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My money troubles with Junko Nobuhira began in 1981.
One day, Junko appeared without any notice with a bill worth two million yen. He said, “I am a director of an electrical association and I am in trouble because one of our members has gone bankrupt. Lend me two million yen on this bill. I will pay back the money with 20% interest.”
I felt some sympathy for Junko for I could understand how one would feel at a time of such misfortune. My husband used to run his own business and I was in life insurance sales when, unfortunately, my husband was taken ill.
I prepared the money requested and handed the two million yen to Junko in hopes of relieving his suffering. The loan was intended to be a short one but there were no signs of Junko repaying the money. His repayment bounced and, as a result, the loan became an account that was to be settled between Junko and myself.
I reminded Junko of the debt on numerous occasions but not only he did not repay the money but he even shouted at me saying “You bastard! I will sue you!” How could he dare to shout at me who was lending the money to him––he had no right whatsoever to behave in such a manner. In response to his vicious manner I said to him “I have only done what you have requested me to do. What do you expect?” Junko then threatened me, saying, “You bitch! Don’t think you will remain safe!” I replied, “Do whatever you like. If you want to hurt me, do it. You are the one who will be prosecuted.” These hard times continued for more than four years after this until I finally received the full amount of the loan.
I determined never to repeat such an incident, even if he threatened or tried to deceive me. However, an unfortunate event occurred two years after I made such a determination.
Nobuko Nobuhira, who had no involvement in the last loan incident, telephoned me. “Is it Teru-chan? Would you mind holding a bit, I will hand over the receiver to my husband in a moment.” she said in an insinuating tone. She called me to the phone through an office clerk and quickly handed over to her husband who said, “I am a director of an electrical association and I want to help one of our member involved in a electrical work whose bill had unfortunately bounced. I don’t mind paying 30% for the interest so can you introduce anyone who could lend me some money? Teru-chan, I know many people trust you. Would you be so kind enough to borrow three million yen with 30% interest from someone you know?”
Naturally, remembering the last trouble with Junko, I did not want to get involved but because it was Nobuko who had called this time rather than Junko, I could not help but to think twice before giving my response.
My first encounter with the Nobuhiras was 30 years ago, but we were not in contact for a while partly due to the failure of our business. Our family went through quite a bit of hardships but were finally able to build a fine house of our own. It was just around that time Junko paid a visit. It was roughly about a year after Junko’s visit, in 1982, that I met Nobuko again after a long time. Nobuko talked to me affectionately and was surprised to hear of our family’s success. She even said to me “please do come around to our house when you come to Hakodate next time.” Although I had a bitter experience with her husband Junko, I felt a real intimacy with Nobuko.
Because the request of a loan was from that Nobuko this time rather than her husband, I borrowed the money from one of my acquaintances and lend it to Junko in honor of Nobuko.
However, this was not the last request of Junko. He came back to me again and again for more loans. Every time he made such a request, it was Nobuko who would telephone me first and play the intermediary. The amount he requested was always in units of millions and as a result the total amount came to a sum of 11 million. Naturally, I have made to write an acknowledgment of a loan for each of the transactions and had made him to promise to calculate the interest on 25th every month and pay me the interest at his home on the occasion of my business trip to Hakodate. I think it was only for the first two months he kept his promise and paid the interest. After the two months, when I visited him to receive the interest, he said that he could not get the money together that day and that he will remit the amount later. He was breaking the promise already but I had no other way but to tell him my bank account number and go home. The remittance of the interest did not show up the next month and eventually ceased altogether.
I telephoned Nobuko to ask why they were not transferring the interest to my bank account but to my astonishment Nobuko played innocent by replying, “I know nothing about the loan.” I was convinced that there was no way she knew nothing about the loan so I pressed her asking, “How dare you say that you know nothing about the loan! Aren’t you the one who had telephoned me whenever your husband made the request for loans?” She continued playing innocent and, in the end, Junko got on the phone saying, “The matter between me and Teru-chan has nothing to do with Nobuko,” as if he was talking about someone else’s business.
I loaned money to Junko because of my trust to Nobuko, but she pretended that she had no involvement in the matter. I was outraged and incensed by her response.
When I visited their home again, Junko said that he would repay me 2.5 million yen the following month. Believing what Junko said, I shared his intention to an acquaintance of mine who had lent him the money through me. The money never arrived.
I telephoned Nobuko again. I said to her in a strong tone “I lent the money because the request was yours. You must know your husband’s promise to repay me 2.5 million yen, too. I am shouldering the interest payment but I will be in trouble if I lose your support. If you regard yourself to be a human, behave like one and repay the money you owe me!”
I knew that Nobuko was earning some money by various means. She would buy inexpensive clothes and resell them at a high price or force someone to buy a new alter (butsudan) and receive the kickback from the shop. I am ashamed to confess, but I also have experience buying such clothes (a dress with black polka dots, pink color overcoat) from her at the price of several tens of thousand yen. The clothes I bought from her were discolored and not in a shape to be worn outside so they are still kept deep inside the closet.
I spoke to Nobuko in a strong tone because I was desperate about getting the money back. Nobuko, who must have sensed my attitude, gave me a deadline for repayment. I went to their house on the promised date. I assumed the money was to be prepared by Nobuko rather than her husband.
As it stands, 5.2 million yen is still outstanding out of the entire loan amount of 11 million. However, much to my amazement, Junko requested that I pay several tens of thousand yen claiming that he had overpaid the interest. He even showed me a false calculation he had conducted in order to prove the righteousness of his claim. Moreover, he shamelessly said that if I pay this amount he claims that he overpaid, he would repay the outstanding loan amount of 5.2 million yen soon. It was an outrageous claim, but out of my desperateness in wanting to have nothing more to do with the couple, I followed his request. In return, Junko wrote a note of acknowledgment stating that the total amount of outstanding loan was 5.2 million yen. I don’t think he had any intention of repaying the amount at that time. In fact, there has been no sign of repayment since then, while I repaid all the money that was loaned on my trust.
Fortunately, I kept the note of acknowledgment and was able to bring the matter to court and, as a matter of course. As a matter of course, I won the case at the Hakodate District Court and the Sapporo High Court.
Thinking back, there is no evidence to believe that the money borrowed was used for the member of the association where Junko was a director, as he claims. Sometimes he handed me a bill worth a million yen or a 200,000-yen check instead of paying me the interest for the loan. But when I met him some days later, he would ask me to show him the bill and crossed out the amount to make it void. Every action he took was just so abnormal. I felt that I would fall ill either mentally or physically one day, if this trouble continued any longer, for he often shouted at me and threatened me.
The Nobuhiras are an unbelievable couple with a husband behaving so and the wife playing innocent despite of the fact that she was the intermediary. I will never forgive the couple that had caused enormous trouble for so many people.
Back to The Accusations of Nobuko Nobuhira >>
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