The following text is an excerpt from The Man who made Space Battleship Yamato ~ The Madness of Yoshinobu Nishizaki, by Yasumasa Makimura and Tetsuhisa Yamada. (Kodansha, Sept 2015)

Be Forever Yamato and the Seahorse Incident

The third movie, Be Forever Yamato was released on August 2, 1980. However, during the final stages of the production, Yoshinobu Nishizaki was at the mercy of a super typhoon called the “Seahorse Incident.”

At the center of this were lawyer Masatomo Yamazaki, and Kenichiro Ota, Office Academy’s vice president of finance and accounting. Ota was also the president of the subsidiary “Sanwa,” which was in trouble for tax evasion. Nishizaki was so trusted that several employees would listen to him lecture them, saying, “Follow Ota’s example. He made himself zero and followed me.”

After Yamazaki became the legal adviser to the Soka Gakkai buddhist organization in 1970, he gained the trust of Chairman Daisaku Ikeda, but in the same year, he was involved in wiretapping the home of the Japanese Communist Party’s Kenji Miyamoto, a political enemy of the Soka Gakkai. As Ikeda’s staff advisor, he was in a position to know the dark side of the Soka Gakkai.

Yamazaki was also a great contributor to the success of Yamato.

He started managing Seahorse, a frozen food company that was said to be affiliated with the Soka Gakkai. One theory is that the Gakkai asked Yamazaki to help rebuild Seahorse, which was on the verge of collapse. Nishizaki invested in Seahorse, knowing that the Soka Gakkai was backing it, so he probably didn’t think it was a risky investment. If it was at the request of Yamazaki, to whom he owed a debt of gratitude, he would have agreed without hesitation. Naturally, he left the flow of funds to Ota.

Office Academy frequently received direct calls from Yamazaki to the secretary’s office, and the secretary was put off by his arrogant tone. However, Nishizaki made receiving Yamazaki’s calls his top priority, and was apparently so polite that the secretary became suspicious.

However, Nishizaki’s biggest miscalculation was that Yamazaki had no business sense and was completely ignorant of the frozen food industry. Seahorse was taken advantage of by experienced brokers, some employees even started lining their pockets, and the debts snowballed.

Another miscalculation was that a rift had started to form in the relationship between Yamazaki and Soka Gakkai around 1977.

Originally, Soka Gakkai was a lay organization of Nichiren Shoshu [the Orthodox School of Nichiren, a larger Buddhist sect]. Daisaku Ikeda, the president of Soka Gakkai, was the head priest of the Nichiren Shoshu’s main temple. However, as Soka Gakkai’s power grew, a doctrinal conflict with Nichiren Shoshu intensified, and the relationship between the two became confused.

During that time, Yamazaki acted as an emissary for the Soka Gakkai, hoping to become a go-between with Nichiren Shoshu’s leader, Hosoi Nittatsu. However, Yamazaki began to show complex behavior, such as giving the Nichiren Shoshu strategies against the Soka Gakkai. Before long, Yamazaki became trouble for the Soka Gakkai. In this situation, Seahorse could no longer expect their backing.

Around this time (1980), Seahorse was on the brink of bankruptcy, and Yamazaki obtained 300 million yen from the Soka Gakkai under the pretext of clearing up their debts. However, this money was soon used up in the cash flow, and he demanded another 500 million yen, which led to him being sued for extortion. Yamazaki scrambled to raise funds, but bills came due one after another, and Seahorse went bankrupt when he ran out of options.

Meanwhile, Kenichiro Ota continued to lend generous amounts to Seahorse. He issued checks and loans without Nishizaki’s knowledge, and the amount had reached a point where it threatened the solvency of Office Academy.

Nishizaki later stated that it had taken 1.4 billion yen of assets to collect on the loans. Tetsuhisa Yamada [Nishizaki’s assistant producer] said that Nishizaki had used 500 million yen of his personal assets to cover this amount. In an interview with Kinejun magazine, he said, “by the time I realized it, 2 billion yen had disappeared from the safe” Either way, it was a huge loss of money that could have been fatal.

Just before Nishizaki fled to Europe in 1968, he issued a large number of advance checks in the name of Kazumi Tsuzuki, the president of Tokyo Musical Academy Productions (TMAP). In the end, Nishizaki got away with it. It is fair to say that the consequences of that time came back to haunt him hundreds, even thousands of times over.

Animation Director Takeshi Shirato vividly remembers the day the incident was discovered.

“During the voice recording for Be Forever, the studio suddenly got a phone call. Nishizaki was yelling loudly with his hands shaking. When he hung up the phone, he gulped down some water and ran out. I couldn’t help but stare at [Director] Toshio Masuda.”

It was probably at this time that Nishizaki first heard that the money had vanished. According to the testimony of Shozo Sudo, Ota gave Yamazaki 90 million yen in cash, instead of a loan or a check.

