Nearly 44 percent of Japanese companies nationwide say they have been the target of "sokaiya" corporate extortionists and the mob, according to a survey released Thursday by an antigang organization affiliated with the National Police Agency.

In the poll by the National Center for the Elimination of Boryokudan, when asked if they had ever been the target of extortion by gangs and sokaiya, 863 firms, or 43.7 percent, said yes.

The results reflect businesses' difficulties in severing ties with the underworld, said the center, which seeks to stamp out extortion and help victims of "boryokudan" (gangsters).

According to the survey, 513 companies said demands were made in the year to December, with 11 saying they had paid between 1 million yen and 10 million yen to such groups.

Sokaiya are nominal shareholders in a firm who typically demand cash in exchange for not obstructing general stockholders meetings by divulging damaging or embarrassing corporate information.

The survey was conducted in December through questionnaires sent to 3,000 firms, to which 1,977 responded.

Nearly half of the 863 received monetary demands amounting to less than 100,000 yen, while 28 said they had received requests for more than 10 million yen. Eight of those said the sums exceeded 100 million yen.

The survey found 681, or 78.9 percent, of the companies refused the demands in some form, while 14, or 1.6 percent, completely agreed to them. Including the 14, 101 companies, or 11.7 percent, met part of the requests in some way.

The respondents cited small extortion sums, an inability to refuse due to past consent and intimidation as reasons for agreeing.

NPA officials said the results showed little change from similar surveys in 1995 and 1999.