TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Sunday arrested the leader of a bosozoku motorcycle gang for allegedly extorting a hostess club in Edogawa Ward, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Nov. 10).
Officers took Zhang Rongxing, the 44-year-old leader of Dragon, and three other suspects into custody for demanding payment of 50,000 yen per month in “protection” money — termed mikajimeryo — from the female manager of a Chinese hostess club in the Monzen-Nakacho area.
According to police, the suspects began threatening the manager in September of last year. The group subsequently received approximately 700,000 yen in payments.
All four suspects have denied the allegations, police said.
Last year, the National Police Agency began classifying bosozoku gangs as “pseudo-yakuza” groups to better reflect the true state of their activities.
Dragon is comprised of second- and third-generation returnees from China who came to Japan after the end of World War II.
The matter came to the attention of police after another female manager filed a similar complaint.