Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 334, Ikeda's Big Exposure
Uesugi Muneyuki's concerns were not unfounded, because the composition of Kabukicho's high-end clubs, brothels, and various major entertainment venues was too complex.

To put it simply, let's take a host club as an example. The most superficial result of a host club is that the club belongs to XX Entertainment Co., Ltd., and the legal representative of the company is usually an unrelated person, such as a retired old man, a low-level employee, or a third-party unrelated person from the countryside.

Therefore, if any problems arise at a male escort club, the investigation can only begin here.

After dissecting the first layer, a closer examination reveals that the entertainment company's shares are primarily held by certain offshore investment companies registered in places such as Okinawa, Hong Kong, Singapore, and even the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, regions with lax trust regulations.

Once the second layer is dissected, the third layer follows: the holders of this offshore investment company will return to a certain trust bank and a certain fund, with the beneficiaries pointing to a private equity fund controlled by a mysterious entity.

Finally, the private equity fund returns to certain large Japanese banks or investment banks, such as Mitsubishi UFJ Bank or Nomura Investment Bank, and is controlled by certain professional brokers. These professional brokers control anonymous funds, and normally it is difficult to find out the real holders.

So who are the actual holders of these shares?
Hehe, including zaibatsu and business tycoons, political cliques headed by numerous members of parliament, long-established large-scale local self-governing organizations (such as agricultural cooperatives, and an unnamed head of the Kanto Shinto Alliance), and of course, veteran port lords like Shimakawa Ren from the post-war era.

Uesugi Muneyuki knew about these things.

Even the Metropolitan Police Department's Second Investigation Division is powerless to investigate these people. The only real threat to these behind-the-scenes bigwigs is the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office Special Investigation Team set up by Emperor Wuxing. Only they.

Then, the gangs often occupy a "buffer" niche in these chains, collecting protection fees, mediating territorial disputes, and settling some less important matters so as not to attract the attention of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, the true owner of a host club doesn't actually need to own the club. They only need to use a third party. For example, Club A may be completely innocent no matter how you investigate it, but in reality, the drinks and food must be purchased from "B Business", the decoration and furniture must be contracted to "C Construction", the cleaning services must be handled by "D Company", and the land rented is from "E Property". The contract stipulates that various lease terms must be followed, and many activities must be approved by the "landlord" and "partners", which means that they have effectively transferred most of the operating rights.

This is also one of the characteristics of Japanese society: interdependence and mutual influence. Zaibatsu hold shares in each other, cooperate across borders, and hedge risks. The government maintains its influence over the zaibatsu by placing a large number of retired civil servants in key positions in the zaibatsu and various high-level companies. Banks lend to large corporations and conglomerates, ensuring that the zaibatsu are always closely integrated with the Japanese government. Although the two sides fight and bicker all day long, they always maintain an environment of "fighting without breaking apart, only grabbing market share without eliminating the opponent."

A typical example is TV Tokyo. In its early years, TV Tokyo was a powerhouse in the Kanto region, but due to poor management and differences in style, it gradually lost market share to other TV stations and was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Logically speaking, at this point, the other major private broadcasters should be scrambling to dismantle and devour it, seizing the last share of TEPCO, right?

But that's not the case at all. Seeing that TEPCO was about to collapse, the other major private broadcasters did the opposite: they sent people to guide TEPCO on how to plan its programs, and even leased and sold some department employees to assist TEPCO in reform and debt restructuring. They also requested related banks to provide TEPCO with low-interest loans, all to help TEPCO revive and overcome its difficulties.

Thus, there was a stable "Big Five" private broadcasting network: TV Tokyo, which always sat at the bottom, always had a unique style but a fixed audience, never competed with other TV stations for current events, and while the entire Jedi Force outside was working together to protect the super-Earth, losing 4000 million people a day, it was peacefully showing cartoons. It existed, but posed no threat, and completely blocked any possibility of other private broadcasters rising to power.

Therefore, Japan's conglomerate economic system is essentially a "state-owned system that is not so much state-owned."

Some people will definitely say that this is not right. You say it is a bit like state ownership, but what does this kind of high-level game have to do with the Japanese people?
Isn't that simple? Those so-called "true state ownership" actually have nothing to do with ordinary citizens (laughs).

Uesugi Muneyuki currently lacks the ability to challenge these powerful behind-the-scenes forces. In fact, strictly speaking, even Watanabe Eiji, the Superintendent General of Police, is merely someone who can sit at the table, have a meal, and clink glasses with the big shots to discuss how to handle things.

After having breakfast, Uesugi Muneyuki opened various portal websites.

Sure enough, as the incident escalated, Japanese netizens began posting about it frantically.

First, on Yahoo!, Japan's largest portal site, Uesugi Muneyuki clicked on it and saw that the first hot post was a comment made by a Japanese male netizen in his fifties.

"The police who protected the people from the blades of madmen are heroes! Before sympathizing with terrorists, the left should apologize to the families of the police officers who were injured while protecting the people and are still in critical condition!"

32.4K likes, 2.5K dislikes.

"Compared to the Self-Defense Forces being deployed to Iraq, this is the real battlefield, lol. Give the judo beauty policewoman a medal!"

20.7K likes, 0.9K dislikes.

