KYOTO (TR) – Kyoto Prefectural Police arrested a popular vigilante YouTuber on Thursday on suspicion of defamation after he posted a video labeling a Kyoto real estate executive a “scammer.”
Takuma Nakano, the real estate executive based in Kyoto City’s Sakyo Ward, died in a suicide just a month after the video went live, reports Jiji Press (Oct. 14).
Miki Ikeda, a 28-year-old resident of Tokyo’s Nakano Ward who operates under the moniker “Shinjuku 109 KENZO,” boasts over 1.03 million subscribers on a channel dedicated to “eradicating fraud,” having uploaded more than 700 videos.
Upon his arrest, Ikeda withheld cooperation, telling investigators, “I will speak after I talk to my lawyer.”
According to the Sakyo Police Station, Ikeda is accused of uploading a video around June 14 of last year that featured an image of Nakano, then 36. The video featured inflammatory on-screen text reading, “The hidden face of a famous entrepreneur. A massive M&A scammer?”
Prior to his death, the targeted executive had consulted with police regarding the video. He passed away the month after the video was published, prompting his grieving mother to file a formal criminal complaint.
Extortionists
In a related development, Sakyo police also arrested two real estate company representatives on Wednesday on suspicion of attempted extortion. Makoto Akagi, 46, and Yuki Yasuda, 35, both residents of Okayama City, are accused of attempting to extort a 3 billion yen from a victim by threatening to distribute a similar defamatory video.
Because the video was posted on Ikeda’s YouTube account, investigators are now probing the extent of the relationship between the prominent YouTuber and the two alleged extortionists.
On Thursday, the mother of Nakano filed a lawsuit with the Kyoto District Court seeking approximately 230 million yen in damages from Ikeda and the two alleged extortionists. In the suit, she alleges that their actions, such as the posting of videos, led to her son’s suicide.
According to the complaint, Nakano became embroiled in a dispute with Akagi and Yasuda regarding the sale of a company he managed. Akagi allegedly requested that Ikeda create a video about the matter.