[The Fabricated Kyoto Incident – Part 2] The Organized Crime Department Deployed to Investigate Kan-nama / Police Being the Source of Fake News
2025.05.15 11:55 Makoto Watanabe, Nanami Nakagawa
Kyoto District Public Prosecutors Office in Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto City
The prosecution has sought a 10-year prison sentence for the activities of the ready-mix concrete industry labor union “Kan-nama” in Kyoto. Among the crackdowns in the Kinki region of Osaka Prefecture, Shiga Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture, and Wakayama Prefecture, the sentence sought in Kyoto is the heaviest. The very act of criminalizing union activity, which is protected by the Constitution, is problematic, but the 10-year sentence is simply outrageous.
However, it is not just the severity of the sentence that is outrageous.
The police deployed their Organized Crime Department, which is responsible for investigating organized crime. The crackdown on Kan-nama has been repeated intermittently since the 1980s, but the police department in charge was the Security Bureau (Public Safety Police), which investigates “thought criminals.” Nonetheless, in the latest crackdown that began in 2018, the Kyoto Prefectural Police and Shiga Prefectural Police deployed their Organized Crime Department.
The fact that the Organized Crime Department is taking charge of the investigation means that the police have labeled Kan-nama as an “anti-social force” like a criminal organization.
The mainstream media does not question the label that the police have applied. False information that Kan-nama is an “anti-social force” circulated on social media. The expansion of investigative power that led to a 10-year prison sentence is supported by public opinion that is being manipulated by information from the police.
The media simply broadcasts what the police claim
When current chairman Yuji Yukawa and others were arrested by the Kyoto Prefectural Police in 2019, the mainstream media reported the police’s claims at face value.
“Yukawa and other members of Kan-nama are suspected of threatening the company president and forcing him to hire a male branch employee as a full-time employee.” (Asahi Shimbun, June 20, 2019)
“Yukawa and other members of Kan-nama picked a fight with a male director (69) of the “Kyoto Wide Area Ready Mixed Concrete Cooperative” and demanded a settlement money. They continued to harass him and are suspected of extorting 150 million yen from the cooperative at a hotel in Minami Ward around August 2014.” (Yomiuri Shimbun, September 5, 2019)
“When the ready-mix concrete transport company was dissolved,Yukawa and other members of Kan-nama allegedly claimed the company needed to pay the retirement benefits of seven union members, and extorted 150 million yen from them in August 2014.” (September 5, 2019, Sankei Shimbun)
It is natural to demand “employment as a permanent employee” and “payment of retirement benefits.” They are not demanding “protection money” like gangsters. Anyone would question whether this is really extortion.
However, all the media outlets have ignored it. There is no mention of the explanation from Kan-nama. They must have only interviewed the police. If they had interviewed Kan-nama, they would have discovered that the person the police are claiming as “being threatened and picked a fight with” was Hiroshi Kugai, and that he made false statements in exchange for being framed as a criminal by the Kyoto Prefectural Police and the Kyoto District Public Prosecutors Office. This is exactly as reported in “The Fabricated Kyoto Incident – Part 1.”
How come the media takes such an approach?
In addition to the fact that mainstream media reporters are usually tamed by the police and prosecutors, the establishment of the Organized Crime Department, which is in charge of investigating organized crime, is a significant factor. Reporters are being drawn by the label of “anti-social forces” that the police have attached to Kan-nama.
With no media outlet to cover the investigative powers, social media was flooded with fake news claiming that Kan-nama was the same as a gang.
Police turn a blind eye to gang members
Nonetheless, two questions arise here.
One is that some of the managers who reported to the police that they had been “threatened” by Kan-nama were gang members and ex-gang members.
For example, in the Kyoto incident, management had members of gangs negotiate with Kan-nama to end the strike. This was also revealed in the trial.
Since the Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members came into effect in 1991, the police have been thoroughly removing gangs from society. In an effort to eradicate gangs, they frequently carry out mandatory investigations, even for minor offenses.
Given this, why does the Kyoto Prefectural Police’s Organized Crime Department, which is responsible for investigating organized crime, turn a blind eye to the fact that management has sent members of the gang to negotiate with Kan-nama?
Tansa sent a letter of inquiry to Yoshinobu Kusunoki, Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, asking “why were they not questioned?”, but the National Police Agency’s Public Relations Office simply replied, “As this is a matter relating to an individual case, we will refrain from answering.”
Another question is that prior to the recent crackdown on Kan-nama, this task had been carried out by the Security Bureau (Public Safety Police), which was responsible for investigating “thought criminals.”
The police is an extremely hierarchical organization. Each prefectural police force and department has a strong sense of territory. Many unsolved cases have lacked horizontal cooperation.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau and the Security Bureau in particular are hard to believe that they are the same police force.
For example, when Takaji Kunimatsu, Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, was shot, the Public Safety Division of the Metropolitan Police Department suspected the culprit to be a follower of Aum Shinrikyo, Japanese new religious movement, while the First Investigative Division of the Criminal Investigative Bureau continued its investigation, suspecting the culprit to be someone who had been serving time in prison for a different crime after the shooting.
As a result, the person arrested by the Public Safety Division was not indicted due to insufficient evidence, and the person pursued by the First Investigative Division had evidence that he had shot Commissioner General Kunimatsu, but the statute of limitations expired without him being arrested.
Moreover, when the statute of limitations expired, Goro Aoki, head of the Public Safety Division of the Metropolitan Police Department, held a press conference and declared that “It was a terrorist attack carried out in an organized manner by a group of Aum Shinrikyo members under the will of their leader Chizuo Matsumoto.” It is inconceivable for the police, particularly the head of a division, to assert that “that person was the culprit after all” in a country governed by law, even if the prosecutor’s decision has not been made. The police take great pride in their department.
However, the Organized Crime Department of the Criminal Investigative Bureau was used for the first time in the crackdown on Kan-nama. The Security Bureau is conducting an investigation into the incident of Kan-nama, which falls within the purview of the Osaka Prefectural Police and the Wakayama Prefectural Police. This means that the police are working together across departments and prefectural police.
The ruling will be made at the Kyoto District Court on February 26
Why are police forces, which usually lack unity, cooperating in the investigation of Kan-nama?
The only explanation is that the National Police Agency is giving instructions.
“This kind of thing is something that the prefectural police on the scene can never reach an agreement on,” said Yasuhisa Nagashima, a Kan-nama lawyer who handed us the case study. “Take a look,” he urged, drawing three lines with a pink highlighter across a list of arrest dates and crime names for each case.
1) Kyoto Prefectural Police arrested Yukawa and then-Chairman Take Kenichi for extortion on July 17, 2019.
2) Shiga Prefectural Police arrested four members of Kan-nama for intimidation and obstruction of business on July 17, 2019.
3) Shiga Prefectural Police arrested Yukawa for intimidation and obstruction of business on August 20, 2019.
According to Attorney Nagashima, Yukawa has not been arrested in case 2, but his name has already been mentioned as an accomplice. However, if the Shiga Prefectural Police were to arrest him, it would clash with the arrest by the Kyoto Prefectural Police in case 1. Therefore, the arrest of Yukawa by the Shiga Prefectural Police for intimidation of business was postponed to case 3. The purpose is to extend Yukawa’s detention period as long as possible.
They brought in the Organized Crime Department and labeled him as an “anti-social force.” They detained Yukawa for as long as possible and weakened Kan-nama by taking out its leader. This is the will of the entire police organization.
The sentencing hearing at the Kyoto District Court will be held on February 26.
(Originally published in Japanese on February 25, 2025. Translation by Mana Shibata.)
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