Draft:Miro Mijatović

• Comment: In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. SLJ10 (talk) 18:43, 27 May 2025 (UTC)

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Miroslav “Miro” Mijatović (born 5 May 1967), is a former lawyer, Sports Event Promoter and Athlete Manager, most notable for his alleged part in bringing down the allegedly corrupt Pride Fighting Championships (“Pride FC”) in Japan ..

He is also the former CEO of ibizicube Japan Ltd, initially an internet start-up incubator, which then added a sports event promotion and athlete management division, which included management of the Australian Olympic champion swimmer, Ian Thorpe, in Japan.  

He is currently President at Alchemy Group KK, Japan, a real estate asset manager and venture capital investor.

Early Life and Education

Miro was born in Zagreb, Croatia and is the oldest child of Božo and Milka Mijatović. The family emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1969. Miro is a father to five daughters.

Miro attended St Joseph’s College, Kingswood for elementary school and St Dominic’s College, Penrith for Highschool. It was a visit to the local Penrith District Court on a school trip that began Miro’s interest in the law and sparked a strong desire to be involved in justice and become a lawyer.

Miro graduated St Dominic's College as one of the top achievers and was accepted into Macquarie University’s Law and Economics faculties in a combined degree program, graduating with a combined Bachelor of Economics with an Accounting major and a Bachelor of Laws in 1990. He graduated top of his year in Law School with Honors for his thesis on the interpretation of intention in contracts.

In 1991, Miro completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Technology, Sydney and was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 22^nd June 1991.

Miro also joined the International Bar Association in 1994.

Sporting Career in Australia

Initially a soccer player until the age of 16, a growth spurt led Miro to switch to playing basketball. Miro excelled at basketball and was quickly tapped to play for the Penrith Panthers from the age of 17. He was then tapped to play for the semi-professional Parramatta Wildcats in the NSW Pacific Youth League, followed by playing in the NSW State Basketball League, in which the Parramatta Wildcats were finalists in 1991 .

Sporting Career in Japan

When Miro moved to Tokyo, Japan in 1992, he played for professional Japan League Division 2 basketball team Nippon Steel “Irons” in 1992 and 1993, and also played with Mitsui & Co’s team.

As a result of the burst of the Japanese economic bubble, Nippon Steel decided to discontinue using foreign players on its sports teams, so in 1994, Miro joined the Chiba Pierce Arrow Badgers, an exhibition team based in Chiba .

Miro retired as a player with the Chiba Badgers in 2003. At that time, the owner of the team, Masaru Komiya, intended to take the team into the pro leagues, and approached Miro about assisting with financing. Miro agreed, and in 2005, he became the funder and half owner of the Chiba Badgers.

The Chiba Badgers subsequently became 2 time back to back Japan League Champions in both the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons.

However, despite the success of the team, the Chiba Badgers were not accepted into the Japan Basketball League Super League by the Japan Basketball Association ("JBA"). They were, however, accepted into the Basketball Japan League ("BJ League") for the 2008 season , but did not end up joining, leading Miro to disband the Chiba Badgers on 9^th April 2008 .

Professional Life

In 1987, Miro got his first “professional” job at the end of his second year at University with IBM Australia as a summer intern. IBM extended Miro’s engagement as a part time employee for a further two years, during which, as part of the Marketing Team, Miro worked on the launch of the IBM PS2 .

In 1989, following the completion of his fourth year of law, Miro was employed by Sydney law firm Sly & Russell (now Norton Rose Fulbright ) as a summer clerk, at the end of which Miro’s engagement was extended, and he was employed as a legal clerk until his admission as solicitor in 1991.

On 22^nd June 1991, Miro was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the High Court of Australia. Upon admission and qualification as a lawyer, Miro was placed into the Japanese Business Group of then Sly & Weigall, and worked with major clients, including Mitsui & Co., Toyota Motor, Sharp, and Nippon Steel and Komatsu.

