“Why can you buy books on the internet but not real estate?” “Why does the fellow at the real estate agency hurriedly send a fax when you rent an apartment?” For most people, real estate—the thing that corresponds to “housing”—should be familiar, yet somehow it is full of things they do not understand. Things that are common sense in other industries are absurd in the real estate industry. Experts clearly unravel these real estate “mysteries” and explore the near future of the industry, using AI and other forms of IT.
After the collapse of the bubble economy, Japanese real estate prices, which had been languishing, have reversed course and begun to rise, while domestic and foreign investment is gathering momentum. Drawing on advanced overseas examples as well, the future of the real estate industry and property prices is presented in an easy-to-understand outlook. In the third installment, we take a deep dive into “why property fraudsters still exist today,” from the perspective of analog real estate transactions and land registration.
An image of the kind of vacant home left stranded among the buildings in central Tokyo that property fraudsters target (image generated by ChatGPT)
Author Profile: Tsuteyuki Kato
GA technologies
Head of Public Relations; Licensed Real Estate Transaction Specialist
Graduated from the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2002 and joined Hakuhodo. He spent about 10 years in sales for companies in the foodservice, confectionery, and cosmetics industries, then became chairman of a labor union and went on to work in corporate planning and new business development, as well as serve as director of work-style reform. In December 2018, he joined OpenHouse, a comprehensive real estate company, where he served as head of marketing, head of public relations and advertising, head of the President’s Office, and head of business development. Concurrently, he also served as representative director of Minakami Hodatsuki Resort, a subsidiary that operates a ski resort.
In November 2023, he joined GA technologies. After serving as head of the Communication Design Center, he now serves as head of Public Relations, overseeing public relations and external relations.
“Even our office couldn’t have seen through it…”
“If forged documents had suddenly been presented to us, even our office probably could not have seen through them,” said Sho Mizowaki, an acquaintance of the author who had worked at a judicial scrivener’s office and was well versed in real estate transactions. He said he felt a chill run down his spine while watching a news report. The report concerned a 2017 case in which Sekisui House was defrauded of approximately ¥5.5 billion in land purchase money by a group of property fraudsters through a sham transaction.
The Sekisui House case unfolded at a historic inn on a site of roughly 600 tsubo in Gotanda, Tokyo. The property fraudsters arranged for someone to pose as the property’s owner and skillfully forged identity-verification documents, including a registered seal certificate and a passport. They deceived not only the company but even experts such as judicial scriveners and lawyers. Sekisui House entered into a sale contract with the person claiming to be the owner and paid over most of the money. However, the actual owner was someone else. Because the land registry office refused to grant provisional registration, the property fraudsters’ crime came to light.
Property fraud took root and spread during the chaotic period after World War II. The numbers were published in the Police White Paper through 1982; in 1981, the number of known cases reached 1,264, and 1,235 cases resulted in arrests.In 2025, a group of four people, men and women, was arrested in connection with incidents targeting land and buildings in the bustling district of “Minami” in Osaka, while criminal groups continue operating in the shadows. Netflix’s drama “The Land Sharks” has also attracted attention.
Land sharks who prepare meticulously; experts find training difficult
Still, why have crimes by land sharks not disappeared even though several land-transaction professionals, including judicial scriveners, are involved? Mizowaki cites as the reason that “land sharks themselves are a very rare presence.” Their faces and names are not publicized, and even when they work at a judicial scrivener’s office, people normally never encounter them in their lives. Consequently, most judicial scrivener’s offices have no experience with victimization and operate in environments where it is also difficult to conduct training based on an understanding of how land sharks actually operate.
In addition, staff members, including judicial scriveners, perform numerous routine duties every day, such as acting as agents for real-estate and corporate registration and court-deposit procedures, as well as preparing documents for submission to courts. Because of shortages of time, experience, and personnel, crime countermeasures, including measures against land-shark fraud, which is rare, tend to be put on the back burner.
Meanwhile, land-shark groups make meticulous preparations, with an “information broker” who finds attractive properties, a “negotiator” who negotiates with prospective land buyers, a “toolmaker” who produces forged documents, an impersonator posing as the owner, and a leader who coordinates the whole operation, before swooping on targets as a group. Their methods and forgery techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated, making it impossible even for experts to distinguish them merely by examining documents at their desks. As a result, it has become difficult not only for the general public but also for experts such as judicial scriveners to detect forged documents and impersonation.
