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Japan’s yakuza gangsters launch legal fight against road operators for phasing out cash
- Mobsters in dangerous crime syndicates are taking expressway firms to court over decision to replace cash-only tolls with e-payment system, Pasoca
- Japan’s anti-mafia rules already ban yakuza from accessing services like opening bank accounts, signing property contracts and entering golf courses
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Members of Japan’s notorious yakuza crime syndicates are planning to take six expressway operators to court over a decision to scrap all cash-only toll booths and replace them with an e-payment system as part of their efforts to keep the mobsters off the motorways.
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The companies are also toughening anti-gangster rules on applying for the electronic toll collection personal cards, or Pasoca, required to zip past the cashless gates.
The government, which is aiming to roll out Pasoca-only facilities across the country by 2030, touts the initiative as a way to ease traffic bottlenecks.
But a senior gangster of an underworld group linked to the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest crime cartel, has vowed to “put up a fight until the end” if they are prevented from accessing Pasoca.
“I have nothing to feel guilty about while driving on an expressway. I haven’t made any ill-advised attempts, like faking my identity,” he said.
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He was among nine racketeers arrested in central Japan last year on suspicion of hiding their identities to buy the Pasoca cards between 2015 and 2021, The Asahi newspaper reported.
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