'Luffy' Wide-Area Robbery Case: 20-Year Sentence for Executive Tomonobu Kojima Finalized as Supreme Court Rejects Appeal
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 Supreme Court's First Petty Bench, presided over by Chief Judge Toru Sakai, ruled on August 3, 2026 to reject the appeal of Tomonobu Kojima, 48, an executive of a special-fraud group that directed wide-area robberies in Japan under the alias "Luffy" from a base in the Philippines. This finalizes the 20-year prison sentence handed down in the first and second trials on charges including aiding robbery causing injury. According to Jiji Press and other outlets, Kojima is the first of the group's four arrested executives to have his conviction finalized.
Kojima is accused of serving as a recruiter who gathered operatives through so-called "dark part-time job" postings and introduced them to another executive, in connection with three robbery cases that occurred in Inagi City, Tokyo, and elsewhere between October and December 2022. He is also believed to have led the group's cash-collection operations in multiple special-fraud cases in 2019.
Current status: The outcome of the trials of the group's remaining three executives remains unclear as of this writing. This article will be updated as further details emerge.
Regarding Japanese-led special-fraud and robbery groups operating from overseas bases, other reported cases include one in which a man was arrested for interpreting a Chinese ringleader's instructions at a Cambodia-based fraud base (related coverage) and one in which 13 people transferred from Cambodia were arrested (related coverage). Efforts to uncover the full extent of organized crime networks based across Southeast Asia continue.
Editorial Perspective
No decision on indictment has been made at this stage, so this article reflects information from the investigative phase. An arrest is only one step in criminal procedure and does not establish guilt (the presumption of innocence). According to National Police Agency and Ministry of Justice statistics, the number of Penal Code cases involving foreign nationals visiting Japan has risen for two consecutive years since 2023, but remains below its mid-2000s peak (related article). A single case does not necessarily reflect the broader statistical trend; further developments are worth watching.