Struggle over a Building

It has been a long time since the building was focused on as a problem of the North Koreans’ community in Japan. Tokyo District Court on Sunday approved the bid of a religious corporation, Saifukuji, to buy the headquarters building of the General Association of Korean Residents, or Cho-sen Soren, in Tokyo. Although the building was brought to an auction due to the association’s huge debt, the Saifukuji’s chief monk who runs the corporation was willing to let the association to stay in the building. It was doubted that Saifukuji and the Soren had held an under-the-table deal.

Soren was established right after the end of the World War II to protect rights and ethnicity of Koreans, and it has been representing the interest of North Korea after the occurrence of Korean War. With the bankruptcy of credit unions that held over ¥60 billion of credits to Soren, the Resolution and Collection Corporation which bought the assets of those unions filed a lawsuit against Soren for retrieving the credits. The case went against Soren and the court ordered it to pay for its debt. After some failures of maneuvering, Soren could not avoid to let its headquarters building in downtown Tokyo come up for the auction.

Although the minimum price for the auction was ¥2.1 billion, Saifukuji made a bid with ¥4.5 billion. For that ridiculously high price, the chief monk explained that he borrowed the money from banks in Japan. He also showed his intention to use the building for integration of ethnics and as a place for prayer. The building is supposed to be used as the headquarters even after Soren loses its ownership.

In Japanese law, religious corporations are exempt from paying income tax. It is possible for Soren to make donations to Saifukuji without taxation. So the doubted scenario is that the building must have been sold to Saifukuji, enough money for it was prepared by Soren, Saifukuji promised continuous occupation of Soren, and Soren would compensate for Saifukuji with untaxed money.

Soren has basically been doubted as an organization for money laundering operated by the government of North Korea. If Soren wants to keep its business in Japan, it needs to be transparent for its money transfer. On the other hand, Soren doubts Japanese government of posing irrelevant regulation on it as an inappropriate sanction toward North Korea. If the government of Japan wants to pose economic sanction against the North, it needs to explain that its activity toward Soren has been done along with ordinary due process.