Miro’s major projects during this time included working on the Australian Toyota and General Motors merger; the financing of the Mirage Resort in Queensland, major mining projects in Australia and the acquisition of the Komatsu franchise by Nippon Steel from Australian company ANI.

At this time, Miro became active in publishing legal articles in Australian and International legal journals, including the following:

• The ATUG submission to the Government's telecommunications carrier review.

• Risky commercial projects: need for independent financial advice.
• Significant Liberalization of Australia's Foreign Investment Policy and Changing Trends in Foreign Investment .
• Foreign Investment in Australia : The Law, the Facts and the Figures

In 1992, impressed with Miro’s capabilities, Mitsui & Co. requested Sly & Weigall to second Miro to their head office in Tokyo for a year.

Following 3 months full time Japanese study in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Ken, Japan, Miro joined Mitsui’s head office legal team and worked on numerous projects all over the World. Projects included the Indonesian Paiton Power Project, the world’s first private power generation project in Indonesia, the Sakhalin Island Oil and Gas Project and the Mitsui and Nippon Steel US$700m trade credit loan for LUKOIL; Japan’s first re-opening of financing to Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

During this time, Miro developed a strong taste for the large scale international infrastructure and energy projects as team leader for the Mitsui and Nippon Steel Lukoil financing. Towards the end of his one-year secondment at Mitsui, Miro became the first Australian Representative in the newly established Tokyo joint venture office formed by US law firm, Graham & James, Hong Kong law firm Deacons and Australian law firm, Sly & Weigall. During this period, Miro consolidated his experience in advising on investment and finance by Japanese trading companies in developing countries.

Miro completed the Mitsui Lukoil deal as chief negotiator with the Russians from the Japanese side, and also expanded his work with Nippon Steel’s trading company, Nippon Steel Trading, working the nascent “project finance” field; financing pipelines, drilling rigs, power stations and heavy equipment financing all over the developing World.

In February 1994, at the conclusion of his first stint in Tokyo, Miro returned to Sydney to become the youngest ever Senior Associate at Deacons, Graham & James, Sydney office. Miro’s practice at this time was major investment and finance projects for Japanese clients, both in Australia and internationally, including project financing for oil and infrastructure projects.

However, Miro was hooked on the international business of the Japanese trading companies and later in 1994, Nippon Steel Trading recruited Miro to head up their Project Finance team in Tokyo:

“Miro Mijatovic , formerly with Australian law firm Sly & Weigall is to become senior projects officer at Nittetsu Shoji in Tokyo . He will be responsible for structuring and analysis of project and trade finance in energy and resource .”.

During his time at Nippon Steel Trading, Miro arranged and financed oil & gas projects, mining infrastructure and heavy equipment financing deals to a total value of over US$2 billion in countries such as Venezuela; Brazil; Columbia; South Africa; Angola; New Caledonia; Australia; Russia; Vietnam and Indonesia. He supervised a finance and construction team, which created and modelled complex cash flow models for various projects and also a construction project team.

When the Asian Financial Crisis hit, which subsequently Japanese banks slowing their lending, Miro decided he wanted to change his focus from doing business for Japanese trading companies outside Japan to working in the domestic Japanese economy.

ibizicube

In January 2000, Miro founded ibizcube Japan Ltd. as an internet start up incubator. Ibizcube received funding from a UK hedge fund and commenced operations investing in the then early stage web design industry in Japan.

One of ibizcube’s first investees, dot.com solutions inc. was able to win a major contract from Tourism Australia to re-launch Australia’s tourism marketing website, Australia.com.

Following the bursting of the internet bubble in 2000, Miro split ibizcube’s business into 2 areas; Sports and Financial, legal and tax consulting.

Financial Advisory and Investment

In 2000, in consultation with his colleagues in major investment banks in Japan, Miro began to focus on overlooked, but cash rich, real estate based sectors of the Japanese economy in order to look at bringing international capital markets to sound businesses which were negatively impacted by the Japanese credit crunch of the time.

