Just a few days after we reported on the ongoing police crackdown in Kabukicho over drugs, prostitution, and delinquency.
These reports appear literally almost daily now. Hosts arrested for extracting debt payments in dubious ways, such as introducing women to pimps. Young women arrested for soliciting on the street. It's a never-ending conveyor belt of moral outrage, dutifully reported in the mainstream media.
The most shocking stories are those that involve underage girls: some hosts are so desperate for money and so unscrupulous that they exploit minors.
The latest story is in a similar ...
More bad news about compensated dating now as the moral panic over papakatsu continues.
Papakatsu is a kind of newish buzzword to describe compensated dating that involves an older man and younger woman (though in practice, compensated dating often meant such sugar daddy relationships regardless of terminology).
Following media stories about female fraudsters and even at least one murder, it helps to remember that the men are not always the victim here -- and since they're the ones with the money, quite the opposite in many cases.
The young women involved in papakatsu may be barely over ...
When confronted with a scandal, most Japanese politicians rely on a stock phrase: "I don't recall that."
And so it it was refreshing to see that Hiroyuki Miyazawa, the 49-year-old House of Representatives lawmaker, came clean and stated plainly: "I remember that."
A member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Miyazawa recently resigned his seat when Weekly Bunshun reported on his penchant for papakatsu sugar daddy compensated dating and regular use of sex workers.
He is also supposed to have been practically living with a woman in her twenties during the pandemic, despite being ...
Papakatsu is the new "sugar daddy" genre of compensated dating. For some, it's an easy way for guys who are middle aged or older with some money to have sex with younger women.
For others, it's a way to fall victim to crime.
In May, a man was almost murdered by woman who looked in reality very different from the cute lady in the pictures she put online.
Now comes a fresh cautionary tale. A 25-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of fraud. According to media reports, the host-addicted Mai Watanabe is accused of swindling three men out of ¥156 million through a romance scam.
She ...
Be careful. That cutie you are messaging on that app or website may not be who she says she is.
Meeting in person is still the safest way to guarantee someone looks like their picture -- but even this is a risky proposition, as their personality might be homicidal.
A cautionary tale about papakatsu has generated headlines in Japan recently.
Rino Ito was arrested near Hiratsuka Station on May 4 for attempted murder after stabbing a middle-aged man in the belly with a knife.
The 28-year-old called Kanagawa police herself and confessed to the crime, before waiting for officers to arrive and ...
One of the most sensational stories that has gripped the Japanese media over the past few weeks has involved the arrests and deportations in the Philippines of several young Japanese citizens, who were allegedly part of the "Luffy group" responsible robbery and fraud since 2021 (including from behind bars). The name of the gang is a reference to the manga and anime franchise One Piece.
One of the most recently detained citizens was 25-year-old Hitomi Kumai. Japanese police issued a warrant for her arrest last September on fraud charges. She is accused of making phone calls tricking people ...
There have been various scandals about YouTubers, proving that these new kinds of celebrities are as fallible as the rest of us. But this one is quite a bit more serious than the others.
A former member of the YouTuber group Kindan Boys (禁断ボーイズ) has been arrested on suspicion of prostitution.
According to various media reports on February 14, Mohrii (Kohei Mori) is accused of recruiting clients via a dating app by posing as a woman. Another four members of an alleged prostitution ring were also arrested. Mori's role was to send messages and reel patrons in.
Police believe the ...
Papakatsu, the buzzword that refers to compensated dating for sugar daddies, is in the news again.
Takeru Yoshikawa, a politician with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has been accused of drinking with an 18-year-old girl.
House of Representatives member Yoshikawa, who is 40 but frankly looks a but older (perhaps it's the jowls), has a wife and two daughters. He was photographed arriving with the girl at a high-end hotel in the Odaiba bay district of Tokyo in late May.
According to the scoop in News Post Seven (that includes 46 pictures!), he and the girl arrived, checked in, and then ...
After losing his wife, the former TV announcer Mao Kobayashi, to cancer in 2017, the top kabuki actor Ebizo Ichikawa was reinvented in the public imagination as a sympathetic figure bravely battling on as a single parent.
Ebizo, who had an image as a womanizer before he settled down with Mao Kobayashi, is apparently starting to date again. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but the tabloids are relishing the details: namely that the 44-year-old star is dating more than one woman, judging from paparazzi shots, and they are much younger than him. Though one such report came out last autumn, ...
A 24-year-old woman was arrested on January 22 after a 82-year-old man was found dead in a love hotel in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.
The man, Katsuzo Imano, was found in the room on the night of January 21, covered in blood and with box-cutter wounds on his chest. The money in his wallet was gone.
The suspect, Haruka Fujii, apparently called a former boyfriend immediately after the crime and then attempted to flee. Fujii, the ex-boyfriend, and his younger brother were apprehended at Nishi-Hachioji Station, just outside Tokyo, the following morning.
The image above shows Fujii shortly before she ...
