A flamboyant Japanese entrepreneur known as the “Prince of Green Juice” was arrested for alleged tax evasion on Tuesday. Tokyo prosecutors raided beauty and diet product company Media Hearts, which president Yuta Misaki set up in 2007, for evading about 180 million yen (US$1.63 million) in taxes in the business year to September 2015 and in the year to September 2017. Two other individuals were also arrested for helping him. The 29-year-old Misaki earned his moniker by changing public perceptions of aojiru green-leafed vegetable juice, which he began marketing in 2014, from a bitter-tasting health regimen for the elderly into a trendy drink for young women. The Japanese green vegetable drink is mostly made from kale or young barley grass. It is sold in the form of packaged powdered formula at health food stores, drug stores and on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Rakuten. Aojiru has been used for weight loss, improving the digestive and immune system, and better skin. Tax authorities force brilliant high-earners to leave for overseas Yuta Misaki Misaki has frequently appeared on TV and internet programme as the Prince of Green Juice. On social media, Misaki cultivates the image of a young and successful entrepreneur. He posts about making investments, new business projects and his management style. He has used his social platforms to flaunt his wealth, claiming that his monthly pay was 100 million yen, that he bought a villa or that he was late catching a plane because he had bought armfuls of luxury goods in Europe. He also complained on Twitter last December that Japan was “mean” to the rich, and moved to Malta that month to avoid paying taxes in Japan. “Tax authorities force brilliant high-earners to leave for overseas by throttling them and bullying them,” he said. “I did not evade paying taxes,” Misaki added, regarding the allegation. Prosecutors allege Misaki evaded about 40 million yen in consumption tax and about 140 million yen in corporate tax by padding the company’s advertising expenses. Go Kato, 34, a company executive, and Yumiko Naito, 49, an outsourcing services operator, were arrested as accomplices. Media Hearts, which sells beauty and diet products for young women, had 12.1 billion yen in sales for the financial year through September 2017, compared with sales of 1.8 billion yen in the year before. Additional reporting by Gigi Choy