Overview

• Fukuoka Prefectural Police announced the arrests of six people, including real-estate employees Hayato Sekioka, 33, and a 27-year-old Osaka agent, on fraud-related charges.
• Investigators allege that from February to October 2024 the suspects submitted fake job-offer letters to four property managers to secure apartments in Fukuoka and Osaka.
• Police say the rented units were used to cultivate and store cannabis, and they seized about 150 plants and roughly 6.8 kilograms of dried marijuana valued at around ¥46.7 million.
• Officers searched the headquarters of Sekioka’s Fukuoka employer on Friday as they investigate how the rental approvals were obtained.
• An indicted Osaka broker testified that similar falsifications were common under a commission-based pay system, and police are examining whether the trafficking group solicited brokers across regions while seeking administrative penalties for implicated firms.