Yamada Risa’s Prison Confession About Journey from Kabukicho Entertainment Club in Shinjuku to the Philippines

The sense of guilt was “weak”.

In a meeting room about three tatami mats in size, her expression, which was mocked online as evil during her arrest, appeared somewhat calmer than at that time. The prison had an unusual heat, and unpleasant sweat was breaking out. While looking at my face, the inmate said this:

“It’s better than Bicutan (detention center).”

The speaker, Yamada Risa (27), was the top fraudster in the “Luffy case,” a special fraud group that swindled over 6 billion yen in total. She started at the bottom of the organization and rose in status through her performance. She also had deep interactions with executives like Watanabe Yuki, Seiya (Toshiya) Fujita, and Kojima Tomonobu.

The Luffy gang’s members, who were collected by executives as “dark part-timers,” sent instructions from the Philippines and became a more vicious organization conducting robberies. In January 2023, they caused a robbery resulting in the death of a woman in her 90s in Komae City, Tokyo, which shocked Japan.

At this time, Yamada was in the Bicutan detention center in the Philippines, where she closely observed Watanabe and other executives like Imamura Kiyoto, who were panicking with comments like, “We messed up, this is bad,” and “I didn’t think someone would die, but wait a minute!”

After being detained locally in January 2023, Yamada was forcibly deported to Japan in March and arrested on theft charges. She was later indicted on charges of theft and robbery preparation. In a trial held in February this year, she testified in detail about the situation at that time, including the executives’ escape plans. A newspaper reporter who covers the case and is a friend of mine expressed their astonishment.

“Her confession about the details of the case is compelling. What could be the foundation of her energy?”

I became strongly interested not only in Yamada as a witness to the case but also in her personality. Subsequently, I began exchanging letters with Yamada while she was detained at Tokyo Detention Center. In less than three months, the number of letters exceeded 100. I was also entrusted with four novels that depicted the group’s criminal methods in an autobiographical manner.

The scene described at the beginning is from the time we exchanged words at a certain prison in Hokkaido after this process. In front of me, she repeatedly expressed her sense of regret.

“I swindled 600 million yen as a fraudster in the Philippines over three and a half years. As far as I know, there were over 200 fraudsters in the Philippines, but no one earned as much as I did. I was somewhat of a celebrity in the circle as the ‘legendary fraudster.’ The sense of guilt about engaging in crime was weak. Most of the members felt that way. Even if the executives who were caught are not reflecting now, I believe a day will come when they will. I now feel that if I can contribute to deterring crime even a little by speaking out, it would be worthwhile. I will tell you everything I know.”

To understand how Yamada became the legendary fraudster of the Luffy gang, it is necessary to look back on her life.

 

“I was born and raised in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture. After losing my father at the age of two, I lived with my mother, who was weak and needed support. Honestly, our life was extremely impoverished. From sixth grade in elementary school, I became truant due to bullying. The reason was our poverty and the dilapidated state of our home. I was constantly told that we were poor. When I entered junior high school, the bullying became more severe, and I was subjected to violence that damaged the ligaments in my knee, requiring bolts to be inserted. It took a year of rehabilitation, and I had no choice but to give up on my childhood dream of becoming a swimmer. I was a child with extremely low self-esteem.”

She advanced to a part-time high school in Kawagoe. From this time, Yamada’s life began to deteriorate.

“After advancing to part-time high school and being freed from bullying due to the change in environment, I was able to attend school every day. However, beneath my actions, there was a constant obsession with having to make money. I realized that even if I studied hard at the part-time high school, there would be no decent employment opportunities. Desperate to escape extreme poverty, I began engaging in compensated dating during high school and earned 120,000 to 130,000 yen on weekends. At 18, I started working at host clubs and strip bars in Kawagoe. I had no resistance to working in the sex industry or earning through prostitution. I understood that this was the only way for someone like me to make money. Still, it was frustrating that I could only manage to be number two or three, never quite reaching the top spot.”

Prostitution and crime are “the same”.

A year after graduating from high school, Yamada decided to leave the familiar Kawagoe. She chose Kabukicho in Shinjuku as her new place.

