Japan NPO head arrested over paid organ transplant brokerage

TOKYO - The de facto head of a Japanese nonprofit organization and two other men were arrested Tuesday for allegedly brokering an organ transplant in Cambodia in exchange for compensation in violation of a relevant law, in the first case of paid organ transplant brokering overseas.

Hiromichi Kikuchi, the de facto head of the nonprofit organization, 66, of Yokohama, was already serving an eight-month prison term after exhausting his appeals against a 2023 conviction for brokering organ transplants in Belarus without government permission.