City should move to rehab Kawamoto’s Kahala messes

By Richard Turbin

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 20, 2013

~~<p>When Kahala residents learned the news earlier this month that Genshiro Kawamoto was confined in a Tokyo jail on tax evasion charges, you could hear a collective sigh of relief. Could this be the end of an unhappy era where beautiful Kahala Avenue became an ugly eyesore?</p>
<p>No doubt the Japanese prosecutors are searching for answers to questions that Hawaii citizens are asking. Were the millions of dollars used to buy his Hawaii property and the statues littering his property a way to siphon taxable yen from Kawamoto's bars and casinos on the Ginza? But another question is more important: What happens to Kawamoto's property now?</p>
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When Kahala residents learned the news earlier this month that Genshiro Kawamoto was confined in a Tokyo jail on tax evasion charges, you could hear a collective sigh of relief. Could this be the end of an unhappy era where beautiful Kahala Avenue became an ugly eyesore?

No doubt the Japanese prosecutors are searching for answers to questions that Hawaii citizens are asking. Were the millions of dollars used to buy his Hawaii property and the statues littering his property a way to siphon taxable yen from Kawamoto's bars and casinos on the Ginza? But another question is more important: What happens to Kawamoto's property now? Login for more...