He targeted the Japanese leisure sector as an untouched, but promising sector for foreign investment.

Initially, Miro looked at the Pachinko and Love Hotel sectors. With his partner at the time, Miro and ibizcube published various articles in industry publications marketing funding through “whole of business securitizations”, including:

• “Japanese Business Problems – From a Foreigner’s Perspective” Miro Mijatovic, Monthly Playgraph (Pachinko Industry Journal) July 2001, Vol 37, No.7

• “A New Form of Funding for Leisure Hotels” author – ibizcube Japan,  Leisure Hotel, January 2002 Issue.

• “The State of Financing for Restaurant Operations” author – ibizcube Japan, Leisure Hotel, October 2002 Issue.

• “No Leisurely Undertaking – Leisure assets are the next in line for securitisation in Japan, pachinko parlours in particular” author – Leonora Walters interviewing Miro Mijatovic, International Securitisation Report, November 2002.

In 2001, ibizcube signed the first mandate with Bear Stearns to bring a Japanese pachinko operator to international securitization markets. However, following George W Bush’s announcement of North Korea as part of the “Axis of Evil”, and due to the North Korean associations with the pachinko operation industry, this meant it would ultimately not be possible to proceed.

Miro then turned to the leisure/love hotel industry and identified the opportunity for an investment fund to come into the sector. He began to work with his partners to raise these funds, which culminated in the establishment in July 2002 of MHS Capital Partners and the development of the MHS Urban Resorts platform.

During 2004, MHS Capital Partners published extensively in industry and mass media to promote, market and raise US$10m for the first foreign fund for love hotels .

Following full investment of the first fund; MHS Capital Partners performed well and looked to grow a new fund, leading Miro to establish Alchemy Japan .

Following the success of the first MHS Capital Partners fund, in 2010, Alchemy Japan was retained by the Cargill [https://www.cargill.com/] investment unit, Carval Investors Japan, who had acquired 10 love hotels (a value US$60m) but had inherited a yakuza related operator, who Alchemy Japan was retained to expulse, and thereafter take over asset management and operations.

Alchemy Japan was able to successfully expel the yakuza associated operator and performed well .

However, due to various internal conflicts within Carval , Alchemy Japan and Carval came into conflict, leading to Carval selling the Love Hotels to a yakuza related entity, which subsequently came into dispute and law suits ensued with Alchemy Japan .

During that time (2007-2010), and following the appreciation of Miro’s abilities to battle with the yakuza using legal procedures (i.e., the Kawamata law suit and Pride FC Police investigation), George Soros’ real estate investment group, Grove Investors (now Alpine Grove Investors ) retained Miro to re-structure and expel yakuza related entities from their investment portfolio (including resort hotels, pachinko loans and golf courses).

Sports Industry Business

In 2000, during the re-launch of Tourism Australia’s website, Tourism Australia appointed Olympic Champion swimmer, Ian Thorpe, as Brand Ambassador for Australian Tourism, building on his already booming popularity in Japan.

Miro was introduced to Thorpe and his Australian manager by Tourism Australia because they were looking for a representative in Japan to manage Ian’s local substantial media and commercial opportunities. Through managing Ian in Japan, Miro was able to gain substantial experience working within the sports advertisement and entertainment industry in Japan, such as with Asahi TV on the media side, and with some of Japan’s biggest advertising agencies, including Dentsu and Hakuhodo. He was also able to work with Ian’s other big brand clients, such as adidas, Coca Cola, Konami Sports and others.

Miro was instrumental in orchestrating the publication by PHP of Thorpe’s Japanese book “Live Your Dreams” on 25th April 2003 .

In addition to representing Thorpe as a marquee client, Miro was also managing athletes competing in soccer, basketball and Rugby in Japan.

