Thanks Gavin and other for your responses.

I was planning to update this thread eventually, once things have been
finalized, but here's what's happened so far:

Fortunately, the asshole I was working for is not just a weaselly
snake, he's also as stupid as a rock in the woods.  His accountant
actually issued me a payslip for the salary owed me (without actually
depositing the money into my account).  So, that alone pretty much
prevents any chance he has to (falsely) claim I was not working at the
time, etc..  In addition, I do indeed have a copy of my contract with
the company as well as an extremely incriminating email which was sent
to the employees explaining the the company spent the salary money to
pay other expenses.  So, in terms of evidence to support my claim, I am
all set.

The first thing I did, was go to the Tokyo Labor bureau (about a month
ago), right after this situation started.  I had a feeling they would
be useless, and indeed they were, basically.  What they did was have me
send the employer a registered letter demanding the money owed to me
within one week.  Naturally he did nothing in response to the letter,
so the next step was that the labor bureau sent him a letter which
*requested* that he show up at their office a week later to discuss the
matter.  Of course, he did not do that either.  They then proceeded to
attempt to contact this slippery bastard at both his company and
residence and were unable to do that either.

Well, if nothing else, going through that process was at least helpful
in that it provided me further document evidence of this guy's
character.

So, the next step was going to file a claim in small claims court.  I
had to go retrieve a copy of the company's registration certificate and
then go to the small claims office.  They sent him a registered letter
which gave him two weeks to contest my claim.  Naturally, the little
shithead did not respond at all, during that time, which now means that
he automatically loses the case . . . for whatever that is worth.

Now, he has two weeks to pay up (which includes the salary he
originally owed me, plus interest, plus filing fees) or they take the
next step, which I understand is to freeze the company's credit and
make things otherwise difficult for them to operate.

Time will tell, and I might not get a single yen out of this whole
deal, but hell at least I went through the whole procedure.  Frankly,
I'm really disappointed that there are not more effective (and timely!)
measures in place to address this very serious issue.  I've had some
time off of work lately and have been freed up to do all this running
around, but I sure feel bad for anyone who has to try to go through
these hoops when they are working full time or otherwise incapacitated.

In any case, I'll be sure to update this thread on the outcome.

-MB