FUKUOKA (TR) — Police have arrested five Japanese nationals transferred from the Philippines over their alleged involvement in a massive fraud ring targeting the elderly, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Apr. 7).
The five suspects are believed to be members of the Philippines-based crime syndicate JP Dragon. Among them was Miyako Iwamoto, the 34-year-old leader of the syndicate. They arrived at Narita International Airport on April 7 before being transferred to Fukuoka Prefecture for questioning.
They face charges of fraud and theft. The suspects have been identified as Iwamoto, Ayumu Osawa, 33, Kunichika Harada, 49, Nobuyuki Arima, 45, and 34-year-old Yuya Yano.
According to the Fukuoka police, the group conspired with other individuals in 2022 to defraud an 88-year-old woman in Gifu City.
Impersonating police officers, they allegedly telephoned the victim and told her, “There are counterfeit bills among your cash, and we need to examine them for fingerprints.”
The group subsequently swindled the woman out of 1.4 million yen in cash and stole her ATM cards, which were then used to withdraw additional funds.
Investigators believe the five suspects operated primarily as kakeko (callers) placing deceptive calls from the Philippines, as well as shishiyaku (instructors) who directed accomplices on the ground in Japan to collect the cash.
Philippine immigration authorities initially detained the suspects in October 2025. Following their deportation, Japanese police executed the arrest warrants mid-flight as their aircraft entered Japanese airspace.
Since 2019, the JP Dragon syndicate is believed to have orchestrated a sprawling fraud network targeting the elderly across Japan. Police estimate the group has duped roughly 250 victims across 20 prefectures, accumulating illicit profits amounting to approximately 900 million yen.
Police are continuing to probe the inner workings of the criminal organization in an effort to uncover the full scope of their operations.
Iwamoto
The suspects carried out tokushu sagi (specialized fraud) from a base in in Quezon Province, about a three-hour drive south of central Manila.
As previously reported, Iwamoto began working as an ukeko — or receiver, meaning a person charged with collecting money from victims — for a fraud ring in Japan. She later received an offer to work as a kakeko from the Philippines.
Despite the fact that she was highly skilled in serving as an ukeko (the brazen lies she could tell when went to collect money from victims’ homes were deemed among the best in the business) Iwamoto decided to travel alone to the Philippines to change her role.
Upon arrival, she was immediately assigned to a group affiliated with the Japanese criminal organization JP Dragon. Until his arrest in June, Ryuji Yoshioka, 55, was the boss of JP Dragon, which is comprised of multiple groups.
As soon as she began her job, Iwamoto put her skills on full display. She easily elicited information from even the most suspicious victims, including those whose grip on their cash card PIN numbers would have caused normal fraudsters to give up.
“There are manuals for callers, but the success of callers depends on the individual’s skill. [Iwamoto] not only possessed amazing skills but she was also fast and unflinching. And she could lie with confidence. She was a genius,” a JP Dragon insider previously told Shukan Gendai.
Iwamoto quickly became the group’s top earner and made a name for herself throughout the organization.
