CHIBA (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested seven members of a fraud ring who are suspected of deliberately causing car accidents and fraudulently claiming more than 60 million yen from insurance companies, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Mar. 12).
On May 9, 2023, Eiji Koyanagi, a 56-year-old resident of Kawasaki City, and two other suspects are alleged to have intentionally caused two cars to collide in a restaurant parking lot in Yokohama City.
They then deceived an insurance company by claiming it was an accidental accident and received approximately 6.67 million yen in payouts.
The other four suspects caused a similar accident on a road in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture on February 16, 2025. After the insurance company became suspicious, they did not make a payout.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of fraud, Koyanagi stated, “It’s true that I caused a traffic accident and defrauded insurance companies out of payments, but I never received any of the money.” Meanwhile, the other six suspects have admitted to the charges.
Koyanagi, the group’s leader, is nicknamed Crayfish. The arrest is not the first of Koyanagi. He also already stands accused of causing other accidents.
Police are investigating the possibility that Koyanagi and his associates intentionally caused at least eight accidents in Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Nagano and Osaka prefectures since January 2023. They then defrauded a total of approximately 62 million yen from insurance companies.
The matter surfaced in March of last year after an insurance company contacted the Tokyo police to report that a group was causing a large number of car accidents intentionally.
