A series of break-ins at stores selling smartphones and other high-value goods has highlighted the growing threat posed by anonymous and fluid criminal groups, known in Japan as “tokuryu.”
In one case, a store was targeted three times in six months, with glass doors and display cases smashed and large quantities of merchandise stolen.
Tokuryu groups recruit foot soldiers, including juveniles, through social media posts offering illicit jobs and other means. Recruits often carry out crimes without knowing the identities of those giving the orders, while senior members remain hidden behind layers of anonymity.
Their willingness to treat foot soldiers as expendable pawns, combined with increasingly brazen and sometimes violent tactics, is exposing the limits of conventional crime-prevention measures.
The term tokuryu was coined by the National Police Agency (NPA) to describe a new and growing form of loosely organized criminal group. Members communicate through highly secure messaging apps, making it difficult for police to intercept their communications.
Even when devices are seized, some are designed to delete data, while service providers may be unable to provide access to encrypted messages.
As a result, arrests of foot soldiers often yield little information about senior members or planned crimes. The groups can simply recruit replacements and continue operating.
With losses from special fraud continuing to reach record levels, the NPA faces growing concern that existing investigative methods and administrative measures are approaching their limits.
Repeated Break-Ins
In the early hours of June 5, a security company alerted police after an alarm went off at Geo Osaka Sayama, an electronics and entertainment retailer in Osakasayama, Osaka Prefecture.
Investigators found that the glass in the store’s automatic entrance door and display cases had been smashed, and smartphones and other merchandise stolen.
Geo Osaka Sayama store targeted in the thefts, Osaka Sayama, Osaka Prefecture (©Sankei/Maki Yasuda)
It was the third time the store had been targeted that year. All three break-ins occurred in the early hours after closing, with the perpetrators believed to have completed each operation within just a few minutes. Two people on a motorcycle were seen fleeing the scene.
After the first break-in, the store reinforced the damaged glass with plywood and moved high-value merchandise farther inside.
The perpetrators adapted. In the second incident, they smashed a glass panel immediately beside the reinforced door. In the third, they broke through another section of the store’s exterior glass.
Geo Holdings said other stores had experienced similar break-ins and that it had taken measures to prevent intrusions and protect high-value merchandise, including deploying security guards.
The Geo break-ins were not isolated incidents. About 60 similar “smash-and-grab” thefts targeting stores were reported across Osaka Prefecture between February and May alone. Investigators have linked a number of the cases to tokuryu groups.
A Tokuryu Group Exposed
In June, the Osaka Prefectural Police Department’s Third Investigative Division announced the arrests of members of a tokuryu group known as the “K Group.”
The group is believed to have been centered around Shoichi Kamikawa, a member of a designated organized crime group affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest yakuza organization. Kamikawa and others have already been indicted in connection with the case and other offenses.
In March, Kamikawa and his alleged accomplices reportedly conspired to break into two media stores, including Geo outlets in Sennan, Osaka Prefecture, and Wakayama Prefecture, smashing their glass doors with tools.
They allegedly destroyed display cases and stole 146 smartphones and six game consoles with a combined retail value of more than ¥7.3 million ($47,000).
The Third Investigative Division said juveniles were used as foot soldiers in both cases. In the Sennan incident, one boy who had responded to an illicit job offer recruited classmates to take part. In the Wakayama case, another juvenile was recruited through a similar offer.
The juveniles were given precise instructions designed to minimize the time they spent at the scene. In the Wakayama case, the group leader allegedly ordered the foot soldier to leave within minutes, while a separate lookout reportedly told him in real time how many seconds had passed since the operation began.
Juveniles as Foot Soldiers
Why do tokuryu groups continue to use such crude methods despite the risk that the perpetrators will be detected and arrested so quickly?
Shuichiro Hoshi, a criminal law professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University who specializes in tokuryu-related crime, said the answer lies partly in the attitude of senior members, who regard foot soldiers as people who can be “used and discarded.”
That helps explain the groups’ willingness to carry out conspicuous and sometimes violent crimes, Hoshi said, and why security measures designed around conventional thieves may no longer be sufficient.
Stores should reconsider how they display high-value merchandise and create environments in which expensive goods cannot be easily taken, he said. Keeping security guards on duty at all times is another effective measure.
Protecting Homes
The threat extends beyond stores. Tokuryu groups also target ordinary homes, making a multifaceted approach to crime prevention necessary.
Security cameras and window security film can help, while communities can work together to watch for suspicious activity that may indicate criminals are surveying potential targets.
Hoshi also recommends avoiding keeping large amounts of valuables at home and being cautious about casually disclosing information about one’s assets.
Remote Access for Investigations
A panel of experts convened by the National Police Agency to consider measures to combat crimes by tokuryu, released an outline of recommendations on September 2 calling for a new investigative method to remotely obtain communications and other data from devices, including smartphones, used by group leaders and other senior members.
The proposal comes as special fraud continues to cause losses of about ¥1 billion a day. The panel plans to finalize its recommendations soon, after which the NPA intends to make the necessary legal revisions.
The proposed method, referred to in the outline as “remote analysis,” would allow specially trained police officers to remotely access targeted devices and obtain information stored on them.
The system would be used when certain requirements are met, such as when there is a high risk that a person may be targeted by a tokuryu group in crimes including special fraud or robbery.
When requested by a prefectural police department, the officers would determine whether remote analysis was necessary and identify the information to be obtained. They would then seek a warrant from a judge and proceed only if it was issued.
Information obtained under the warrant could include lists of phone numbers targeted in fraud schemes, details of members’ roles, meeting places and intended targets. Prefectural police departments could use the information to prevent crimes before they occur.
Any information obtained outside the scope of the warrant would be deleted. Users of targeted devices would also be notified afterward that remote analysis had been conducted, with the aim of ensuring that the system is used appropriately.
Balancing Security and Rights
Remote analysis could give police access to information about crimes while they are still being planned, complementing existing investigative methods and potentially helping authorities dismantle tokuryu groups before crimes are carried out.
At the same time, the proposed system raises significant concerns because it would allow police to access communication devices without the knowledge of their users.
Such access could infringe on the secrecy of communications guaranteed by the Constitution, as well as privacy and other rights.
The outline therefore calls on authorities to “give consideration to minimizing infringements on the rights and interests of the public.” It proposes strict requirements for the use of remote analysis and judicial review through warrants.
Public safety commissions would also review every case afterward and, where necessary, instruct police to take corrective measures.
The challenge for policymakers will be to give police the tools they need to tackle increasingly elusive tokuryu groups without creating investigative powers that could unduly infringe on the rights they are intended to protect.
(Read the related article in Japanese.)
Author: The Sankei Shimbun
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