“Give Me My Money Back”: Cornered by the Chinese Mafia, He Bows His Head in Humiliation… Ryuji Yoshioka of “JP Dragon” Posts a “Pleas for Mercy” Video from Inside the Detention Center

The boss of a massive Japanese criminal organization in the Philippines is groveling

“Give me my money back. Look me in the eye. Do you want to get punched, you bastard?!”

The video showed half-naked men with both arms densely covered in tattoos closing in on a man wearing a T-shirt and shorts. As he was violently slapped across the cheek and jostled on the head, the man in the T-shirt could only wear a look of sheer terror.

The Japanese criminal organization “JP Dragon” has been repeatedly committing fraud and extortion from its base in the Philippines for over five years.The boss, Ryuji Yoshioka (56), is also known for his rivalry with the “Luffy Group,” which was involved in a series of large-scale robbery cases. Although he reportedly amassed as much as 4 billion yen at one point, his situation changed drastically after he was detained by Philippine authorities last June and sent to the Bicutan Detention Center.

“Before his arrest, Yoshioka had swindled nearly 500 million yen from Chinese mafia groups operating in the Philippines under the pretext of investing in ‘Sabon,’ a form of cockfighting gambling. They were furious at being deceived and began to pressure Yoshioka using Chinese mafia members inside Bicutan,” said a Bicutan inmate.

Yoshioka’s former subordinate, Takeda (pseudonym), acted in concert with these moves. Takeda had originally been a member of “JP Dragon,” but had left the organization after growing fed up with Yoshioka’s high-handed attitude.The opening scene shows Takeda and the Chinese mafia members intimidating Yoshioka, his former boss.

The exchange continues as follows.

Chinese Mafia : “Can you come up with the money? Today’s the deadline.”

Yoshioka : “I never said I’d pay it back by today. Takeda-chan, explain that to them.”

Takeda : “Don’t call me ‘-chan.’”

Yoshioka adopts an evasive attitude. When the Chinese mobster stands up and berates him, Yoshioka claps his hands together, bows his head, and begs for his life, saying, “Sorry, I’ll talk to a friend. Sorry.”

Then, it was Takeda’s turn to lose his temper.

“You pointed a gun at me and threatened me while laughing, didn’t you? You said something about the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, but that was a lie, wasn’t it?” (Note: Yoshioka had been telling people around him about his connections to the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi.)

Feeling his life was in danger, Yoshioka subsequently begged a guard to let him flee to the isolation wing, where those under disciplinary action are normally held. You’d think he’d be living in constant fear day after day—but, as the aforementioned inmate says:

“Yoshioka has been swindling money out of the Nepalese and Japanese inmates he shares a cell with in the isolation wing. He boasts, ‘I have connections at Immigration. If you give me money, I’ll get you out of here.’”

He kowtows to the powerful and extorts money from the weak—this is the true nature of the man once feared as the “boss of a Japanese criminal organization.”

From the November 6, 2026 issue of *FRIDAY*