“After graduation, I worked for a year at a box health (a type of sex shop with private rooms) in Shinjuku. I became a popular worker and gained some confidence. After that, I worked at a traveling delivery health service, saving money and then spending a month playing. I earned about 1.5 million yen a month, which I poured into host clubs and beauty treatments. At host clubs, I didn’t make reservations; I only played with the initial fee each time. I visited over 300 stores and had sex with the hosts who served me. Looking back now, it’s like, how much did I do, right? (laughs).

For my outfits, I wore dresses costing 30,000 to 40,000 yen with pin heels, even if they were just casual wear. I was particular about red lipstick and foreign-style makeup, and I got more opportunities to be called ‘cute’ both on social media and in real life. By this time, I felt that I had become beautiful enough to show up to those who had bullied me.”

Spending about three years filled with pleasure, she also harbored concerns that such a lifestyle could not last forever. In September 2019, she came across a “dark part-time job” posting on Twitter (now X) by chance.

“I wasn’t going to stay young forever. I started thinking, ‘I can’t keep going like this for the rest of my life.’ At the time, I thought there wasn’t much difference between living off prostitution and living off crime, so I had no resistance to dark part-time jobs. I believed that work should be based on merit, and I felt that a fixed salary job wasn’t for me. Moreover, if I was going to change jobs, I needed to earn more than 2 million yen a month to make it worthwhile. To become wealthy, the remaining option for me was to become a fraudster. I thought it was an easy way to earn money through crime rather than a normal job.”

She got in touch with the recruiter and decided to go to the Philippines. The terms seemed exceptional, and she understood why there was a surge in applicants for dark part-time jobs.

“The A box (a general term for a special fraud group) I belonged to was based at the West Makati Hotel in Manila at that time. Hotel and transportation costs were fully covered. The condition was a 1 million yen bonus for every 10 million yen swindled. Additionally, everyone received a bonus based on the total sales of the group. The boss of the A box I was in was Watanabe. Watanabe instilled a sense of ‘let’s all make money’ in the group. The only thing needed for the job was a mobile phone. I had two phones for making calls, three for recruitment, and two for business communication. Additionally, my work tools included a multi-type charger, a stationary Wi-Fi, a desktop PC, and a tablet. To avoid tracking, I changed SIM cards about five to eight times a month.”

Within the group, members operated under pseudonyms by default. The name Yamada chose was “Igarashi.” This is also the name of the protagonist in Yamada’s true-crime novel Ura Shakai no Onna (Woman of the Underworld), written while she was in detention.

“Watanabe was ‘Hao.’ Fujita Seiya was ‘Oono.’ Kojima Tomonobu was ‘Eight,’ and sometimes ‘Wan.’ The executives had a preference for katakana for some reason.

In the group, there was a view that people who don’t perform have no value. I made over 300 calls a day. As a result, I became the top performer in the group and was praised by the executives with comments like ‘We respect you.’ Since I had never experienced such respect in my life, I was honestly pleased.

I was also determined to become number one if I was going to do it. Particularly, Watanabe frequently praised and took a liking to me. With such memories, I liked the alter ego ‘Igarashi,’ which was the first time in my life that I felt positively acknowledged.”

Just two months after Yamada’s arrival, in November 2019, 36 fraudsters based at the West Makati Hotel were arrested by Philippine authorities. Yamada escaped the crackdown, but this event began to disrupt the group’s order.

“After that raid, the group’s structure changed significantly. From March to October 2020, the base of the A box moved to Boracay Island. During this period, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sales were difficult to achieve, and some fraudsters in the group began to struggle with basic needs. There were also fraudsters who started referring to the executives disdainfully as ‘those guys,’ and dissatisfaction with the system grew.”

While Yamada felt gratitude towards the executives who first acknowledged her, she observed the growing cracks within the group with mixed feelings.

 

(Partial titles omitted)

Kurita Shimei (Non-Fiction Writer)
Born in 1987. Conducts extensive reporting on sports, economics, incidents, and international affairs. His works include Surviving the COVID Era: The Taxi Industry Survival and Aim for Koshien! The Unrelenting Challenge of Elite School Baseball Teams, among many other titles.

From the July 19, 2024 issue of FRIDAY