Matsuzawa’s arrest reveals the dark connections first noted 26 years ago

A man once called a master con artist and a gentleman of the underworld

On the morning of November 11, the man being transferred to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s Chūō Station kept his head bowed long before reaching the entrance. From the front, only the top of his graying head was visible. As he passed by, for just a moment one could see his tightly shut eyes from the side. This was the current appearance of the man who, during the bubble era, had been known as a gentleman of the underworld, and who afterward continued to lurk in the shadows of multiple economic crimes.

On November 13, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Anti-Organized Crime Division announced the arrests of Matsuzawa Yasuo (74, occupation unknown), Yoichi Sawada (76), and Yukari Saito (60) on suspicion of forging and using forged securities, as well as forging and using private documents with official seals. They are accused of falsifying stock certificates and a stock transfer agreement related to the management company Hanamasa.

According to police, the suspects conspired to forge a stock transfer agreement and stock certificates claiming that they had received all shares of Hanamasa from its former representative (who died in August 2022). Matsuzawa submitted these forged documents to the Tokyo District Court in March 2023 and January 2024 as evidence in a civil lawsuit over shareholder rights. The police have not disclosed whether the suspects deny or admit the allegations.

“According to the official registry, Matsuzawa became the representative director of Hanamasa in January 2023. However, the shareholders’ meeting that supposedly appointed him was fictitious. Suspicious of this, the former representative of Hanamasa consulted police, saying ‘The company may be getting taken over.’

Hanamasa had stopped issuing stock certificates in 2010, but the stock certificates Matsuzawa submitted as evidence were dated 2012. The court determined they were forged, and the first and second trial rulings recognized the former representative as the legitimate shareholder. Matsuzawa had appealed these decisions.

In December 2022, Hanamasa sold approximately 40,000 square meters of land it owned in Higashimatsuyama, Saitama Prefecture, to a logistics company for 1 billion yen. On the same day, 800 million yen was transferred from Hanamasa to two companies linked to Matsuzawa. Police believe Matsuzawa and others posed as shareholders and representatives in an attempt to take control of the company and obtain the proceeds from the land sale,” said a social-affairs reporter.

Hanamasa previously operated the supermarket chain “Meat Hanamasa,” but due to declining performance, it sold its supermarket division in 2008 and is no longer capital-related to that business.

Matsuzawa was once called a gentleman of the underworld during Japan’s bubble era. He played a central role as the keeper of the safe for president Hiroyasu Watanabe in the Tokyo Sagawa Express scandal—postwar Japan’s largest breach-of-trust case—which shook the political and business worlds. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for a 24.5-billion-yen special breach of trust offense.

Afterward, he was also arrested and indicted for involvement in a 2012 securities law violation related to the TOB (takeover bid) of major Chinese restaurant company Totenko, as well as for a fraudulent capital increase case involving a venture company.

“FRIDAY” witnessed part of Matsuzawa’s unexpected network 26 years ago, when he still had extensive connections within political and business circles. Below is an excerpt from that report.

A meeting with an Oumu’s fiercest militant

“A café inside a hotel near Nagoya Station. Several tough-looking men were deep in conversation. Around the hotel, there were suspicious men—appearing to be construction workers—keeping close watch on their movements.

Judging from their appearance, the men monitoring them were clearly Public Security officials. The one they were watching was a middle-aged man with a shaved head and sunglasses.

His name was X. Formerly a yakuza boss affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, he later joined Aum Shinrikyo and was considered one of Aum’s most militant members. After the series of Aum incidents, he left the cult. He now lives communally with former Aum members and leads a group called ‘Seibyakkō Yoga Esoteric Gathering.’” (from the April 16, 1999 issue)

The person speaking at length with Mr. X was Matsuzawa, who had just been released from prison the previous year. Why was Mr. X meeting with Matsuzawa?

According to testimony from a former Aum member interviewed at the time, Aum was attempting to rebuild itself during this period by purchasing numerous real estate properties. But because the group had no knowledgeable real-estate experts, they often fell prey to shady brokers and lost large sums of money. Thus, through former follower X, they sought advice from Matsuzawa.

When “FRIDAY” directly questioned Mr. X about this, he flatly denied everything, saying:

“I’ve never heard the name Matsuzawa, and I’ve never met him.”

Journalists also attempted to contact Matsuzawa, but were unable to reach him.

That even Aum—once a major presence in Japan’s underworld—would turn to Matsuzawa for help shows just how influential he was behind the scenes. Now 74 years old, it has become clear that he remained active to this day. Will this arrest finally mark the end of his long and shadowy career?