“The money was kept in a safe at Nishizaki’s home, and when Nishizaki found out and had his secretary check, the money was missing. Only Nishizaki and Ota had a key to the safe, so anyone could guess who the culprit was. Moreover, it seems that not all of the money was given to Yamazaki. Ota was excellent at his job, but he was naive and seemed to spend a lot of money on women.” (Sudo)

After that, Nishizaki was busy cleaning up the aftermath of the incident. The loans that were issued in a chaotic manner were likely to be channeled to organized crime. If they were not collected as soon as possible, it would be fatal.

Nishizaki, who was usually very calm, could not concentrate on the production of Be Forever. His anger was naturally directed at Ota. Yamada happened to overhear a conversation between the two in the president’s office. While Nishizaki called him a “scoundrel,” Ota remained silent as if resigned. Of course, this was not a situation in which excuses would be accepted.

To the enraged Nishizaki, Ota suddenly said, “Please sue me.”

Ota, who was completely in sync with Nishizaki, must have been forced to do secret work such as generating slush funds. Nishizaki must have thought that he could not sue Ota, who knew everything about the company’s accounting. What’s more, the loan to Seahorse was also at Nishizaki’s instruction. Ota must also have felt that he could not be the only one to take the blame.

However, after Ota quietly left Office Academy, Nishizaki gathered the executives and explained that Ota had committed breach of trust and embezzlement. According to Sudo, Ota ended up being sued by several people, including Nishizaki. As an aside, Sudo, who had been acting as a go-between, also left the company.

Nishizaki warned him not to work with Ota, but Sudo did not change his mind. Ota and Sudo then worked together to produce a calendar based on pro baseball player Shigeo Nagashima. It was released to coincide with Nagashima’s retirement as manager of the Giants (autumn 1980), but it ended up being a huge failure, and Ota was later wanted for another fraud charge.

Be Forever was released in the midst of this chaos, earning 2.5 billion yen at the box office and 1.35 billion yen in distribution revenue. It could be said that it continued to show its enduring popularity, but it could also be said that it was far from the success of Farewell to Yamato (1978). Either way, it did not live up to Nishizaki’s hopes for a comeback.

West Cape Corporation

Office Academy’s financial situation had begun to deteriorate. During the production of Be Forever, Nishizaki had told [President of Production] Masaharu Nagashima, “Don’t get involved in this incident. I’ll handle it myself. I’ll be out of the public eye for a while, so you’ll have to take care of production and distribution.”

The Seahorse incident was not yet known to Toei, Tokyu Recreation, and other film-related companies, but due to the bankruptcy of a towel company caused by Ota’s loan note and bad debts with a printing company, it was becoming inconvenient to put the name of Office Academy at the forefront.

At the end of November, Nishizaki established West Cape Corporation (WCC) in Akasaka, Minato Ward [Tokyo], and transferred management from Office Academy. Incidentally, “nishi” means “west” and “zaki” means “cape.”

Nishizaki also tightened up the organization. Originally, creating subsidiaries was something of a hobby for him, but after the success of Farewell, Office Academy expanded to include Academy Sales, Academy Advertising, Academy Production, and other subsidiaries. [See a company structure chart from 1979 here.] At one point, the Yamato copyright was transferred to a subsidiary called Nishizaki Music Publishing.

The head office was located in a newly-built rental building in Kudan, and the Academy Group was formed as an organizational entity. Nishizaki had been keen to scout industry professionals, and invited well-known anime producer Takashi Iijima from Toei and executive Hideki Yukawa from Nippon Anime, treating them as vice presidents. He also invited Hiroshi Sasagawa, director of the Time Bokan series, from Tatsunoko Pro, and Tatsuo Shibayama, who was in charge of production of Wansa-kun at former Mushi Pro, to serve as executives of Academy Productions.

However, according to Masaharu Nagashima, the direction began to change with the establishment of West Cape.

“As the number of subsidiaries and unnecessary employees increased, Nishizaki began to separate them from the head office in order to give each of them more independence.” (Nagashima)

In other words, it was a restructuring. On the other hand, some people left the company voluntarily. Yukawa was outspoken and often clashed with Nishizaki, and soon left. Iijima took responsibility for the management of the company after becoming the head of Academy Productions, and left after a few years. Nishizaki told Tetsuhisa Yamada, “Producers at large companies are raised in a greenhouse. They don’t take risks like independent producers. You should take a good look at yourself.”

However, this was only Nishizaki’s opinion. Increasing the number of subsidiaries and gathering well-known staff through headhunting ended up being his own self-fulfilling prophecy. No matter how many organizational changes and personnel changes he made, unless he could keep Yamato a hit or produce a new work to replace it, there would be no development for the company. With these fundamental issues unresolved, West Cape was forced to change course.

Meanwhile, the Seahorse scandal was proving difficult to resolve. It was at this time that Nishizaki told Yamada that he wanted to meet with former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka. The purpose was to discuss the collection of loans.

