By James A. Loyola The Tokyo High Court has shut the door on Japanese pachinko king Kazuo Okada’s attempts to regain control over his former gaming empire. In a 12-page ruling, the Tokyo High Court dismissed an appeal seeking to nullify a district court decision that upheld the validity of a trust agreement executed by Okada’s daughter Hiromi in favor of her brother Tomohiro. Under the trust agreement, she assigned her voting rights to her brother and disposed her shares in Hong Kong-based Okada Holdings, the majority shareholder of Universal Entertainment Corporation. UEC, a publicly-listed company in Japan, owns 99.99 percent of Tiger Resort Leisure & Entertainment Inc. (TRLEI), the Philippine firm that owns and operates the posh Okada Manila Resort in Paranaque. With its decision, the Tokyo High Court ended attempts by the gaming tycoon to regain control of UEC and TRLEI by invalidating the trust agreement between Tomohiro and Hiromi, who holds nine percent voting shares in Okada Holdings. Tomohiro has a combined 53 percent voting rights in Okada Holdings, which was used to oust the older Okada from both UEC and TRLEI last year. Kazuo was reduced to a minority shareholder in Okada Holdings with the combination of the siblings’ voting rights. The Tokyo High Court held that there was no legal basis to reverse the earlier decision of the district court against Hiromi. “For the reasons above, the original judgment is reasonable and this appeal is groundless. Accordingly, this court renders its judgment… to dismiss this appeal,” the High Court said. In January this year, the Tokyo district court ruled in favor of Tomohiro by throwing out the petition filed by Hiromi questioning the validity of the trust agreement of the siblings in the hope of reinstalling Okada to the corporate boards of UEC and TRLEI. She challenged the district court decision before Tokyo’s High Court. By dismissing Hiromi’s appeal, the Tokyo High Court affirmed the validity of the trust agreement executed between Tomohiro and Hiromi. The shareholding rights were confirmed and exercised by Tomohiro in the shareholders’ meeting of UEC and TRLEI and Okada Holdings in accordance with the laws of the countries of registry of the companies. Last year, Kazuo Okada filed a civil intra-corporate case in a Philippine court seeking to be reinstalled as a director of Okada Manila. But the court dismissed the case. TRLEI pointed out that Kazuo Okada’s suit had no legal basis, with Okada owning no shares of TRLEI and therefore having no right to vote himself into the company’s board of directors. The older Okada is also facing arrest in the Philippines for embezzlement of more than $3.1 million in company funds. He tried to quash the warrant of arrest against him but this was denied by the Regional Trial Court of Parañaque.