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Japan’s NPA offers database of organized crime members to securities companies

The Tokyo Stock Exchange
The Tokyo Stock Exchange

TOKYO (TR) – Starting Friday, the National Police Agency (NPA) will begin offering a service that allows securities firms to determine whether potential customers are organized crime members, an initiative intended to sever funding sources for yakuza groups, reports Jiji Press (Jan. 4).

Securities firms are now able to search a database that includes the names, birthdays, and genders of members of yakuza groups.

“Securities trading has become a means of fund-raising for gangsters,” said a representative of the NPA. “Our intention is to end this practice.”

The database will be accessible through the Japan Securities Dealers Association, which includes 270 companies.

In 2010, the association prohibited member firms from allowing organized crime members to open accounts.

Not only is the initiative expected to prohibit future transactions by yakuza members, it is also intended to find current account holders with gang ties, Jiji said.

Photo source: tenaciousme on Flickr