[Full Text Published] “The Underworld Negotiator” Confesses Using His Real Name and Showing His Face! Akio Kudo: “My Pride in Having Lived in the Gray Zone”

From Event Planning to the Underworld

The Legendary Negotiator of the Gray Zone—

This is perhaps the most fitting description of the life of Akio Kudo, who, after graduating from one of Tokyo’s “Big Six” universities, worked at a major advertising agency and a foreign consulting firm before transforming into the “Emperor of the Loan Sharks.”

Born in Kumamoto Prefecture, Kudo attended one of Kyushu’s top preparatory schools before enrolling at Meiji University. It was the late 1990s, when the “event club boom” was in full swing on college campuses, and Kudo made a fortune as an event organizer.In the early 2000s, based in Kabukichō, he became the mastermind behind the “loan sharking boom.”He achieved great success—earning an annual income of about 10 million yen during his time as an advertising executive and nearly 30 million yen by the time he left his job at a foreign consulting firm—but in his late 20s, he casually abandoned his elite lifestyle and has since survived in the gray area between the legitimate and underworld spheres, guided by his unique instincts.

Mr. Kudo’s new book, *Tokyo Dark Dream* (Kodansha), in which he chronicles his life story for the first time, was released on October 8.

Why did a man who had always avoided the public eye choose to reveal his life story to the world at this particular moment?

“Originally, I had absolutely no interest in the underworld. I wanted to master the ‘dark society’—the place where the mainstream and the underworld intersect—or, in other words, the gray zone. The dark society is a place where delinquents, information, and money converge, and where business opportunities arise. I thought that my experiences in the gray zone and the lessons I learned there would be useful to businesspeople in the wider world.”

The catalyst for his connection to the “underworld” was an event planning club he joined during his college days. Mr. Kudo handled everything from event planning to securing venues, attracting female attendees, and negotiating with corporate sponsors.

“Securing ‘Verfare,’ a massive disco that used to be in Roppongi, was a major breakthrough. It required a payment of 1.25 million yen per event, and while everyone else hesitated, I managed to raise the money and pull off the event. That’s how I earned the venue’s trust.The attendees were students from prestigious universities like Waseda, Keio, and Hitotsubashi, along with female students who came specifically to meet them. Eventually, we started receiving sponsorship from major companies looking to recruit these students—at our peak, we raised as much as 80 million yen.“While organizing these events, I got to know members of street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and the yakuza who came to the VIP section to pick up girls.”

It was the “employment ice age,” but by leveraging the skills I’d honed organizing events, I secured a job at a major advertising agency. Later, I made the switch to a foreign-affiliated consulting firm. While still at the consulting firm, I was involved in the illegal lending business—a practice that charged exorbitant interest rates and would later become a social issue.

A Neon-Lit District Flourishing on Illegal Lending

“There were a lot of people in my event planning circle who couldn’t find jobs. I started the loan shark business to support them. The interest rate was 50 percent every 10 days. Since I had no backing, every day was a constant stream of trouble—from feuds with rival loan shark groups to debtors defaulting on their payments. I delegated the day-to-day operations to capable staff and focused on handling the problems.

When a room in the apartment building where we kept our proceeds was raided, I cornered one of the attackers only to find out he was an acquaintance… I was completely dumbfounded at the time. Once we had more than 10 branches, my monthly take-home pay never fell below 20 million yen, and I’d spend several million yen every night at hostess clubs in Roppongi and Kabukichō. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the neon-lit districts back then were thriving thanks to loan sharking.”

Mr. Kudo also had ties to the perpetrator of the “Petit Angel Incident,” which occurred more than 20 years ago. The “Petit Angel Incident” refers to the case in which four elementary school-aged girls were kidnapped and held captive in an apartment building in Tokyo.Since the perpetrator, who committed suicide, was the owner of a dating club and there were rumors of a “client list,” conspiracy theories emerged—such as, “The perpetrator was killed to silence him because his clients included high-profile politicians and celebrities.”

“I used to drop by the perpetrator’s office from time to time, so I knew there were high-ranking police officials among his clients. He was a timid man, but he would approach women himself to recruit them to work at the dating club.From my perspective, living in that gray area, it was a common occurrence for police officials and politicians to be clients of dating clubs that catered to minors, so I was surprised and wondered, ‘Why is the public making such a fuss over this?’”

This book details the numerous harrowing situations Mr. Kudo encountered, including efforts to secure the release on bail of a yakuza executive at the request of a government official, a shooting incident at a Chinese restaurant, and a night when he was surrounded by a group armed with a metal bat and a chef’s knife in an apartment building in Shibuya.The risk management techniques he honed in the underworld are packed with elements that can be applied in corporate settings and everyday life.

“In today’s so-called ‘era of compliance,’ people who can handle trouble are highly valued in any line of work. That’s my personal belief. If I had to give one tip—it’s to resolve issues quickly and not let them linger. Even if the other party breaks the law, I’ve always made a point of responding in accordance with the law.”

One of Mr. Kudo’s core principles is “not using social media.”

“Underworld-style influencers who act all high and mighty on social media used to show up at my events. As far as I’m concerned, they’re all ‘third-rate.’ The real deal doesn’t write about themselves online or on social media. The ‘top-tier’ don’t bother with that kind of petty money-making. Real professionals fully understand the value of the information they possess.”

No matter how times change, the gray zone will never disappear. Negotiators like Mr. Kudo, who know both the legitimate and underworld sides inside and out, will continue to be in demand.

From the October 23–30, 2026, combined issue of *FRIDAY*