114 landowners are seeking damages from an Osaka-based real estate company after claiming that they were encouraged to pay for land survey fees with the premise that they could sell their otherwise worthless forest land to Chinese buyers for high prices.
On November 28, a class-action lawsuit seeking 47 million Yen (390,000 USD) in damages was filed in the Osaka District Court against 13 employees of Mirai Tochi Corporation and two other related companies. According to the complaint, 114 people aged from 35 to 89 from across Japan were approached by the company between 2011 and 2014. They allege that they were encouraged to pay the company as much as 300,000 ~ 700,000 Yen in land survey and maintenance fees with the hope that the land could then be sold to Chinese buyers.
The company is also currently being prosecuted for fraud in the Nara District Court. According to the Nara prefectural police, the case, which also includes their predecessor Toshow Management, involves damages exceeding 1.36 billion Yen (11.3 million USD) and 5,000 victims in 36 prefectures across the country and overseas.