In a crackdown on ticket scalping, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on May 27 arrested a company executive on suspicion of violating the ticket fraudulent resale law in connection with the recent MLB season opener at Tokyo Dome.
Police said Mamoru Kokubo, 54, who lives in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, scalped the highly prized tickets, which included preseason games with the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers playing the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball.
Police said the man on Feb. 14 and 15 resold a total of 12 tickets, with the list price totaling approximately 430,000 yen ($3,010), to three people on an internet site for four of the six games in the “MLB Tokyo Series,” including the exhibition games.
In all, police say he netted a total of 7.89 million yen.
The man also resold 50 tickets to other games of the series for a total of 21.8 million yen, police said.
Tickets to the two Cubs-Dodgers games, which featured a total of five Japanese players, including superstar Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, sold out quickly. The prices at which the man resold the tickets were up to about 33 times the face value.
Police said there were many other fraudulent sales of tickets to the series, in addition to the accused scalper.
Police said the man applied for the ticket lottery under the names of several corporations, including his own company.
He purchased multiple packs of tickets for the six MLB Tokyo Series games, which he then sold one game at a time to raise the price.
The man admitted that “the company’s business was suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic and I needed to raise funds,” police said.
Police believe that the man has netted approximately 53 million yen through such resales since 2022.
Illegal resale of tickets at high prices is subject to penalties not only for the scalpers but also for the purchasers.
People who purchase resale tickets on social networking sites often get into trouble, such as “I paid for the tickets but they didn’t arrive” or “I can’t enter the venue with the purchased ticket.”
The Japanese government has urged people to “use legitimate resale sites that have been authorized by the event organizer or promoter” when buying resale tickets.
An official in charge of the Metropolitan Police Department also cautioned, “Purchasing tickets for the purpose of resale is punishable. Purchasing resale tickets may encourage resellers to engage in illegal activities.”