Thai women paid 3.8 mil. yen for smuggling into Japan

Asian Economic News, April 19, 1999

OSAKA, April 12 Kyodo

Dozens of Thai women paid a smuggling ring some 3.8 million yen each to spirit them into Japan stuffed in large suitcases, Osaka prefectural police said Monday. Police said they uncovered the ring after arresting on Saturday Toshiro Oyama, 45, who was accused of smuggling some 60 Thai women into Japan in large suitcases between 1994 and 1996. Thai police handed Oyama over to their Osaka counterparts Friday night. Oyama was listed as wanted by Osaka police through Interpol on charges of human smuggling in August 1996 after one of the Thai women in a suitcase was discovered at Kansai airport in June that year. According to Osaka police, Oyama headed the ring called "Company," which consists of about 10 Thai and Japanese men. About 20 other Japanese men helped the ring by carrying the suitcases holding the women into Japan, while a prostitution syndicate in Japan received those women, police said. Oyama, a former sex shop manager in Tokyo, moved to Thailand in December 1994 and allegedly smuggled some 60 Thai women into Japan by June 1996. Six people including Oyama have been arrested in the case, Osaka police said. He gave some 500,000 yen out of the 3.8 million yen paid by the women to the suitcase carriers and some 2 million yen to the syndicate. Oyama's ring received some 800,000 yen excluding 500,000 yen in travel expenses, police said.