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Nigerian national nabbed in illegal operation of Kabukicho bar

Daniel Akomolafe
Daniel Akomolafe has been accused of managing Royal Lounge in Kabukicho while the bar’s license was in the name of another individual (TV Asahi)

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested three persons, including a Nigerian national, over the illegal operation of a bar in the Kabukicho red-light district of Shinjuku Ward, reports TV Asahi (May 22).

In February of 2015, Tomoharu Sato, a 75-year-old employee of a company that provides cleaning services to buildings, allegedly used the name of Koji Fujio, the 62-year-old president of the same firm, in applying for an operations license for bar Royal Lounge when in fact the establishment is managed by Daniel Akomolafe, a 48-year-old Nigerian national.

Such an arrangement is a violation of the adult-entertainment law. Over the past two years and three months, the bar has collected 40 million yen in revenue.

Sato denies the charges. However, police are aware of about 10 other cases in which the suspect has carried out similar scams in return for a share of the revenue from the establishments, according to Fuji News Network (May 2).

In 2012, Akomolafe was arrested in a series of scams at a different bar in Kabukicho in which he was alleged to have swindled customers out of a total of 3 million yen by abusing their credit cards, according to the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 23, 2012).