Uesugi Muneyuki smiled after reading it. In a certain country across the sea, "left wing" often represents correctness and progress, but in Japan, "left wing" is generally used as an insult.

I browsed Yahoo! Japan and found that most of the comments were supportive and positive about Erina Ikeda.

However, there are also some dissenting voices.

"The murderer was killed when he was burdened with 6000 million yen in debt. That's the Japanese police for you. They're more efficient at using guns on impoverished women than against gangsters!"

15 likes, 28 dislikes. "I really... feel hopeless about this country. A woman, forced to this by a host club, I don't even know how desperate she was when she was forced to kill someone? This is clearly discrimination against women by society, and you are still cheering loudly. Just thinking about this makes my tears flow uncontrollably, and I feel angry and cold. Can this society ever get better?"

4.6K likes, 19.2K dislikes.

Opposition to Reina Ikeda, sympathy for the murderer, and aversion to the police are concentrated among women in their 20s.

Meanwhile, the anonymous 2CH forum, a stronghold of Japanese conservatives, is also hotly debating this issue.

"It should have been addressed long ago! Host clubs are still operating as normal bars and clubs, but it is said that these host clubs in Kabukicho have a daily turnover of more than 5 million yen! They can easily earn more than 1 billion yen a year. Moreover, this kind of chain of 'bookkeeping' and 'introducing people to the sex industry' has caused countless tragedies. This incident is just the beginning of the whole thing."

"I was also a debt slave 'specifically designated' at a host club. Her kitchen knife was our cry for help. Why didn't the police fire on the host club's violent apparatus? Are they so afraid of taking responsibility?"

"A hundred police officers couldn't take down a serial killer, they didn't even dare to fire a gun, please, you're so weak! In the end, we actually had to have Uesugi Muneyuki, an amateur police officer, go up and fight the serial killer hand-to-hand to rescue the hostage. Luckily, he was saved in the end. If we lost this national forensic doctor, what would happen to the security of Tokyo in the future???"

Uesugi Muneyuki then turned to the NHK poll on his phone.

After a night and a full day of fermentation, Erena's national approval rating has dropped from 94% to 91%, still showing an overwhelming advantage, but it has declined compared to before.

Uesugi Muneyuki reviewed the age groups and found that 99% of men over 40 years old supported the legality of Erena's murder, while the support rate among women in their 20s had further dropped to 36%, especially among young women in Shinjuku Ward and Minami area of ​​Osaka, where the support rate was only 11%.

When Uesugi Muneyuki saw the 99% approval rating, he knew he had it in the bag. After all, the majority of wealth and power in Japan are still held by adult men over 40.

Thus, on December 29th, all the front pages of news across Japan were filled with the Kabukicho serial indiscriminate killings of December 28th. Several television stations held impromptu special lectures, the content of which mainly revolved around a series of sharp confrontations on "Uesugi Muneyuki's praise for standing up vs. the reasons behind the killer's attack", "the legitimacy of law enforcement vs. the abuse of law enforcement power", and "the older generation believes that it should have been dealt with long ago vs. some young people believe that personal freedom should not be interfered with". Each camp was determined to win.

However, as noon approached, online public opinion suddenly underwent some inexplicable shift.

First, 2CH suddenly broke the news that the trading company behind Anon Tokyo club is related to a member of parliament, and that the VIP list of the host club's black account includes the names of several wives of high-ranking government officials.

Furthermore, the club pays a total of 600 million yen annually to the secretaries of three members of parliament for political consultation. Meanwhile, the security company where the brother of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs works signed a six-year security and anti-theft contract with anon Tokyo!

Uesugi Muneyuki felt a chill run down his spine upon seeing the news.

The public security police have taken action!
As expected, Japan only decided to take real action to solve the problem after its allies were surprised and the international community paid attention.

The truth is, the police aren't incapable of finding out; they simply don't take any real action.

There must have been an order from above. But who was it?
Minister of Justice? Minister of Foreign Affairs? Minister of Finance? Chief Cabinet Secretary or... Prime Minister?

Uesugi Muneyuki is more inclined to believe that Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda persuaded his brother, Chief Cabinet Secretary, to issue the order directly. Moreover, Watanabe Eiji had no authority to interfere in the affairs of the National Police Agency's Security Bureau. Only Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda could order the Public Security Bureau.

As expected, the news quickly attracted public attention.

However, as the afternoon approached, public attention began to shift in another strange direction.

They started digging into the two people involved in this matter, Uesugi Muneyuki and Ikeda Erena!

Major Discovery! Major Discovery! Unveiling the Past of the Tall, Beautiful Judo Female Police Officer Who Killed Her in This Case—Abandoning Her Sports Career, a Killer of Her Metropolitan Police Department Rank, an Untouchable—Was She Actually a Special Missions Unit Member Who Came Up Through Sleeping Beauty Business?

Unveiling the secret relationship between legendary rookie forensic pathologist Uesugi Muneyuki and judo beauty policewoman Ikeda Erena! The two have long been intimate, suspected to be a couple!

"Huh???" Uesugi Muneyuki was stunned.

Why is everyone's been talking about it, and why is the discussion turning all the way to me?
Damn it, why are the Japanese so gossipy?!

(End of this chapter)