Yamada knew Tanaka through his father’s work. He had invited both Nishizaki and Tanaka to his wedding, and had already met them. Tanaka stepped down as prime minister in 1974 in the so-called Tanaka money scandal and was currently on trial in the Lockheed scandal, but his power as a kingmaker had not diminished.

The Tanaka residence in Mejiro, which Nishizaki visited, was crowded with officials from various ministries and local petitioners from that morning. Their meeting time had been limited to five to ten minutes. Nishizaki tried to start the conversation at his own pace. As he began to admire the scenery of the garden while slowly taking in the view, he was immediately interrupted by Tanaka’s husky voice.

“Nishizaki-kun, I’m busy. Get to the point.”

Taken aback, Nishizaki hurriedly explained the situation.

“The vice president of my company committed a breach of trust and bills have been circulating. I’m in trouble because people from that field are after me.”

Tanaka immediately decided how to respond and called House of Representatives member Takesaburo Yamazaki on the spot. Yamazaki was a lawyer who belonged to the Tanaka faction.

“You should consult with Yamazaki-kun and ask for his help.”

After hearing the situation, Yamazaki contacted the chief of Akasaka Police Station and requested cooperation in providing security for West Cape. Although their meeting was short, Nishizaki never missed sending Tanaka midyear and year-end gifts for the next few years.

In the following year, 1981, Nishizaki filed for bankruptcy and liquidated Office Academy, making it completely disappear. When Tanaka found out about this, he said nothing to Yamada, and did not ask for anything afterward.

However, one of his secretaries told Yamada: “I knew from the beginning that Nishizaki was a yakuza.”

From the perspective of the former prime minister, Nishizaki may have just looked like one of them. Of course, he was not a yakuza, but it is true that he had connections in that area.

Jiro Naoi, the boss of the Naoi-gumi of the Kobayashi faction, a group affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai, visited Nishizaki at the office several times a year. Naoi also served as the chairman of the Sumiyoshi Federation (the predecessor of the Sumiyoshi-kai). When the secretaries saw Naoi, they kept quiet and tension spread through the building. Nishizaki would never keep Naoi waiting and would immediately show him into the reception room.

Secretary Yoshie Yoshimura (not her real name), who had transferred from a major electronics manufacturer, testified as follows:

“It seems that a singer who was the protoge of a famous composer caused some kind of trouble with the police in a traffic accident or something, and Nishizaki mediated between the yakuza and the composer, and a lot of money changed hands. I heard that the yakuza were negotiating with the police to cover up the accident or something like that. I thought the most frightening thing about Nishizaki is that he was connected to gangsters.”

Whether the yakuza she was talking about was Naoi or not, Nishizaki had dealt with people in that world since his days as an entertainment producer. Moreover, the Sumiyoshi-kai had Ginza as its turf. As a regular at clubs, it is not surprising that Nishizaki’s yakuza connections were extensive.

Incidentally, Yamada had been told by Nishizaki that “Naoi was the head of the cheerleading squad at Meiji University, and we met when we were students,” but a check with the Meiji University alumni association found no record of this.

According to the testimony of a former aide, when Naoi died, Nishizaki had a messenger deliver a condolence gift of 1 million yen. It was not an unusual amount for a condolence gift to a yakuza boss, but there was no doubt that Nishizaki felt a certain gratitude toward him.

Ryoichi Sugiura, who was Jiro Naoi’s secretary and later became the third acting boss of the Naoi-gumi, was the man Nishizaki hired as a bodyguard in later years.

When JAVN, which Nishizaki was the representative of, went bankrupt, rumors spread that he was being pursued by Kansai-based yakuza, and Sugiura acted as his guard for several years. Eventually, the two had a falling out over financial issues, but on February 5, 2007, Sugiura was shot dead by a hitman from the Kokuso-kai of the 6th Yamaguchi-gumi, headquartered in Kobe. This incident caused a stir in society, as it occurred just after the Yamaguchi-gumi (led by Tsukasa Shinobu) brought the long-established Tokyo organization Kokuso-kai under its wing, making a full-scale advance into the metropolitan area.

Nishizaki’s relationship with the yakuza has never been openly discussed as a problem, but the yakuza and the film industry have always had an inseparable relationship. When Toei president Shigeru Okada was a producer, he made a series of true-life yakuza films that were a huge success. However, when actress Misora Hibari appeared in a Toei film, her father figure, Kazuo Taoka (third boss of the Yamaguchi-gumi), requested that she be placed at the top of the credits. Okada flatly refused, explaining that “If we do that, she won’t be able to work with big-name actors.” Taoka was impressed by Okada’s courage, and it is a famous story that he said, “If you become a yakuza, you’ll be a better boss than me.”

It was also revealed that Yasuyoshi Tokuma (president of Tokumon Bookstore), who took over management of Daiei, sent a representative to Taoka’s funeral and handed over a check for 100 million yen as a condolence gift

There is no evidence that Nishizaki willingly associated with the yakuza, but some filmmakers had been in a relationship with them behind the scenes for a long time.