Japanese Mob Tied To Slaying Of Executive

TOKYO - The murder of Juntaro Suzuki, a senior executive of Fuji Photo Film Co., outside his home Monday night has sent a chilling reminder of organized crime's reach into Japan's corporate boardrooms.

Most of the speculation about the attack centers around the theory that Suzuki was killed - apparently with a samurai sword - for refusing to pay extortion money from Fuji's coffers to gangsters who specialize in disrupting companies' annual meetings.

Suzuki, 61, was stabbed in his neck, arms and legs after he went outside to check on a person who had rung his doorbell, police said. Witnesses said they saw a man brandishing a samurai sword running from the area.

The Fuji company has become a target of "sokaiya," racketeers who extort money from companies by threatening to harass management at annual meetings.

Fuji Film's annual meeting on Jan. 19 was disrupted by about 20 sokaiya, who harangued the company's president, Minoru Ohnishi, for more than four hours with questions. One sokaiya with links to the Yamaguchi-Gumi, the largest yakuza (gangster) organization, threw three liquor bottles at Ohnishi and was arrested.

To try to thwart the sokaiya, most Japanese companies hold their stockholders' meetings on the same day. A 1982 law forbids payments to sokaiya.