The other day, a suspect accused of blowing up a toilet at Yasukuni Shrine was arrested at the airport when they returned to Japan to inspect the scene.
According to investigative sources, the person arrested was a foreign national in their twenties whose address and occupation were unknown. They had returned to their home country after the incident, but re-entered Japan from Haneda Airport at around 10:00 a.m. on the 9th. The Immigration Bureau, having checked its list of persons requiring attention, contacted the Metropolitan Police Department (Asahi Digital, December 10, 2015 (Japanese))
While the person was on the plane, police rushed to the airport, and the person was arrested immediately after disembarking.
They say criminals return to look at the scene, but it is far too much of a mystery why they would come back here.
This time, the “Immigration Bureau” noticed that the suspect was on the list and contacted the Metropolitan Police Department.
In fact, passenger lists for aircraft coming to Japan are sent to the Immigration Bureau and the customs authorities. This system has been introduced worldwide and is called APIS (Advance Passenger Information System).
People whom authorities want to apprehend are put on lists, and when someone on a list enters the country, the authorities are notified and the person is arrested.
There are also people who flee overseas because of tax evasion, but they will no longer be able to return to Japan.
Among us accounting professionals, there is also a well-known case of someone who fled overseas.
In connection with the former Goodwill Group’s acquisition of a staffing company, a fund management company, “Corinthian Partners” (Minato Ward), whose president was a certified public accountant in their fifties in Osaka Prefecture, was suspected of evading corporate tax on several billion yen in profit earned from brokering the acquisition. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s Special Investigation Department obtained an arrest warrant for this accountant on suspicion of violating the Corporation Tax Act (tax evasion).
At that time, this accountant had made a profit of no less than 30 billion yen and fled overseas.
Fearing that the accountant would flee overseas, the tax authorities had seized their passport nine months before their escape, but the accountant was adopted, changed their surname, had their passport reissued, and fled overseas.
The accountant will probably be unable to return to Japan.
Incidentally, a lawyer involved in the same case also fled to Thailand.
But does it make sense to flee overseas without paying tax while holding as much as 30 billion yen?
The total amount of concealed income was reported to be at least 5 billion yen, but at least 10 billion yen would remain in hand. That seems sufficient to me. Various organizations must have been involved.
After fleeing to Hong Kong, the accountant apparently went into hiding in South Korea, where they were arrested in 2009 for overstaying his visa.
It is also said that the suspect made brazen demands such as, “I want to eat Japanese food” (laugh).
I think you can see why evading taxes and fleeing overseas is nonsense.
Incidentally, if the accountant had fled to a country that had not concluded an extradition treaty with Japan, they might not have been handed over to Japan and arrested.