Racketeering

According to a 1990 National Police Agency survey, 41.2% of 2,106 Japanese firms polled had been contacted by racketeers, and 32% said they had yielded to their demands by buying phony magazine subscriptions and paying other fees. Sums in nearly half the cases were less than 100,000 yen, approximately $775.

In 1990, local Indian extremists killed the chairman of an Assam tea production company. They then called a meeting of tea executives and demanded protection money. They were refused, and since then there has been repeated violence and a steady stream of kidnappings.