Tokyo police arrested three men aged 71 to 79 in late October on suspicion of forging and using a private document, after they registered one of them as the adopted son of a 93-year-old Akasaka landowner without his consent, in an apparent bid to inherit his land.
The Akasaka police station and investigators believe the men intended to inherit the property after the owner died. The land sits in a prime part of Akasaka, central Tokyo, and holds the home where the owner lives alone. Its value is thought to run into the hundreds of millions of yen.
The man accused of leading the scheme approached the owner from 2022 onward about selling the land, according to the station and investigators. The owner refused.
Papers filed at Minato ward office
The suspects are accused of writing the owner's name and affixing a seal without permission on an adoption registration form naming one of them as the adopted son. The form was submitted to the Minato ward office on July 29. All three have admitted to the allegations.
The owner learned he had been targeted when the ward office sent him notice that the registration had been accepted, and consulted police. He then filed to dissolve the adoption, which has been annulled.