In 2002, Miro was appointed by the Croatian Football Federation (“CFF”) to represent them for their participation in the Japan/Korea FIFA World Cup 2002. Miro assisted the CFF in negotiations with host cities Toyama and Tokamachi, logistics for the team, arranging friendly games prior to the tournament, and arranging all logistics for Croatian media, CFF and team VIPs.

During this time, Miro was introduced by the CFF to former Croatian national team player, Igor Cvitanović who had joined Japanese J-League club, Shimizu S-Pulse.

Igor was having a dispute with the club, and Miro was able to resolve this dispute through using FIFA dispute resolution procedures. During this process, Miro and Igor became close friends .

Igor was a fan of Japanese fighting sports (K-1 and Pride FC), particularly of Croatian fighter Mirko Cro Cop Filipović, whom he had become close friends with. Cro Cop was having disputes and problems with K-1, so Igor introduced Cro Cop and his manager, Zvonomir Lucic, to Miro.

Subsequently, in April 2002, Miro was appointed by Cro Cop and Zvonomir as Cro Cop’s Japanese agent and Miro entered the Japanese fight industry.

Following the end of his involvement in the Japanese fight industry in 2006, Miro turned his attention back to the more traditional sports industry and, in 2008, he returned to the soccer industry with former professional player, Tom Byer, originally assisting Byer with some legal issues.

In 2011, after admiring and being convinced of Tom Byer’s “Soccer Starts at Home” philosophy, Miro became a partner with Byer in his companies, T3 Japan Ltd and T3 International.

T3 trademarked Byer’s philosophy into “Soccer Starts at Home” and “Football Starts at Home” and, using these trademarks and Tom’s development philosophy, T3 advised on and created strategies for top International Brands such as adidas, google, Yahoo Japan, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Canon, Dominos Pizza, Nestle and, most recently, Volkswagen Group China and AIA

In 2012-2014, T3 contracted with the Indonesian Soccer Federation (PSSI) for assisting in youth development programs in Indonesia .

In 2012, following the initiative of the current Chinese Premier to improve Chinese football, the Chinese Ministry of Education appointed Tom Byer as an Official Advisor to the Chinese School Football Program Office and Official Grassroots Ambassador. The Ministry began executing their plan to promote football into 20,000 schools across China by 2017, by implementing a Curriculum for training and coaching of grassroots football, also working with David Beckham to promote the program .

Additionally, Byer became the official Grassroots Advisor to Chinese Super Club Team, Beijing Guoan FC, and created the Pilot Program for the Beijing Bureau of Education at Elementary Schools, implementing a curriculum and training program for Coaches, Physical Education Teachers and Parents.

In 2016, T3 published Tom’s book Soccer Starts at Home.

In 2018, T3 worked with US Soccer and Major League Soccer (“MLS”) Club, the Seattle Sounders FC, to develop a Soccer Starts at Home Pilot program and, subsequently in 2019-2022, T3 worked with the MLS Club Houston Dynamos FC for its Soccer Starts at Home program.

T3 and Tom Byer’s philosophy is incorporated at Croatia’s NK Dinamo and in the Croatian National Football Curriculum

T3 is currently contracted with the Philippine Football Federation

Involvement with Pride Fight Championships

Management of Mirko Cro Cop Filipović: April 2002 – January 2004

Miro’s association with the Japanese fight industry began when he was appointed as Cro Cop’s Japanese agent in April 2002, a position he held until 7th January 2004 when Cro Cop announced the termination of the relationship by publishing his termination on the front page of Sankei Sports newspaper . This was confirmed by the Japanese court in Miro’s lawsuit against Seiya Kawamata .

During Miro’s management, Cro Cop initially fought under contract with K-1.

Miro’s role was to maximize Cro Cop’s value in Japan, so he set about raising his public profile and carefully planned his image re-launch in the Japanese media, resulting in Cro Cop’s first detailed and in-depth coverage in Japanese sports magazines.

