Tokyo Swindlers follows the land frauds committed by a group of swindlers led by a ruthless man. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
In Japan, the members of real estate fraud groups are known as land swindlers. They pose as property owners to defraud buyers out of their money.
By the time the buyers realize the property ownership was not transferred because the owner they met was an imposter, it is too late to recover their money.
Harrison Yamanaka leads one such group, which consists of Takumi, who acts as a negotiator; Takeshita, an informer; Goto, a legal advisor; Nagai, a document forger; and Reiko, an imposter recruiter.
Harrison is an infamous criminal. He was arrested in the past, but the police were forced to let him go due to a lack of evidence.
A police detective, Shimomura, has not given up on catching Harrison, who continues committing land fraud and murders, among other crimes.
Harrison’s group is unaware that Harrison kills the people Reiko hires and trains to pose as property owners after the job is done and that he takes pleasure in doing so.
After successfully scamming a company called Mike Homes of one billion yen, Harrison decides to commit a scam worth ten billion yen.
His group targets Kouan-ji Temple and the prime land surrounding it, owned by the temple’s nun, Natsumi Kawai, who lives there alone and has been refusing to sell her land.
At the same time, Aoyagi, an employee of a large corporation called Sekiyo House, urgently needs to find a plot of land for the company’s next project.
Aoyagi’s career is on the line because the deal for the original project land fell through, and the company stands to lose money if an alternative plot is not found.
When Shimomura meets the owner of Mike Homes, he suspects that Harrison’s group scammed him. He then starts investigating with his new partner, Kuramochi.
Their investigation leads them to Takumi’s father, who is in prison. Takumi’s father was scammed by a land swindler and lost everything.
As a result, he tried to kill himself along with his family when Takumi was not home. While Takumi’s mother, wife, and son died, his father survived.
After Takumi’s father went to prison, Takumi started working as a driver for escorts and met Harrison when he nearly killed one of Takumi’s clients.
Harrison, believing that Takumi was similar to him, asked Takumi to work for him, and Takumi agreed. Over time, Takumi, a quick thinker, proved his worth to Harrison.
Takumi is now Harrison’s trusted protégé who ensures that the group’s scams go smoothly. Takumi is currently making plans for their next scam.
Sekiyo House is interested in buying Kawai’s property, and Takumi needs to devise a flawless plan to scam a company as large as Sekiyo House.
Takumi finds out that Kawai frequently visits a high-end escort named Kaede, so Takumi starts working for him and collects evidence of Kaede indulging in underage prostitution.
He then uses this evidence to blackmail Kaede into taking Kawai out of town on the day the group plans to take Aoyagi and his team to see Kawai’s property.
While Reiko manages to find a woman who can meet Aoyagi as Kawai, Takumi and Goto meet Aoyagi as Kawai’s representatives to negotiate the price of the land.
They set up the meeting through a broker firm, as suggested by a land shark who becomes aware of their plan. Harrison later gets the land shark killed.
On the same day, Shimomura figures out Harrison’s group’s plan, but before he can interrupt Takumi and Goto’s meeting with Aoyagi, he is kidnapped by Harrison’s men.
Police Superintendent Hara works for Harrison and provides intel that enables Harrison to kill Shimomura and make it look like a suicide. However, Kuramochi suspects foul play.
She contacts a journalist who used to give Shimomura underworld information, and the journalist starts digging into Saeki Kazuma, the land swindler who scammed Takumi’s father.
Kuramochi predicts that Takumi will visit his family’s graves on their death anniversary and meets him there. Although she fails to get him to cooperate, she manages to place a tracker on his car.
Meanwhile, Aoyagi’s colleague cautions him not to rush to finalize the deal worth billions of yen before meeting the owner of the land.
However, Aoyagi does not heed the warning and pushes the company’s directors to give him early approval to buy the land without properly investigating the property.
Once he gets the approval, Takumi and Goto agree to arrange a meeting with Kawai, planning to bring the imposter in her place.
Problems arise when the imposter Reiko has trained pulls out at the last minute. Harrison then forces Reiko to take her place.
As planned, Kaede takes Kawai out of town, allowing Harrison’s group to break into the temple to give Aoyagi and his team a tour of the property.
Takeshita, the group’s informer who is a drug addict, figures out that Harrison is going to kill him soon, so he tries to ruin the group’s plans.
He kills Kaede and sends Kawai back to Tokyo, intending for Aoyagi to come face to face with the real Kawai. Harrison finds out about his plan and murders him in cold blood.
Aoyagi and his team meet Reiko, who shows them the property. Reiko puts on a good performance, convincing them that she is Kawai and the deal is authentic.
Kawai arrives at the temple moments after Aoyagi leaves with his team. Since Aoyagi does not meet the real Kawai, Harrison’s team succeeds once again.
Days later, when Aoyagi realizes that his company lost 11.2 billion yen because of him, Harrison has him killed in a hit-and-run.
Ending explained:
A painful discovery
The journalist investigating Saeki informs Kuramochi that Saeki used to work with Harrison and fled Japan because Harrison tried to kill him.
He also reveals that Harrison orchestrated the land fraud that led to Takumi’s father killing his family. Kuramochi decides to share this with Takumi.
Using the tracker she placed on Takumi’s car, she finds out where he lives. She visits his house and tells him about Harrison’s involvement in destroying his family.
She provides him with proof, and Takumi realizes that Harrison has been using him all along, despite knowing that he is the son of the man he swindled.
Takumi has been working as a land swindler for five years, hoping to find the man responsible for the loss of his family and take revenge on him, only to discover that he has been benefitting the real culprit all along.
Takumi’s revenge
Takumi keeps hearing about people involved in their scams dying in accidents and suspects Harrison of killing them.
His suspicions are confirmed when he questions Harrison and learns that Harrison has also killed Goto and Reiko.
No longer willing to look the other way, Takumi plans to kill Harrison. He pays everyone involved in the scam their dues to show his gratitude before confronting Harrison.
Harrison confirms that he knew Takumi was the son of the man he swindled, but he made Takumi his protégé, believing that it was Takumi’s destiny.
Takumi stresses that, unlike Harrison, he does not find excitement in deceiving others. He tries to kill Harrison but is stabbed by Orochi, who wants to impress Harrison and become a land swindler.
Harrison then kills Orochi but fails to kill Takumi, who fights back despite his injuries. It is then that Kuramochi arrives there to arrest Harrison.
Harrison causes an explosion using a grenade, injuring both Takumi and Kuramochi, which gives him the opportunity to escape.
The aftermath
Takumi is admitted to the police hospital and agrees to fully cooperate with the police to help them catch Harrison.
Kuramochi holds Takumi responsible for the crimes he committed, reminding him that in seeking revenge, he did not get invested in a job but a crime.
With Takumi’s confession, the police uncover the details of the Sekiyo House land fraud. The fact that one of Japan’s leading real estate developers was swindled out of 11.2 billion yen shocks the whole country.
The company’s internal investigation unit interviews Aoyagi’s team members, but it does not prove to be useful.
This leads to the establishment of a new third-party investigation team, which includes the police. The fraud is still under investigation.
So far, the police have only managed to recover one billion yen paid to the broker; the remaining amount and Harrison are still missing.
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