Key Figure in the Amari Scandal Torches His Own Site Office—The Strange Story Behind a Road Stalled for 56 Years
Trouble at the construction company at the center of the Amari Scandal
The photograph shows a banner hung on temporary fencing and other structures at a construction site. It contains statements criticizing specific individuals and the authorities’ handling of the matter, including: “I will carry out an act of self-immolation in protest,” “People who are trying to make money from taxpayers’ money,” and “The worst person of all, who used me and took money from me to satisfy his own grudge: Takeshi Isshiki.”
In Shiroi City, Chiba Prefecture, a fire believed to have been deliberately set broke out on the morning of June 23 at the office of a construction company located on the planned route of the “Chiba New Town North Circular Route,” which has remained incomplete for 56 years. Hiroyoshi Teratoko, the representative of Satsuma Kogyo (now Mutsu Construction), which had its offices there and had refused to relocate for many years, is believed to have set fire to his own office and attempted suicide by burning himself. The Satsuma Kogyo office where the fire occurred was itself the very site that had once been at the center of opaque compensation negotiations in the “Amari scandal,” which shook the political world.
The North Circular Route is an urban planning road that crosses the Chiba New Town area and connects Inzai City and Shiroi City. However, Satsuma Kogyo had offices and a materials yard adjacent to the planned road site, and construction was halted because the company’s buildings interfered with efforts to remove industrial waste buried underground and proceed with road construction. As a result, a roughly 450-meter section has remained conspicuously incomplete, with the road simply stopping there.
Keiko Shibata, a Shiroi City councilor, said:
“The North Circular Route is supposed to become an important arterial road connecting the city center with the New Town area in a short amount of time. Once it opens, it should help alleviate the chronic traffic congestion in the surrounding area and improve disaster preparedness and public safety. It is also a location I have personally raised in general questions at the city council in the past, calling for its early completion.”
For many years, the biggest obstacle preventing this section from opening was precisely the dispute over Satsuma Kogyo’s refusal to relocate.
Immediately before the fire broke out, Teratoko posted content on his X (formerly Twitter) account hinting at suicide. The post read, “I will take my own life today. The people who drove me to this point are.” and named individuals including officials in charge at the Chiba Prefectural Enterprise Bureau, an attorney representing the Urban Renaissance Agency (UR), and the landowner. Among them, the person singled out as the worst person of all—and also named on the banner—was Takeshi Isshiki, who had become the whistleblower in the “Amari scandal.”
The “Amari scandal” refers to allegations that Akira Amari (76), then Minister in Charge of Economic Revitalization, and his secretaries acted as intermediaries in exchange for receiving large sums of cash from Satsuma Kogyo during relocation negotiations between UR and Satsuma Kogyo. UR had been commissioned by Chiba Prefecture to handle the practical negotiations over compensation for relocation necessitated by the road construction. Isshiki served as Satsuma Kogyo’s point of contact in his capacity as a general affairs representative and acted as a liaison with Amari’s side. However, the negotiations with UR over additional compensation failed to make any progress, no matter how much time passed. Frustrated by Amari’s secretaries, who continued demanding money despite the lack of progress, Isshiki decided to blow the whistle, bringing audio recordings and other evidence supporting the alleged cash payments to Shukan Bunshun.
This site spoke directly with Isshiki.
“I was really angry when I saw the photograph of the banner. Why am I being made out to be the bad guy? It’s heartbreaking, and I don’t understand why he resents me. We had been communicating all along, and when he asked me to help him, I was the one who introduced him to Mr. Amari. He was also the one who asked me to resolve the land dispute. I was the one who had been reaching out and extending a helping hand to him all along.”
Isshiki explained that, at Teratoko’s request, he had been working to resolve the dispute.
The two men were also supposed to meet that day
Originally, the disputed land used by Satsuma Kogyo was leased from the landowner. At first, the company reached an agreement with UR to receive approximately ¥220 million in compensation for rebuilding its office, and had already received the money. However, because UR’s construction work made it necessary to relocate the office, materials yard, and other facilities in their entirety to another location, discussions over additional compensation began in 2015.
However, in 2018, while the negotiations were underway, the landowner entered into a sales reservation agreement with a third party, and that third party registered a provisional registration (a claim for the transfer of ownership) on the land leased by Satsuma Kogyo. UR then argued that, because of this provisional registration, we cannot conclude an additional compensation agreement with Mr. Teratoko, the lessee, until the landowner and the third party holding the provisional registration reach an agreement. As a result, UR brought the negotiations over additional compensation, which had been progressing until then, to a complete halt.
Regarding the complicated interests surrounding this leased land, Isshiki said:
“On June 13, I also met with Mr. Teratoko at a family restaurant in Kanagawa Prefecture and made a concrete proposal toward resolving the matter. UR is refusing to negotiate additional compensation on the condition that the issue with the third party who holds the provisional registration must first be resolved. But the provisional registration was made in 2018, which was after 2015, when the compensation negotiations began. UR’s argument of using a subsequently registered provisional interest as an excuse doesn’t make sense. In order to use this chronological contradiction as grounds for getting the negotiations restarted, the two of us had arranged to go directly to the Chiba governor’s secretariat on the day of the fire (the 23rd) and make a direct appeal.”
Meanwhile, a person close to Teratoko has a different view:
“He lost in the appellate trial over the eviction lawsuit brought by the landowner in late May. He had been in a situation where he hadn’t paid the roughly ¥180,000 monthly rent for more than a year, so it was essentially a lawsuit he was destined to lose from the start. It was only a matter of time before the forced eviction was carried out.”
It seems clear that Teratoko had reached a complete dead end.
Regarding Teratoko’s current condition after setting fire to his own office, Isshiki said, “I hear that he is in a sterile room and is not accepting visitors.”
More than half a century has passed since the North Circular Route was formally designated as an urban planning project, yet part of the route remains unopened and abandoned. Even after this incident, this site—where the various interests of those involved have become deeply intertwined—has yet to find a way forward toward its early completion.
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