As part of this strategy, Miro obtained the Croatian broadcast rights for Cro Cop’s fights from K-1 and arranged the first live (by satellite) broadcast of Cro Cop’s fights against Bob Sapp on Croatia’s national television channel, HRT, which made Cro Cop a huge star in Croatia .

Due to a tax fraud scandal by, and arrest and conviction of , K-1’s founderKazuyoshi Isshii making the prospects for K-1 difficult in Japan, Miro signed Cro Cop to Pride FC in April 2003.

Subsequently, Miro also obtained broadcast rights from Pride FC for Croatia and Cro Cop’s fights against Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn and Cro Cop’s first title fight against Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira. This massive exposure led to Cro Cop, a relative unknown and largely ignored by Croatian media before the Bob Sapp fight, to become a huge star in Croatia; and despite Miro’s objections, eventually lead to Cro Cop’s election to Croatia’s national assembly in November 2003, just before his first Pride FC title shot.  This disagreement between Miro and Cro Cop on his political ambitions marked the beginning of the end of Miro and Cro Cop’s relationship.

Inoki Bom Ba Ye – 2003

In November 2003, Miro signed a co-promotion agreement with Seiya Kawamata to work with Antonio Inoki to produce the fighting event “Inoki Bom Ba Ye 2003” (“IBBY 2003”) on 31st December 2003 at Kobe Wing Stadium.

Miro’s role was to procure foreign fighters and deal with foreign broadcast rights, while Antonio Inoki would bring the Japanese fighters. Seiya Kawamata’s role would be to handle production of the event with Nippon TV.

Inoki Bom Ba Ye 2003 ended up becoming the biggest TV contract in Japanese fight sports history, valued at US$8 million for a single event, with further similar events envisaged in the future .

After discussion with Cro Cop, Miro announced to the Japanese media on 11 November 2003 that, following his loss to Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Cro Cop had agreed, for a record making fight purse for Cro Cop, to make a quick return to the ring at IBBY 2003 with a fight against Japanese biggest pro wrestling star, Yoshihiro Takayama, who had achieved record TV ratings the previous year for IBBY 2002 for his main event with Bob Sapp

Miro was also appointed as Golden Glory’s Japanese agent in November 2003, and immediately booked Stefan Leko, Semmy Schilt and Alistrair Overeem for IBBY 2003.

Cro Cop initially confirmed these plans to the Croatian media in November 2003 .

On 18^th November 2003 Cro Cop was reported in Vecerni List print edition as saying “I wont be fighting in the K-1 GP as rumoured and also I decided to fight at Pride’s NYE event and not IBBY2003 as previously planned.”

However, in the online version of the article Cro Cop was quoted as saying he was undecided about the K-1 GP and hadn’t received any offers and there was no reference to the Pride FC New Years Eve event or IBBY2003

It is around this time that Miro alleges that Pride FC was interfering with Cro Cop, with Cro Cop starting to complain to Miro that he had a back injury and was in treatment   .

However, despite Cro Cop’s alleged back injury, he was noted to be playing basketball on 19^th December 2003 .

On 15 December 2003, Cro Cop announced on his website that he would no longer be competing at any New Years Eve events in 2003 .

In light of Cro Cop no longer headlining, Miro signed the draw cards PRIDE Heavy Weight Champion, Emelianenko Fedor and his Red Devil colleagues Alexander Emelianenko and Amar Suloev .

After announcing the signing of Emelianenko Fedor, Pride FC President, Nobuyuki Sakakibara made various attacks in the media on Miro and attempted various legal measures against him, his co-promoters and NTV, objecting to Emelianenko Fedor fighting at IBBY 2003 .

