Overview
- The Tokyo Metropolitan Police and Okinawa Prefectural Police arrested two Chinese nationals on suspicion of running an unlicensed currency‑exchange operation that converted yuan to cash yen, police said Wednesday.
- Investigators say the service used a room in a Tokyo apartment and Chinese mobile‑payment platforms to receive yuan from clients and hand over equivalent Japanese yen in cash.
- Police allege the underground exchange handled transactions for both Chinese international students and members of special‑fraud groups who used the service to move stolen cash.
- A separate 27‑year‑old Chinese suspect was arrested on fraud charges for an alleged June 2025 fake‑police scam that yielded ¥5 million, much of which police say may have been brought into the underground bank.
- Authorities are collecting financial records and tracing transfers through Chinese e‑payment services as they seek to map how roughly ¥320 million in suspected scam proceeds flowed through the operation and to identify wider criminal links.