いくら否定しても、その強引なやり方で暴力団関与の臭いがプンプン。御用学者といい、組織暴力団といい、両者は人権を無視する日本社会で大いに商売繁盛。
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Conflict Over ‘Love Hotel’ Sale
A makeshift fence at Hotel Shine in Kawagoe, Japan, is intended to keep former workers away.
By HIROKO TABUCHI and STEPHANIE STROM
Published: October 1, 2012
KAWAGOE, Japan — Several years ago, an investment subsidiary of the agricultural giant Cargill bought a group of so-called love hotels, which typically rent rooms by the hour, including the neon-lit Hotel Shine in this sprawling Tokyo suburb.
Though many industry analysts say love hotels in Japan are a good cash flow business — catering to young married couples living with family, as well as to philanderers, prostitutes and even penny-pinching tourists — the Cargill subsidiary was disappointed with its results. The unit, CarVal Investors, sold the 10 properties last week for about $20 million, far less than the $60 million it paid for them in 2004 and 2005.
It might have been just another fire sale. After all, many American funds invested in distressed properties at the height of Japan’s economic woes without success.
But CarVal is now under fire from former employees and business partners in part because of the tough tactics of the new owner: an affiliate of a Japanese developer, the Kato Pleasure Group. Immediately after closing the sale on Thursday, the buyer dispatched groups of black-suited men to force out hotel workers and even hotel guests, barricading the entrances with wooden fences.
About 300 hotel workers have been left in the lurch. They are planning a rally outside Cargill’s Tokyo offices this week to protest their treatment. Two executives who managed the hotels under contract during CarVal’s ownership have refused to leave and remain inside Hotel Shine — a standoff that has drawn the attention of the local police.
The most vocal opponent of the sale, however, is CarVal’s former partner, Alchemy, which had a contract to manage the hotels. In registered letters, filed in court, Alchemy contends that CarVal violated business agreements by selling the properties before their contract was up in October 2014.
In submissions to both the local Tokyo and Saitama Metropolitan Police, Alchemy also contends that Kato Pleasure has ties to Japan’s criminal underground and that CarVal ignored repeated warnings — backed up by outside research — not to go through with the sale.
“Our complaint to CarVal is that they ignored credible advice that they were dealing with a suspected organized crime entity,” said Miro Mijatovic, Alchemy’s chief executive.
CarVal says Alchemy’s accusations are baseless. Kato Pleasure also denies that it has criminal links, but it provided little response to questions posed to a spokesman at its Tokyo headquarters and to company representatives at Hotel Shine. The new owner of the hotels is Plus Ten Mind, a company affiliated with Kato Pleasure that shares the same chief executive.
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