Police in Sapporo have arrested a 26-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of causing bodily harm after he punched a man who works for the management company of his condominium, while holding a ballpoint pen, leaving him with stab wounds to the face.
The incident occurred at around 7:15 p.m. on Thursday, broadcaster NTV reported. Police said the suspect and the victim got into an argument on the street in front of the apartment building in Shiroishi Ward. The suspect punched the man several times in the face, with a ballpoint pen between his fingers.
Immediately before the incident, the victim had called police and said he expected trouble from a tenant in the building.
Police said the suspect has had trouble with the management company for some time.
The victim was taken to hospital where doctors said his wounds were not life-threatening.
© Japan Today
9 Comments
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Gaijinjland
These management companies can be real scum, using yakuza-like tactics if you’re even one day late with rent. Happened to me. One day late and 3 men show up at my door and force me to go to the bank with them to watch me transfer the funds. So yeah, not surprising one of them got punched in the face.
puregaijin
Classic case of “punch the messenger”. Good on him to have alerted the police beforehand.
Fighto!
Some real-estate employees in Japan are notorious for being borderline gangster and rather slimy - to put it nicely - but using violence is never the way to deal with disputes.
Jim
This is Japan where you have to pay your rent on time! Being late by one day is BEING LATE! That’s part of the reason why many Japanese landlords don’t want to give apartments to foreigners because they think that foreigners have a tendency to be late in payments! In your case you were in the wrong and you can’t blame the rent collectors! Maybe in your country it’s ok to pay rent late but NOT IN JAPAN! When one foreigner does such things, it makes all foreigners look bad!
wallace
If you pay your outstanding rent within six months, the courts will usually not evict you. It's better to pay the rent directly to the landlord's bank account than to pay a collector.
Open-minded
Was the attacker upset about the news that "Average price of Tokyo area condo up 9.5% to record high in FY2023"?
The real estate business is racket including online websites like realestate.jp. Most of these initial costs and extra monthly fees are ridiculous. Everybody is getting in on the action. I remember one agency in Gakugei daigaku that was ran by actual hosts. They had the suits, the hair, the predatory behavior on ignorant women, and attempting to upsell everything. It was silly setup. That did not over very well with the local neighborhood, and it was shut down a few months later.
Also, once a person is in a financial bind, the living arrangement 90% of the time in Japan exacerbates it.
Open-minded
Also, I know a certain management company that works with the owners in certain in demand locations to encourage tenants to not renew their leases after two years. They ar not worried about finding a new tenant. 1) If the market allows it, then they can do a little renovation and increase the rent or not, and 2) each new tenant means the upfront fees which can range from 60-100 man.
Those upfront fees are like a two year bonus to the owner and management company on top of the monthly rent and management fee!
Mocheake
Sounds like the opposite is true here. The management company has had trouble with the suspect for some time.
Michael Corleone
he could have lost an eye!!