Japan PI drew media attention. Here is the interview we had.
What kind of business does Japan PI provide?
Japan PI is a bilingual detective company that integrates translation and investigation. We mainly handle private investigation services in Japan for foreign corporations and individuals located both outside of Japan and inside Japan. Since we serve exclusively international clients, we provide unique services that no other Japanese investigators do as well as the standard investigative services often found at other PI agencies in Japan.
In particular, what kind of business does Japan PI do?
We deal with business, legal, and personal projects, respectively.
Business Investigations
Due diligence
We have numerous orders for FCPA due diligence cases from US companies. FCPA is the abbreviation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (US federal law). We will research related parties (organizations or individuals) based on an open information investigation and information source interviews for verification of connections with politics and government and any past scandals including corruption, bid-rigging, bribery, litigation, etc. When it comes to a business dealing or M&A of a major Japanese company, the FCPA due diligence is also done on their subcontractors or cooperating firms. Many of the corporations subject to this due diligence are trading firms in the defense/aerospace industry, major electronic equipment companies, and third sector companies.
Intellectual Property/Market Research
We also have other requests for investigation of intellectual property and market research. We will conduct undercover operations for suppliers that sell counterfeit goods or make proxy purchases for customers. We may interview the former employees, analyze public information, and investigate the perspective and issues of the target companies.
Insurance Investigations
There are also investigation requests by international insurance companies. We often handle death verification investigations. We will obtain hospital death certificates, autopsy reports, funeral certificates, cremation permission certificates, family register records, obituaries, etc. And we will visit or call each relevant agency. Also, we will conduct surveillance on the potential fraud insurance claim cases.
Legal Investigations
Legal Documents
We obtain divorce acceptance certificates at the city hall in Japan in the case of the remarrying clients after the international divorce in Japan. We will investigate the required information for the document and get it as a proxy. In Common Law countries, such as the UK and U.S., birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates are separate. So we must get the divorce decrees instead of Koseki family registry records. We will also record fingerprints for FBI’s criminal history certificate for foreigners staying in Japan. We are a cross-cultural bridge.
Process Service/Service By Publication
As a remedy for the failure of the process service by the post office in Japan, we frequently submit residence status reports for the remedial court’s procedures. It is an activity to protect a citizen’s rights to receive a lawsuit (Article #32 of Constitution).
We can also accept orders for private process services from foreign courts on a limited basis. In countries based on Common Law such as the UK and US, there is a legal system called process service. PIs or process servers carry out this task in those countries. But Japan is based on Continental law. There is the Hague Service Convention to fill those gaps.
Child Custody Disputes
We locate the whereabouts of children and investigate the habitat environment of children for parents with issues of child custody or visitation rights. The Japanese government has signed the Hague Convention on parental child abduction. Police investigate the cases of international child abduction. Regarding the legal issues of child custody, we introduce Japanese lawyers who can serve in foreign languages.
Witness Statements
We also prepare witness statements for litigation. In the case of a class action on bid rigging and defective commodities in the automobile industry, we engaged in the preparation of witness statements. Also as a pro bono activity of the criminal defense investigation, for the Innocence Project, we prepared the Japanese witness statements.
Personal Investigations
Lost Family/Heirs
We often locate family or heirs. However, Japan’s privacy law is unusually strict. Also, Japan is the only country in the world that still uses the Koseki family register system peculiar to East Asia in the ancient days. Furthermore, the majority of foreign clients do not know the Japanese characters for the subject’s name and their permanent domicile (Honseki). These make it extremely difficult to find someone in Japan.
Adultery Travelers to Japan
Hokkaido is the favorite destination for Asian tourists. So is it for the infidelity tourists? Adultery travelers from the US and Europe often accompany their mistress to a business trip to Tokyo or Osaka. Also, we conduct surveillance on Japanese wives who are returning to Japan for their foreign husbands. As the number of international tourists increases, adultery tourists are also on the rise.
International Investigations
Japan PI has a branch in Hawaii and also provides translation and services. We are also a member of the international PI associations including CII and WAD. Through such networks, for Japanese clients, we can assign detective investigations in the US and anywhere in the world.
By the way, how did you learn English, Mr. Koyama?
I have never studied abroad or lived abroad at all. I taught myself English through U.S. military radio, English newspapers, and online contents. I have been engaged in the PI industry in Japan since 1992. I’ve been listening to English radio, even during surveillance and traveling.
That’s why Mr. Koyama is also familiar with the Internet and IT technology.
Without the Internet, I can not learn English at all. From that, I was also interested in gathering information through open source intelligence (OSINT). Even today, without IT technology, such as translation/voice typing apps, we cannot perform efficient work. We write Japanese in a form close to English grammar. It is the secret to letting the translation apps do a good job.
Japan PI has branches in Hawaii and Osaka, too.
The majority of our clients are foreign clients. Therefore, the Hawaii branch is a correspondent office for US clients and other international clients. There is a licensing system of the PI industry in the U.S. American clients trust PIs. Therefore, ironically, we can quickly contract with U.S. clients than those of Japanese.
We dominate the inbound PI business in Japan. Therefore, the target areas spread all over Japan. We also provide competitive prices and the industry-leading investigative skills in any area of Japan, both in surveillance and on local source interviews because we utilize mobile devices, remote surveillance videos, taxi apps, share cars, share cycles, LCC airlines, overnight bus, etc.
