Four Arrested Including Nagoya Company Executive and Chinese Graduate Student Indicted Over 1,000 Remotely Operated Pachinko Machines in Warehouse
This article organizes publicly available information into a single account. Where it describes an arrest or an ongoing investigation, that reflects only one stage of criminal procedure and does not mean guilt has been established (the presumption of innocence applies). We will update this article as new information becomes available, including the outcome of prosecution, non-prosecution, or trial. This article is not intended to unfairly disparage any individual, group, nationality, ethnicity, or belief, and aims to provide objective, fact-based information.
The Nara District Public Prosecutors Office indicted four people, effective February 10, 2026, on charges of operating a gambling establishment for profit: a company executive from Nagoya (68) and three others, including a Chinese national graduate student living in Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture. The indictment alleges that, between November 2024 and February 2026, the group installed a large number of remotely operable pachinko and pachislot machines (reported to number around 1,000) in a warehouse in Yamatokoriyama, converting customer deposits into points on a dedicated app that were then used to gamble.
The four were initially arrested on February 18, 2026 on suspicion of violating the Copyright Act (unauthorized streaming of footage from popular gaming machines), before the Nara District Public Prosecutors Office switched the charge to gambling facilitation and indicted them. Most of the customers, believed to have been recruited through social media, are said to have been Chinese nationals.
Current status: The case is at the indictment stage, and details such as the outlook for trial remain unclear as of this writing. Separately, some reports have suggested that a Chinese businessman believed to have organized the online gambling operation has surfaced but has not been arrested; the full picture of the case requires further confirmation. This article will be updated as further details emerge.
Illegal gambling operations that recruit primarily Chinese customers via social media can be seen as one category of organized crime exploiting networks within Japan's Chinese community, alongside cases such as money laundering carried out through underground banking (related coverage).