Debito: Foreigner Crime File funded by Japanese police?

In a blog entry posted last night, civil rights activist Arudou Debito posted the first part of an essay which details a belief he holds regarding the “Gaijin Hanzai Ura File” magazine: “that the National Police Agency, or some police branch, was behind it.” What information has led him to this conclusion?

• The publisher listed in the magazine, “Joey Washington,” does not exist.
• The publishing company “refuses to reveal” the patron behind the magazine and its representative canceled his appearance at a press conference about the issue, perhaps because he was convinced not to appear by this invisible patron.
• According to a source in the publishing business, it would cost at least $250,000 to print a magazine of this type. The magazine had no advertisements to help cover this cost. However, the National Police Agency has “secret budgets and a clear mandate to monitor foreigner activity,” and could have acted as a source of funds for the publication.
• The degree of information and access to police in the process of this magazine’s creation suggests active police participation in the project. In an interview, Mr. Saka stated, “We have spoken with Japanese police in order to write each article. For them this issue is serious and they have provided the data.”
• Many of the photos in the magazine were probably provided by the police. There are also numerous photos that appear to have been taken from surveillance cameras, which would mean that police probably provided the photos.
• Quite a few of the photos contain policemen in the action of apprehending or confronting foreign criminals. Japanese police rarely allow themselves to be photographed on the job.
• “If they are not financially behind the mook, then they are certainly supplying the data, and perhaps some of the analysis.”

Debito’s claim in interesting, and there’s a possibility it could be true, but I’m not going to accuse the Japanese police of funding the magazine unless there is hard evidence to support such an event taking place. I don’t doubt that the police were at least helpful in providing data and answering inquiries from the authors of the magazine, but I also believe that the magazine could have been published without advertisements at a great cost under the assumption that it would sell enough copies to make a profit. The editor of the magazine, Mr. Saka, might work for a company that prints various shady magazines and porn, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is lying when he says there is no secret patron behind the “Gaijin Hanzai Ura File.” For the time being, I’m going to go on believing that this was just the work of a publishing company that was hoping to make some profit from a sensationalist magazine, rather than the work of a far more sinister invisible hand.