Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Tokyo Swindlers’ presents the story of a group of scammers who plan and execute the biggest real estate fraud in the history of Japan. Led by a man named Harrison, the team consists of hand-picked members to do the job. Takumi, who had his reasons for becoming a land swindler and was trained by Harrison himself, works as the negotiator (among other things) and is an indispensable part of the team. Takeshita, Koto, and Reiko work in different departments to ensure that the scam is well-plotted and executed so that nothing comes back to them and none go to prison.
Together, they devise a plan that not many scammers would think of going forward with. It involves billions of yen but also increases the risk tenfold. By the end of this scam, the lives of all those involved are changed, with most of them receiving the short end of the stick. SPOILERS AHEAD
Goto and Reiko Pay the Price for Leaving the Team
Harrison was a career criminal. He had committed many crimes, mostly frauds, for many years but wasn’t caught as often. He went to jail once for a short while but returned to his old ways and started planning and executing more ambitious scams. But with each crime, he also became more careful. To make sure that the cops didn’t get to him again, he would tie up all loose ends, which means that anyone who was not going to be useful to him anymore was going to have to be killed. He applied this logic to every accomplice, even those he had worked with for years. The same goes for Goto and Reiko.
A scam cannot work without a team, and Harrison assembles the most skilled people in their fields. This is why he brings Goto and Reiko into the fore, and they prove themselves quite valuable. They partake in several scams and are satisfied with working with Harrison because they get to make big money in a short while. But then, with time, they realize how dangerous Harrison is. For Goto, this realization comes from watching the bodies fall. In their ten billion yen scam, they use a third party and are introduced through another broker, whom Goto has known for years. The man also seems to know Harrison and is completely aware of the scam, though he isn’t directly a part of it.
When the deal is finalized, Harrison has the man killed, and when Goto finds out about it, he is convinced that he must leave the team once the scam is done. In the same vein, Reiko sees a different side of Harrison when he assaults her. When her chosen impersonator becomes unavailable at the last moment, she is told to step in. She hesitates to do it, especially because it means she must shave her head. But Harrison pulls her hair with such force that some are uprooted. If there is any doubt in Reiko’s mind about Harrison being dangerous, this incident convinces her that she must leave the team.
Harrison doesn’t make a big deal out of two of the most important members of the team walking out, but that’s simply because he knows he is going to kill them, especially Reiko, because she worked as the impersonator this time, and Harrison has a record of killing the impersonators after every job. As expected, he sends his Indonesian assassins after Goto and Reiko, and that’s the last time we see them. Unless some unexpected force intervenes, it is confirmed that Goto and Reiko are dead.
What Happens to Takumi?
Everyone has reasons for committing a life of crime; for Takumi, the reason was revenge. His family was destroyed after his father fell victim to a case of land swindling, and the culprit was never caught by the police. Takumi believes that if he becomes a land swindler, he might come across the man who swindled them at one point, and then he can get revenge. For five years, he scams people with Harrison but never realizes that he is the man behind his family’s downfall. Takumi is after a man named Nishitani, who brought them the deal and took their money. However, having worked as a swindler, Takumi knows that the person in front of the victim is not always in charge. He and Goto would talk with the victims in the scams they executed, but Harrison was pulling the strings. Detective Kuramochi reveals that Nishitani was in cahoots with Harrison and ran into hiding because he was worried that Harrison would kill him.
While the news is shocking to Takumi, it isn’t entirely unbelievable. It makes him realize how foolish he had been all this while working with the man who had destroyed his life and helped him destroy the lives of other people. Now that he knows the truth, he confronts Harrison and discovers he knows exactly who Takumi is. He confesses that he didn’t realize it when he offered Takumi to become a land swindler. Later, looking into his background, he discovered that his father was the man Harrison and Nishitani had once swindled.
Now that the truth is out in the open, Takumi attacks Harrison but is unexpectedly attacked by Orochi, whom Harrison had promised to let in on the team if he did Harrison a favor. Orochi stabs Takumi, but instead of being rewarded for it, he is shot dead by Harrison. Just as Harrison is about to kill Takumi, Kuramochi shows up and almost has Harrison in cuffs when he throws a grenade. Takumi and Kuramochi, while trying to protect each other, fall into the blast radius and are left incapacitated. Because Takumi had thrown the grenade at a distance, he and the detective are saved from death. The next we see of him is in the hospital, recuperating from the stab wound.
The scam has come to light by now, and Sekiyo House is busy internally investigating how they were so easily fooled. Takumi is the only one on the team arrested for the crime and will go to prison. Goto and Reiko are dead, Takeshita has already been killed, and Harrison is nowhere to be found. Takumi expresses guilt over working for Harrison for so long and not seeing through him while destroying the lives of so many people. He has accepted his fate and is ready to go to prison once he is well enough to be discharged.
Will Harrison be Caught?
At the beginning of the series, we find Harrison in America, where he is on a deer hunt but kills a bear. He tells this story to Takumi while telling him about his work as a land swindler and what it means for him to scam people. At the end of the series, we find him on another hunt, but his whereabouts are not confirmed; there is no one around him to give us the context of his location. However, considering his previous patterns, it is clear that he is not in Japan at the time. Because he came so close to being killed and arrested, it makes sense that Harrison would leave the country as soon as possible and be in hiding until the fervor around the Sekiyo House scam dies down. However, whether he will return to Tokyo or take his operations elsewhere remains to be seen.
In his last meeting with Takumi, he discussed planning an even bigger scam. To put things in context, the Sekiyo House scam was the biggest he had executed. It got him billions of yen but also generated too much buzz due to the company’s size. This means Harrison wouldn’t be able to repeat the magic with another company soon. The Sekiyo House fraud would have put all big companies on alert, and none of them would want to fall into the same scam, which means all the security and procedures for buying and selling the land would have become stricter.
Having been in the business of scamming for so long, Harrison would have expected all this, yet he invited Takumi to join him in his next plan. This means that Harrison, most likely, has his eyes set somewhere outside of Tokyo, even Japan, where the fraud wouldn’t be so well known and where he wouldn’t have any detectives looking into him. The lack of criminal history would give him and his team an advantage, allowing them to be more audacious. Considering this, the theory about him leaving Japan makes even more sense. This also means catching him would be even more difficult, but it’s not impossible.
The only thing that kept Harrison from the clutches of law was his tying up all loose ends, leaving behind no one who could be traced back to him. This time, however, he leaves Takumi. It is not intentional, but it is a huge error on his part because not only does Takumi know exactly how his mind works, but the man also has a vendetta against him. Now that he is under arrest, Takumi has only one way to get his hands on Harrison and avenge the destruction of his family. He will have to work with the law to get to Harrison, and with his sharp brain and being trained in the ways of things by Harrison himself, he will prove to be an invaluable asset, using whom the cops may finally be able to get their hands on Harrison and stop him for good.
Read More: Tokyo Swindlers: Are Takumi Tsujimoto and Harrison Yamanaka Based on Real Con Artists?
