OSAKA (TR) – A 67-year-old former company executive who posed as a licensed physician for decades has been handed a five-year prison term by a court here after conducting hundreds of unlicensed medical consultations and swindling an acquaintance out in a fake cancer vaccine investment scheme, reports the Mainichi Broadcasting System (Oct. 29).
The Osaka District Court on Thursday sentenced Shinichi Harada, 67-year-old former company executive, to five years in prison after finding him guilty of practicing medicine without a license and fraud.
Harada, a man with no medical qualifications, spent roughly eight months treating patients at a cancer specialty clinic in Kita Ward, Osaka City, conducting 417 consultations and writing prescriptions for 169 patients between September 2023 and April 2024, according to prosecutors.
He held himself out throughout as a graduate of the Kyoto University School of Medicine.
Prosecutors told the court that Harada first adopted the false identity as a Kyoto University-trained physician around 30 years ago, reportedly to impress women he wished to date. The deception, once started, never stopped.
Among Harada’s most serious offenses was his role in determining which patients were eligible for cancer immunotherapy vaccines, a high-stakes medical decision the court described as a “critically important medical act.” The presiding judge said the conduct “shook public trust in medical institutions” and amounted to a grave crime.
Beyond the clinic, Harada also approached an acquaintance with a fabricated investment pitch tied to a cancer vaccine he claimed to be manufacturing and selling. The scheme netted him approximately 30 million yen, police said. Prosecutors branded the fraud “cowardly,” noting that Harada had exploited the false impression he had created as a physician to extract the money.
Throughout the proceedings, Harada acknowledged the unlicensed medical practice charges but pushed back hard on the fraud counts, telling the court “most of it is wrong” and insisting he had explained the risks involved to investors. In his final statement before sentencing, he declared, “I strongly want to say that I have not deceived anyone at all.”
The court was unmoved. The judge found that Harada had “repeatedly made false statements even in the courtroom” and showed no sign of remorse, factors cited in the sentencing decision. Prosecutors had sought six years, arguing the case was ‘malicious enough to damage the public’s trust in the medical profession as a whole.’
