More details are emerging about the prostitution ring that preyed on young women in Osaka. As reported widely last month, police arrested Yusuke Kimura (34) and Koki Hideshima (24) for recruiting teenaged girls, violating the Anti-Prostitution Law and Child Welfare Law. The girls were recruited from the Gurishita area of downtown Osaka (a district known as Minami). Gurishita is the spot near the Dotombori canal under the famous Glico Man billboard. It has become a notorious gathering place for underage delinquents and runaways, and a hotbed of prostitution and crime. Commentators have ...

Another day, another grim piece of news from Osaka. Local police have arrested 25-year-old Kaito Takimoto of no known occupation and 21-year-old Hayato Niiyama on suspicion of violating the prostitution law and kidnapping for profit. Last June, the pair are said to have approached a 16-year-old girl by the famous Glico Man billboard on Dotonbori and offered her the chance to make a million yen. Niiyama later drove her to the Tohoku region of northeast Japan, where she did sex work in several prefectures between June 15 and June 25. Takimoto and Niiyama pretended to be women on deai-kei ...