[2] He began his career as a yakuza after graduating from middle school, when he met the head of the Suzuki-gumi, an Inagawa affiliate, in jail.
He joined the Suzuki-gumi and founded a yamikin organization in Shinjuku, Tokyo, launching his underground financial business.
[3] He left the Suzuki-gumi in 1997 and along with his elementary school senior Yasuo Takagi, he joined the Shizuoka-based Mio-gumi, a tertiary organization of the Yamaguchi-gumi.
[4] In August 2003 he was arrested for violating the investment law by "supervising moneylenders providing loans at unlawfully high interest rates".
[2] He was convicted of 14 charges against him by 2005, and was sentenced to seven years in prison in February for money laundering involving the Standard Chartered Bank and Credit Suisse.