TOKYO –
A 26-year-old yakuza member suspected of sending young women he met in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district to Cambodia to work as telephone scammers has been arrested for the eighth time, this time on suspicion of conspiring with two women to defraud a man in his 30s of 9.5 million yen.
The suspect, Teruto Yamao, is a member of a group affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai, one of Japan’s designated organized crime syndicates.
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Yamao allegedly conspired with a 20-year-old woman from Nagoya and a 22-year-old woman from Kushiro, Hokkaido, both of whom were also rearrested, to deceive the victim in January 2026.
The suspects allegedly impersonated police officers and officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications during telephone calls, falsely telling the man that he was under suspicion of money laundering and that authorities needed to examine the money in his bank account.
The victim was allegedly persuaded to hand over a total of 9.5 million yen.
Investigators said the two women had met Yamao while frequenting an area known as “Toyoko” near the Shinjuku Toho Building in Kabukicho, a gathering place for young people, including teenagers and others who spend time on the streets.
The women were subsequently sent to Cambodia, where they are believed to have worked as telephone operators, known in Japan as “kakeko,” making fraudulent calls to victims.
Yamao had previously been arrested on suspicion of offenses including kidnapping people he had met through connections in the Toyoko area for the purpose of forcing them to work as telephone scammers overseas.
The latest case marks his eighth arrest as police continue investigating his suspected involvement in recruiting young people in Japan for overseas fraud operations.
Source: TBS
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