Fleeing to Dubai, the Ex-CEO of Tokematch Is Accused of Committing Two Serious Offenses

Total damages estimated at over 2.8 billion yen

After more than a year and a half on the run in Dubai, UAE, Takazumi Fukuhara (44), former CEO of “Neoreverse,” the company that operated the luxury watch sharing service “Tokematch,” was arrested on fraud charges. He is also known by the alias Takazumi Kominato.

On December 26, 2025, Fukuhara returned to Japan from the UAE and appeared before the press at Narita Airport, walking with his large frame hunched forward and his head bowed, seemingly trying to hide his face. The following morning, before 8 a.m., he appeared from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Osaki Station detention center for transfer, showing a calm expression, almost like a practicing monk.

“Tokematch” was a matching service connecting owners of luxury watches such as Rolex with customers who wanted to rent them. Owners could receive monthly deposit fees, making it one of the business models in the sharing economy.

“According to the Metropolitan Police, Fukuhara and other executives left for Dubai on January 31, 2024, the same day they announced the service closure and company dissolution. Initially, he was internationally wanted for embezzling a Rolex watch worth 650,000 yen that had been entrusted by a customer. Later investigations revealed that between August and October 2023, he defrauded a Tokyo-based man of 15 watches totaling 18 million yen, and the charges were switched to fraud.

Reports indicate that approximately 650 people had entrusted about 1,700 watches (with a total market value of over 2.8 billion yen), and Fukuhara had sold or pawned some of them without permission, cashing in about 1.8 billion yen, part of which was allegedly used for personal purposes. No actual customers borrowed the watches, suggesting the scheme may have been fraudulent from the start, according to investigators,” said a national newspaper reporter.

Following the sudden announcement of “Neoreverse’s” service closure, FRIDAY Digital interviewed people in the luxury watch purchase industry who had received anxious inquiries from owners who had lent their watches.

Possible 13 years in prison

“When I first heard about this luxury watch leasing business model, people in the industry were like, ‘Can this really work as a business?’ At first, leases were for watches worth around 2 to 3 million yen, but eventually Patek Philippe watches worth 30 million yen started appearing, and then people started saying, ‘This is getting dangerous.’

The reason is simple: if someone intended to steal, a 30-million-yen watch could end up in their hands extremely easily. The problem with ‘Tokematch’ was a huge blow to the watch industry, which relies heavily on trust to operate as a business.”

In this way, industry insiders had doubts about ‘Tokematch’ from the very beginning—and those doubts proved to be entirely justified.

Even though it seems likely that the scheme had criminal intent from the start, how exactly did Fukuhara and his associates plan to continue fleeing after escaping to Dubai? Taihei Ogawa, a former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist, explains:

“Presumably, he brought multiple watches with him when leaving Japan, thinking that he could sell them for a high price in Dubai. He may have intended to use the funds to escape further to another country. Dubai is said to have a nationality business, where you can purchase citizenship from other countries.”

With hundreds of victims and damages totaling tens of billions of yen, what kind of sentence might Fukuhara face for his fraud charges?

“At first, it was a case of embezzlement, but it has been switched to fraud. Based on previous sentencing examples for fraud, the prosecution might seek 10 years. He could receive roughly 9 years in prison. However, since Fukuhara is charged with multiple counts of fraud, if all charges are proven, he could face a prosecution request of 15 years and a prison sentence of 13 years.”

Fukuhara not only defrauded a large number of people out of significant sums of money but also dealt a major blow to the watch industry. It’s impossible to overstate the severity of these two offenses.