TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 81-year-old man suspected of running a legal practice for nearly four decades without a license, reports TV Asahi (June 14).
Between June and December of last year, Koji Nitta, a resident of Adachi Ward, allegedly entered into negotiations as a lawyer without a license on behalf of the landlord of a residence in Edogawa Ward to evict three men over non-payment of rent.
That same year, he also allegedly performed unlicensed work for a woman in her 80s regarding an inheritance and handed out business cards claiming he was a judicial scrivener.
Nitta admits to the allegations. “For about 40 years, I did unlicensed work,” the suspect was quoted by police. “I did it to support my family.” During that period, he is believed to have earned about 120 million yen.
In handling the inheritance work, Nitta pulled 710,000 yen from an account with a bank book of the deceased without permission, police said, according to Fuji News Network (June 14). The matter came to light after a legal association was contacted about Nitta’s handling of the work.
According to the Asahi Shimbun (June 14), the Tokyo Shiho-Shoshi Lawyer’s Association warned Nitto about practicing without a license in 2003 and 2009.
