Homes for all: The story of Japan landlord accused of yakuza ties, and why she rents to everyone

TOKYO — In August, a 77-year-old woman sat in court, accused of abetting the escape of a drug crime suspect with ties to a yakuza group. The woman is a landlord, the owner of about 30 apartment buildings in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo. The man prosecutors say she had helped get away was her tenant. The court on Sept. 11 handed the woman a prison term of one year, suspended for three years. So how did an elderly woman come to stand before a judge, indicted for this tie to one of Japan’s infamous crime syndicates? The Mainichi Shimbun asked, and she answered, “It’s going to be a long story, so shall we go for an iced coffee?”

To begin, the woman rents rooms to people who can’t get an apartment anywhere else, and some of her properties have been dubbed “yakuza apartments” by locals. It is illegal in Japan to have any business dealings with known yakuza members. So why has she let just anyone move in?

An incriminating phone call

On Aug. 9, prior to my visit, the woman had her first trial hearing in Courtroom No. 706 at the Tokyo District Court.

As the defendant apparently had close contacts with yakuza groups, I’d had a preconceived notion that she would be grim-looking, but sitting in the defendant’s chair was a petite woman with gray hair and beautiful eyes. Her back was straight, and she did not look like her 77 years.

According to the indictment and police announcements, a Metropolitan Police Department investigator contacted the landlord at around 6 p.m. on Feb. 17. The police asked her to lend them a duplicate key for the apartment of a male tenant. Five minutes later, she called the man to say, “Are you doing something (illegal)? If you are, run.” The man was a yakuza associate whom police were looking for on suspicion of violating Japan’s drug laws.

The motive

About the charges against her, the woman said, “It’s basically true.”

In their opening statement, prosecutors revealed that the drug suspect had moved into the apartment through an introduction from a senior member of a crime syndicate and that the name of another individual close to a different yakuza group was also in the woman’s cellphone call history.

What kind of relationship did the woman have with her tenants?

Her second son appeared in the courtroom as a witness and testified, “My mother took good care of both her relatives and others, such as introducing jobs to tenants on welfare and giving them living expenses if they couldn’t work.”

During her own questioning, the woman explained the circumstances that led up to the incident. Regarding the man whom she helped escape, she recalled, “From the time he came to me, he was weak with hepatitis C. I didn’t know he was a yakuza, and he seemed to have a hard time making a living.”

When asked about her motive, she answered matter-of-factly, “(The police) called themselves the ‘drugs and firearms division,’ so I thought the man might be involved in illegal drugs, and I felt it would have been pitiful for him (to be caught).” While she told the court she was sorry for letting the subject of the investigation get away, she added that their relationship was merely that of “landlord and tenant.”

Prosecutors sought a year in prison, claiming the defendant “had relationships with many individuals related to crime syndicates and actively engaged in this crime on her own initiative.” The trial concluded in one day.

Why the real estate business?

In late August, I went to see the landlord because I wanted to know more about her past, which had not been revealed in court, and I felt that she had her own point of view.

It was a 10-minute walk from JR Nishi-Kawaguchi Station. On utility poles in a shopping district crowded with restaurants, there were signs that read “contact for rooms to let,” all with the name of the landlord.

When I pressed the intercom button at her home, she came out. Perhaps because I was drenched in sweat, she invited me to the nearest coffee shop, saying, “It’s tough in the heat.” We sat down across from each other, and she began to tell her life story.

She said she had started her real estate business nearly 40 years ago. She was divorced and raising three young children while running a small restaurant in the Nishi-Kawaguchi area. It was during Japan’s bubble economy. Her eatery was thriving, and regular customers volunteered to watch her children, drop them off and pick them up for school and other places.

However, her mother developed dementia, and caring for her made it difficult for the woman to keep running the restaurant. So, she bought a second-hand apartment building and jumped into the real estate business.

Initially, she got her tenants through real estate agents, but the number of prospective renters who consulted directly with her increased. They included elderly people, those released from prison, sex shop employees and foreigners who could not afford guarantors.

“I’d been helped by many people, and as the saying goes, ‘Even chance meetings are the result of karma,'” she recalled. She would let needy people live in the apartments without screening them, and often she would not charge rent for the first two months. As her reputation spread through word of mouth, the number of properties she managed increased, and she now has close to 300 tenants.

Even though her family members were concerned about her, she said she would take responsibility, and got close to her tenants.

Tenants associated with yakuza move out

The woman knew that some properties she owns were called “yakuza apartments” because of the trouble some tenants caused with nearby residents. However, she stated that she did not give any tenant special treatment, even if they were close to crime syndicates, and dealt with each renter individually.

In response to the incident this year, she asked any gang related tenants to leave. Only a few were in fact in this category, and they left, saying that they had caused trouble for “auntie landlord.”

“She really likes people,” her eldest daughter, 49, who was present at the interview, said of her mother.

During the interview, the woman’s phone rang incessantly. She explained that her tenants consult her about one thing after another.

I asked her how she was feeling before the Sept. 11 ruling. She said, “When I see people getting back on their feet, I can’t quit (how I do business). If there is someone in need, I will reach out to them as much as I can.”

Looking at her daughter beside her with worried eyes, she said, “I won’t be a burden to the police anymore,” and flashed a playful expression quite different from the one she had in court.

(Japanese original by Akira Iida, Tokyo City News Department)