Japan’s yakuza gangsters launch legal fight against road operators for phasing out cash
Members of Japan’s notorious yakuza crime syndicates are planning to take six expressway operators to court over a decision to scrap all cash-only toll booths and replace them with an e-payment system as part of their efforts to keep the mobsters off the motorways.
The companies are also toughening anti-gangster rules on applying for the electronic toll collection personal cards, or Pasoca, required to zip past the cashless gates.
The government, which is aiming to roll out Pasoca-only facilities across the country by 2030, touts the initiative as a way to ease traffic bottlenecks.
But a senior gangster of an underworld group linked to the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest crime cartel, has vowed to “put up a fight until the end” if they are prevented from accessing Pasoca.
“I have nothing to feel guilty about while driving on an expressway. I haven’t made any ill-advised attempts, like faking my identity,” he said.
He was among nine racketeers arrested in central Japan last year on suspicion of hiding their identities to buy the Pasoca cards between 2015 and 2021, The Asahi newspaper reported.
Prosecutors, however, did not indict the suspects after learning that Pasoca’s terms of service did not explicitly mention that yakuza members were barred from applying for the cards. Pasoca’s agreement specifies that membership can be cancelled if the user is found to be related to organised crime syndicates.
Yet, the tollway operators annulled the gangsters’ cards last November, adding they will update the policy to fix the loophole and include identity checks at the time of application from this month.
Japan’s anti-mafia rules introduced in 2011 prohibit the yakuza from accessing a slew of services, including opening new bank accounts, signing property contracts and entering golf courses.
Businesses that knowingly deal with the yakuza risk having their names made public if they refuse to cut ties with organised crime. Repeat offenders are subject to fines of up to 500,000 yen (US$3,768), and company officials can face jail terms of up to a year.
The syndicates make money from activities ranging from prostitution to extortion and white-collar crime.
According to the National Police Agency, the number of yakuza has dropped in recent years, standing at 25,900 in 2020, down 70 per cent from 2010.
A lawyer for the nine mobsters, who are objecting to the expressway operators’ decision, said it was unjustifiable to bar his clients from using the publicly funded roads.
“It is unpardonable to shut out people with specific attributes without a rational reason because expressways are public properties built with taxpayers’ money,” he said.
