Sōkaiya

Sōkaiya (総会屋, sōkaiya^?) (sometimes also translated as corporate bouncers, meeting-men, or corporate blackmailers) are specialized racketeers unique to Japan, and often associated with the yakuza that extort money from or blackmail companies by threatening to publicly humiliate companies and their management, usually in their annual meeting (総会, sōkai^?).

Sōkaiya originate from the late 19th century. At this time, the unlimited liability of the management put the managers' personal fortune at risk in case of rumors and scandals. Hence the management hired protection, called sōkaiya, to reduce the risk of such rumors. Even after the Japanese laws included a limited liability, hence reducing the personal risk to the managers, these sōkaiya continued to prosper, and were often used to quiet down otherwise difficult meetings. One infamous case is related to the Minamata disease, where Chisso managed to close a number of annual meetings within minutes even though hundreds of protesters wanted to voice their anger. In that respect, they have even been compared to corporate lawyers in America.

In 1984, the law made first steps to reduce the threat from sōkaiya by establishing a minimum number of holdings (¥50,000) in order to be allowed into the shareholder meeting, leading to a slow decline of the number of sōkaiya. In response to this, the sōkaiya formed fake uyoku dantai, announcing embarrassing company secrets, fictional or not, from loudspeakers mounted on trucks in order to extort money from companies.

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