Has Anyone Seen Kagami?

There’s something not quite right about Plymouth Argyle’s majority shareholder Yasuaki Kagami.

The Japanese businessman arrived at Argyle in April 2008 amid a fanfare of expectation; a company – Shonan Management Corporation – was set-up to buy 20% of shares in PAFC.
In the summer of 2009 Kagami, along with new Argyle Director George Synan, increased his stake in the club to 38% of shares and since taking over at Home Park over two and a half years ago Kagami still hasn’t seen Argyle play a game.

Reports surfaced in January 2010 that Kagami pumped some cash into the Home Park club to fend off a winding-up petition but Director Keith Todd recently revealed that Kagami did no such thing.

Spin forward a year and now we have Football Consultant Peter Ridsdale waiting for promised cash to arrive from Japan to beat yet another winding-up petition. Deja vu?
Four installments of £500,000 have been promised from Japan but no money has arrived with the first payment from Kagami now a month overdue.

Argyle are due in the High Court on February 9th to face a winding-up petition and must settle a tax debt with Ker Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

Last November former Argyle Director Phill Gill gave an exclusive interview to the Plymouth Vital website and he expressed his concern that Kagami’s verbal promise of investment was not written as a contractual statement, he said: ‘Over time it became apparent to me that without serious structured investment the forward movement of the club would begin to falter.
‘Without going into great detail about the Japanese deal, but after having spent a period of the time working with them, it was my opinion (and only my opinion) that their plan wasn’t a viable one for the club.
‘Ultimately, in business, if you choose a partner from a list of one and then don’t make promises for investment contractual there is always the possibility of problems.’

Unfortunately Phill’s warning is still evident today.

What about club President Yasuhiko Okudera, where is he in a time of crisis? The Japanese footballing star joined Argyle as President in 2008 but has he actually seen a game yet? Another bizarre move.

Kagami and Synan both remain elusive figures. The Plymouth Vital website have been attempting to track down both Directors for some time for an interview and the local Plymouth press have also reached the same dead end.

The address given by Kagami on the company accounts for the football club is the embassy in Tokyo for Marshall Islands, a small cluster of islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Another address given by Kagami is the same address as the Bank of Canada!
Rather odd, don’t you think?

Kagami is named on the 2010 Football Rich List as the 67th wealthiest person in football in the UK with a personal fortune reported at £42 million but since July 2009 has not spread his wealth as far as Home Park.

The latest club accounts from the 2008-2009 season show that Kagami has loaned the club £256,000 and according to Todd Kagami has not injected any further cash into the club since July 2009.
During that time the financially stricken Devon-club has endured five winding up orders and two transfer embargos and have struggled to pay the wages of the players and staff.

So what does Kagami actually do?
The Argyle Director is the Chief Executive Officer of Maruka Corporation, a company predominantly involved in food with extensive experience in America, Europe and Australia. Maruka also markets and distributes products across the world and is affiliated with Maruka Engineering Corporation and Maruka Refrigeration, as well as several other companies.

If Kagami is not interested in watching Argyle play, is not interested in providing funds in times of crisis and continues to hide away then the obvious question is: Why is he here?