“On the 17th, Pride FC revealed that they had sent letters of protest to Nippon TV, Yomiuri TV, and K-Confidence after the press conference on the 10th where they stated that they would "not hesitate to take legal action" in regards to the poaching of current Pride FC heavyweight champion Emelianenko Fedor from "Inoki Festival." DSE (Dream Stage Entertainment) President Nobuyuki Sakakibara said, "We sent a letter of protest first, not just a certified letter. However, we asked for a reply within five days, but we have not received one yet."

The president once again denied the possibility of Fedor's participation in the Inoki Festival, saying, "Neither Fedor nor Schilt (who also has an exclusive contract) will be able to participate in the Nippon TV event. In the case of Fedor, it takes several weeks to obtain a work visa in Russia. If he fights in such a big tournament on a tourist visa, he will never be able to enter the country again."

He also criticized Antonio Inoki's remarks, saying, "Chairman Inoki said it was a 'small thing,' but it is by no means a small thing. Each promoter is given the responsibility to decide the winner and loser."

Regarding Mirko Cro Cop, who announced on his official website that he would be absent from the Inoki Festival, he said, "As a promoter, I can't bear it. I knew that Mirko had a hernia in his back, but we (Pride FC, who may offer him a fight in the future) need to confirm whether it is a fatal blow."

Regarding future procedures with the organizers of the Inoki Festival, he said, "If possible, we should find a middle ground rather than attack each other in court. We are prepared to discuss the matter with them if they can respond calmly."

Meanwhile, Mirko's agency was confused by the sudden announcement of his absence, saying, "We are currently checking the situation. The person in charge is preparing to go to Croatia."

If Fedor also withdraws from the Inoki Festival following Mirko, as DSE claims, the Inoki Festival will be in trouble as it will lose its two major stars.

Inoki's office stated, "We are currently investigating the details, but of course the tournament will go ahead. The event itself will not be canceled." There are 14 days left until New Year's Eve. The "three-way industrial war" is in turmoil.”

Sakakibara’s attempts were initially partially successful, with Seiya Kawamata and Antonio Inoki announcing Fedor’s withdrawal on 22nd December 2003 at the Maharaja Disco, owned by Seiya Kawamata .

However, Miro insisted Fedor would appear and fight at IBBY 2003, which he eventually did.

Alleged Extortion

Following the IBBY 2003 event , Miro alleges that he was held against his will and extorted in the Kobe Okura Hotel on 3rd January 2003 and the days thereafter, by Nobuyuki Sakakibara and the real owner of Pride FC, Kim Dok Soo (also known as Ishizaka), who is allegedly a ranking member of yakuza gang, Ota Kogyo, one of the main component gangs of Yamaguchi Gumi.

During this time, Miro alleges he was threatened and forced to sign his rights to Fedor and other fighters over to Pride FC for no value .

Aftermath

Legal Actions Against Pride FC

Pride FC’s attempts to separate Miro from his relationships with Emelianenko Fedor and Red Devil and Golden Glory were not successful, and they requested Miro to continue to represent them during 2004.

On 7th August 2004, Miro announced his law suit against his former co-promoter Seiya Kawamata , who had fled Japan after IBBY 2003 and escaped $6m of debts, including payments due to Miro for the 3 Golden Glory fighters. Miro was eventually successful and won a US$2million judgement against Seiya Kawamata .

Miro also commenced cooperating with the Kanagawa Police, who had accepted a criminal complaint from Seiya Kawamata, alleging that he too had been threatened by the Yamaguchi Gumi gangsters who owned Pride FC .

However, due to doubt about the credibility of Seiya Kawamata, who was himself a self-admitted former yakuza member of Yamaguchi Gumi, Miro started working with a volunteer legal team of seven lawyers from the Tokyo Bar Association Anti-Yakuza Committee. The team was led by legendary anti-yakuza crusading lawyer, Toshiro Igari, who preferred to work with the National Police Agency while cautiously cooperating with the Kanagawa Police investigation of Seiya Kawamata’s extortion complaints.

