Man arrested for filming and selling porn with junior high school girl

Tokyo Metropolitan Police has announced the arrest of Akira Awazu, a 51-year-old executive at an entertainment company based in Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward, on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse and violation of the Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Prohibition Act, for allegedly filming himself engaging in obscene acts with a 15-year-old junior high school girl and selling the footage as an adult video.

Awazu partially denies the charges, saying: “I though the girl was 18 years old.” This was revealed in an interview with investigators, reports the Asahi Shimbun.

Awazu was also arrested on suspicion of violating the Adult Video Appearance Harm Prevention and Relief Act for allegedly producing porn without providing a written performance contract. This is one of the conditions and safeguards introduced by the controversial porn law passed in 2022 in response to coercion in the industry and the lowering of the age of majority from 20 to 18. It has led to many arrests, though some say the law has failed to prevent illegal practices. Amateur porn like Awazu was engaged in making is one such potential loophole.

According to investigators, Awazu told the girl that her face would be edited using AI, but in reality, only minor editing was done and the performer was easily identifiable. The suspect himself appeared in the video having sex with the junior high school girl’s partner, though his face was fully concealed.

Awazu was arrested on suspicion of giving ¥40,000 in cash to the girl at a hotel in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho district in early July last year, despite knowing that she was under 16, engaging in sexual acts with her, and then selling the resulting video as porn.

This came to light after the girl was taken into custody in mid-Juliy by officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Juvenile Development Division, after she was found in the Toyoko area of Kabukicho, a location that is a hotbed of runaways, delinquents, and young people vulnerable to pimps and worse.

Awazu told police that starting around July 2024, he would approach women in Kabukicho or solicit them through social media to film porn. “I was the director and male performer in the adult video. I gave in to my sexual desires,” he is quoted as saying.

This is disingenuous, though, since the sex and sex tapes weren’t just for his personal gratification. He also sold the videos that he filmed. Tokyo Metropolitan Police estimate he earned at least a total of ¥10 million between January and October of last year (for context, that’s more than double the average salary in Japan). A hard drive seized from his home contained at least 1,700 obscene videos featuring women believed to be in their teens and twenties. Investigators are currently analyzing the videos to determine if the constitute further crimes.

At the time of his arrest, Awazu was president of an entertainment company called Kakeru Entertainment, based in Shibuya.

According to its website (subsequently taken offline), Kakeru Entertainment is involved in fan club management and event production, including for big names like Gackt. Awazu has an impressive background, having graduated from Kyoto University with a degree in engineering. Kyodai is one of best universities in Japan.

The investigation into Awazu has been ongoing for some time, with news media running footage of him filmed last month, possibly when he was responding to police inquiries. He was formally arrested on either January 7 or 8.

Violations of the Adult Video Appearance Victim Prevention and Relief Act are punishable by a sentence of up to six months in prison, a fine of up to ¥1 million, or both.