Latest news with #OsakaCity-based
Yomiuri Shimbun
6 days ago
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Osaka Company Under Investigation for Building Expo Pavilion Without Permit; Representative Says Firm Was ‘Too Busy' to Submit Application
OSAKA — Osaka Prefectural Police on Wednesday began searching the house of the representative of Iroha Kensetsu, an Osaka City-based construction company, among other places, on suspicion that the company contracted construction work for the Angolan pavilion at the Osaka-Kansai Expo without a permit, in violation of the Construction Business Law. The Osaka prefectural government in July ordered the company to suspend operation for 30 days after an investigation brought to light the possibility that they may have been doing unauthorized work. Investigators say they suspect that, around January, the company received an order for about ¥120 million to perform work, including interior construction, on the pavilion despite not obtaining the required permit from the land, infrastructure and transport minister and the Osaka governor. They also say that the company's office was closed recently, and that on Wednesday morning, the police began searching several places related to the company, including the Osaka City residence of its representative, a man in his 40s. The Construction Business Law requires companies contracting construction work worth ¥5 million or more to obtain an operation permit. Failure to do so may be punished with up to three years in detention or a fine of up to ¥3 million. The representative, admitting that his company contracted the work without a permit, told The Yomiuri Shimbun, 'We met the requirements to contract the work, but a former accounting person did not submit an application for that, and we were too busy to check it.' According to the representative, the company as it currently exists was launched by several people in June last year, after they took over the corporation, which at the time was inactive. As for the Angolan pavilion work, the company first contracted the work for the interior and other parts from another construction company and then subcontracted it out to six companies. The work started in mid-February and was more or less completed by late March. The pavilion accepted visitors on the Expo's opening day on April 13, but it then closed for 'technical adjustments' and reopened on June 26. The Yomiuri Shimbun contacted the construction company from which Iroha Kensetsu originally contracted work on the pavilion, but that company has not responded. There are three other cases also currently under investigation by the Osaka prefectural government in which construction companies are suspected of having contracted work on foreign countries' Expo pavilions without authorization.
Tokyo Reported
15-06-2025
- Tokyo Reported
Osaka scouting group illegally referred women to soaplands
OSAKA (TR) – Law enforcement in Aichi and Kagawa prefectures have rearrested four men from Osaka City-based commercial sex scouting group Seed Advertising for illegally referring women to soapland bathhouses, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Apr. 16). Takeru Fukuyama, 27, is senior member of Seed Advertising. Police rearrested Fukuyama and three associates for introducing women to a soapland in Takamatsu City, Kagawa. Three other associates were arrested in this case for the first time. Police accused the seven suspects of violating the Employment Security Act regarding introductions for harmful business purposes. Seed Advertising formed in January 2022. From that time until this past March, the group made a total of at least 1.3 billion yen in profits from women's introduction fees and other sources, according to Aichi Prefectural Police. The group, which has up to 10 members, has conducted transactions with approximately 400 adult entertainment establishments in 46 prefectures and administrative districts. It is suspected that freelance scouts arranged for women they recruited on social-networking sites to be placed in adult entertainment establishments and received 15 percent of the women's sales as 'scout kickbacks.' The rearrest charges for Fukuyama and his associates allege that they introduced a woman in her early 20s to a soapland in Takamatsu City around June 11 last year. Fukuyama and his associates had been arrested twice before on suspicion of introducing other women in their 20s to soapland businesses in Kaga and Kofu cities, Ishikawa Prefecture.