In 2004, while preparing and executing various civil and criminal complaints against Seiya Kawamata, Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Kim Dok Soo (Ishizaka), Miro represented Red Devil and Golden Glory fighters who were fighting in Pride FC all the way through to New Years Eve 2004.

In June 2004, Miro was also appointed as the Japanese representative for the official Shaolin Kung Fu fighting team.

Miro’s final time as a fighter representative within the Japanese fight industry was on 31st December 2004 with Fedor v Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira at the PRIDE: Final Conflict 2004 event .

Pride FC had negotiated privately with Red Devil to exclude Miro from managing Emelianenko Fedor, and they announced their success with this on 4th April 2005

On 14 February 2005, Miro announced that he was taking legal action against Pride FC .

On 23rd February 2006, three Yamaguchi members were arrested by the Kanagawa Police in response to Seiya Kawamata’s claims .

However, Kim Dok Soo (Ishizaka) evaded capture by leaving Japan the day of the scheduled arrest .

On 16th March 2006, Asahi Shimbun published comments from the deputy public prosecutor in Yokohama, in which he stated that all three men arrested denied the charges of extortion made by Seiya Kawamata, and that there was not enough evidence gathered to prosecute them at that time .

With the collapse of the Kanagawa Police investigation, Seiya Kawamata was interviewed by the weekly magazine, Shukan Gendai and, from 13th March 2006, they published a series of interviews with Seiya Kawamata . They also conducted further investigations into, and reported on, the relationship between Pride FC, Yamaguchi Gumi and Fuji TV.

Following the release of the arrested Yamaguchi Gumi gangsters and the collapse of the investigation, the National Police Agency expedited its separate investigation under Miro’s extortion complaint. As a result, the NPD and Toshiro Igari visited Fuji TV and met with its President, Hieda, and the Director of Compliance on 5th June 2006, during which they issued a “cease and desist” demand to Fuji TV, requiring them to terminate their relationship with Pride FC .

Immediately following that 5th June 2006 meeting, Fuji TV announced the termination of its relationship with Pride FC. Fuji TV’s PR department claimed that Pride FC had committed an “improper event” and that, after consulting with their lawyers, they had annulled the contract with DSE .

In addition to Fuji TV canceling their contract with Pride FC, Yomiuri Hochi (via Yahoo Japan) reported that the network had also issued an order stating that any Pride FC fighters or people associated with Pride FC could no longer appear on any Fuji TV shows. This included variety shows, sports shows, and other programming .

Nobuyuki Sakakibara talked about bringing legal action against Kodansha (publisher of Shukan Gendai) and Seiya Kawamata for the damage that they had caused against Pride FC by publishing the various articles exposing Pride FC’s yakuza relationships, but he never did .

Friendship with Toshiro Igari

After his alleged extortion by Sakakibara, Miro’s Japanese lawyer, who he had retained since leaving Nippon Steel, brought Miro’s case to “The Civil Intervention Violence Countermeasures Committee of the First Tokyo Bar Association”, also known as, in short, the "Anti Yakuza Countermeasures Committee", which he was a member of. This committee was chaired by Toshiro Igari, until his alleged suicide

Miro’s lawyer brought the case to them in order to act on Miro’s behalf for all yakuza and Police related matters for the Pride FC incident.

Toshiro Igari agreed to take Miro’s case and established and led a team of 7 lawyers to investigate and handle his case. They were all volunteers who worked pro bono, and spent countless legal hours on his case for over 2 years for no payment.

The team conducted the investigation and legal analysis, and prepared the criminal complaint and evidence brief, liaising with both the National Police Agency (NPA) and the Kanagawa Police, who were also investigating criminal complaint submitted by Seiya Kawamata.

It all finally culminated in a criminal complaint against Nobuyuki Sakakibara and 3 yakuza bosses, filed in February 2006 with the National Police Agency, and the subsequent "cease and desist" notice from Toshiro Igari and the NPA, delivered to Fuji TV on 4 June 2006.