37, a resident of Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, whose occupation is unknown.
Multinational victims of scam centers, who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, stand on a vessel floating towards the Thai side of border via Moei River in Phop Phra District, Tak province, Thailand, on Feb. 12.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 21, 2025
'Cancer' of billion-dollar cyberscam industry spreading globally: U.N.
Even as Southeast Asian governments have intensified a crackdown, syndicates have moved within and beyond the region.
The proposal reportedly calls for a legal framework that would obligate telecom operators to store communication records for a fixed period.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 18, 2025
LDP proposal would require telecom companies to store usage records
The proposal calls for a legal framework that would obligate telecom operators to store metadata and usage records for a fixed period.
A damages lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Fukuoka District Court, names four defendants including the group’s boss, 83-year-old Kenichi Shinoda and his second-in-command, 77-year-old Kiyoshi Takayama.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 16, 2025
Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza boss sued over fraud scheme in Fukuoka
The lawsuit names four defendants including the group’s boss, 83-year-old Kenichi Shinoda, better known as Shinobu Tsukasa.
Yamaguchi-gumi executives (center and right) leave the Hyogo Prefectural Police headquarters in Kobe after submitting a pledge to end turf battles on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 8, 2025
Yamaguchi-gumi pledges end to yakuza war
The crime syndicate has been involved in turf battles with the rival Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, formed by more than a dozen gangs that splintered from it, since 2015.
Among those arrested, 1,011 were ringleaders or individuals who gave instructions. About 90% were perpetrators, including people who received defrauded money, and around 40% became involved in the crimes through recruitment via social media.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 3, 2025
New ‘tokuryū’ crime groups outpace yakuza in arrests
The term was coined by the National Police Agency to describe a new form of criminal group that has emerged as an alternative to traditional yakuza organizations.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 2, 2025
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Syndicates are increasingly targeting middle- to upper-class individuals from across the world through something as harmless as online video games.
‘Confugenics’ and East Asia's demographic crisis
East Asia’s fertility plunge is driven not just by financial costs but by perfectionist cultural expectations that burden parents with intense educational and social demands.
Japan prince comes of age as succession crisis looms
Prince Hisahito concludes his his elaborate "kakan no gi" coming-of-age ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday.
Bangladesh is a South Asian time bomb
Many Bangladeshis hoped that the overthrow of long-time leader Sheikh Hasina last year would revitalize the country’s democracy after an authoritarian lurch under the “iron lady.” Instead it has led to proliferating human-rights abuses, intensifying repression and widespread Islamist violence.
Japan to experience blood moon lunar eclipse on Monday
A blood moon is seen during a partial eclipse in the sky over Lake George near Canberra on March 14.
Japan's $550 billion investment pledge outlined in MOU
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, sign trade agreements on Thursday in Washington.
London’s calling and sumo’s top division — along with Hello Kitty — are ready to answer
Yokozuna Hoshoryu and Hello Kitty, an ambassador for sumo's upcoming tour to London, at Tokyo's Kokugikan on Tuesday
Resonac creates 27-member consortium to pursue advanced chip developments
Representatives from member companies of JOINT3, a consortium working together on semiconductor-related developments announced by Resonac, pose for a photo in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Haru Nemuri’s radical new album refuses easy listening
Musician Haruna Kimishima, better known as Haru Nemuri, confronts Japan’s politics, nationalism and censorship on her recent output.
Overseas sluggers step up to bat in small-town Hokkaido
The Betsukai Pilot Spirits welcomed new players (left to right) Yuta Yamanaka, Roman Guthrie, Scott Bellina and Leo Jiminian this year, pictured here with Yassir Lachkar of the Ishikari Red Phoenix.
Xi — joined by Kim and Putin — delivers stark warning at military parade
Chinese leader Xi Jinping walks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing on Wednesday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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