23-year-old woman found dead in forest worked as porn star

Earlier this month, the naked body of 23-year-old Rina Arano was found tied to a tree. Her body showed no obvious sign of injury and the cause of death is still unclear.

A 33-year-old man has been arrested for confining her against her will in his vacation home in Hitachiota, Ibaraki, which is located around a kilometer from where Arano’s body was found.

Arano apparently met the Hiroyuki Sanpei, a 33-year-old company employee in Minamiashigara, Kanagawa, for the first time in February or March. It is unclear exactly why she and Sanpei went to his villa in the rural district — or what took place in the house (and if that caused her death).

Arano was last seen on June 5 and reported missing on June 8 by her family. Sanpei was arrested on June 14 after surveillance footage from JR Mito Station showed him and Arano leaving together in his car on June 5.

Sanpei, who was previously arrested in 2017 for sexual assault against two women, has admitted meeting and restraining Arano with handcuffs, but says he did so with her consent. He claims she left the house and he doesn’t know what happened to her afterward.

The news story has been quite a sensation in Japan for obvious reasons. But there are further twists: Arano, who lived in Tokyo’s Bunkyo ward, described herself as a “social media model” who would live off the money she was paid by men to send them photos and videos of herself.

It seems that Arano, who reportedly started living in Kabukicho when she was 20, was also a porn star, appearing in a few releases as an “amateur” or anonymous performer. Netizens identified her from her teeth and the distinctive moles on her face.

At least one person from the industry has also publicly identified Arano as an adult video performer.