Latest news with #TokyoMetropolitanPolice
Tokyo Reported
3 days ago
- Tokyo Reported
Trio suspected in theft of 150,000 ‘One Piece' and ‘Pokemon' cards
Ryo Nakano (X) TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested three men over the alleged theft of more than 100,000 manga trading cards from two locations in the capital last year, reports the Asahi Shimbun (July 25). The three suspects are Ryo Nakano, 49, Yuki Yamazaki, 36, and 41-year-old Yuta Yoshihara. At around 3 a.m. on September 23, Nakano and one of the other suspects allegedly broke into a card store in Chiyoda Ward and stole 1.55 million yen in cash and 284 trading cards, with a total value of 34.08 million yen. Simultaneously, the third suspect allegedly broke into the office of the store's operating company in Bunkyo Ward and stole 1,778 trading cards, valued at 36.53 million yen. Upon their arrests, all three suspects denied the allegations. Nakano stated, 'I have no recollection of this.' Pokemon cards fetch more than 200,000 yen (X) Sakazuki card valued at 3.85 million yen All told, the trio is believed to have stolen about 150,000 cards, including those from popular manga such as 'One Piece' and 'Pokemon.' Of the cards stolen, the most expensive was a rare card of the character Sakazuki from 'One Piece,' which is valued at about 3.85 million yen. Police said that they found the lock for the trading card shop had been broken upon their arrival. As well, the glass of the entrance door had been smashed through. Some of the stolen cards were sold at another shop after the incident, police said.
SoraNews24
4 days ago
- SoraNews24
Tokyo prostitution ring members who targeted foreigners arrested
In possibly related incident, Tokyo Metropolitan Police received complaint from foreigner that 'I paid the woman the money, but didn't get to have sex.' On Thursday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department announced that they have arrested a group of four women on charges of prostitution in the city's Kabukicho bar district. As there's been a troubling increase in brazen street prostitution in this part of the city in recent years, with a corresponding increase in attention from law enforcement, the arrests themselves aren't so shocking, but the women's methodology, and certain complaints the police have been receiving, are pretty startling. One of the four women, all of whom have admitted to the prostitution charges against them, has been identified as a sort of de-facto leader of the group, organizing a network with more than two dozen members who would share text messages and photos alerting each other to police patrols in the area. This wasn't their only strategy for avoiding arrest, however, as during questioning one of the woman told investigators: 'If we were [having sex with] foreigners, we figured there was no way they'd be undercover police officers and so we wouldn't get caught.' The details of exactly how the group, who used phone translation apps to negotiate terms with foreign customers, were identified by police as prostitutes hasn't been made public. The woman's past-tense framing that they 'thought' they'd be able to weed out plainclothes cops by focusing on foreigners makes one wonder if that eventually turned out to be not as safe a ploy as they'd expected. While foreign nationals cannot become police officers in Japan, there's no ethnicity requirement, meaning that non-ethnically Japanese citizens of Japan, including nationalized citizens who immigrated to the country and thus may still look like 'foreigners,' could theoretically be employed for sting operations against individuals offering illegal services to foreign tourists. On the other hand, it's possible that the woman's use of 'thought' is just a reflection that, with the quartet under arrest for prostitution, they're not currently plying their trade, putting all their related methods in the past. The group didn't completely ignore potential Japanese clients either, though in such cases they targeted older men, again under the logic that they were less likely to be undercover police officers. ▼ Probably not a cop. As such, it's hard to say whether or not there was non-ethnically Japanese personnel working on the side of the law making the arrests. However, the police do know that there have been instances of foreigners attempting to purchase the services of prostitutes in Tokyo, and by their own admission. Between October of 2024 and June of 2025, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police say that they have received 11 reports from foreigners with complaints such as 'I paid [a woman] the money, but was unable to have sex with her,' or 'A woman stole my money at a hotel.' Investigators are currently looking into whether the four women were involved in any of those instances, though in the context of seeing if they were involved in additional cases of illegal prostitution, not for charges of fraudulent failure to render services. This is a good time to take a moment and remember that while Japan has a wide variety of legal hostess bars, house-call erotic massage companies, and other entertainment services specializing in sexual titillation, prostitution, in the sense of exchanging money for sexual intercourse, is against the law. Somewhat confusingly, Japan's Anti-Prostitution Law only has specified penalties for those selling sex, and no codified punishment for those purchasing it, but both parties involved in the transaction are technically breaking the law. With prostitution concerns on the rise throughout Japanese society, and the recent arrests bringing a new wave of attention to undesirable conduct by foreign tourists, it wouldn't be surprising if police forces stop letting johns off the hook and start putting the cuffs on them too, since even if their case never makes it to trial because there's no punishment to render, the Japanese legal system can still make getting arrested very unpleasant. Source: Tokyo Shimbun, NHK News Web, Bengoshi JP News Top image: Pakutaso Insert images: Pakutaso ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Tokyo Reported
5 days ago
- Tokyo Reported
Kabukicho prostitutes suspected of defrauding foreign tourists in Kabukicho
TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested four women on suspicion of soliciting prostitution in the Kabukicho red-light district of Shinjuku Ward. Though sex tourism is considered an issue, the suspects in this case were likely defrauding tourists instead of having sex with them for money, reports Jiji Press (July 24). Between May 14 and June 19, Miyu Aoyagi, 20, and the other three suspects are suspected of targeting foreign tourists for prostitution in the area around Okubo Park. According to police, the suspects stood and waited for customers in the area, which includes a row of love hotels, in a practice referred to as tachinbo . All four have admitted to violating the Anti-Prostitution Law. Aoyagi said, 'I engaged in prostitution only with foreigners and elderly men who I believed were definitely not plainclothes police officers. I created group chats with other girls to share information about police officers cracking down on them.' For the latter, she shared photos of investigators' faces and the patrol status around the park within the group, which has 26 members. The funds were used for gambling, to cover living expenses and pay for host club bills. Miyu Aoyagi, left, Sayaka Ando (26), second from left, Ami Nishimoto (25), second from right, and Yuka Uchiyama (24) 'My wallet was stolen' Through June, police had arrested 75 people for soliciting customers for prostitution in Kabukicho this year. That figure is 40 more than that over the same period last year. Among their customers are foreign tourists, who are increasingly looking to buy sex around Okubo Park — and they had better be on their guard. According to police, Aoyagi made about 110 million yen over the last two years. However, police believe a lot of those gains came from fraud. Between October last year and June, police received around 50 calls from customers. 'My wallet was stolen at a hotel,' one said. 'I paid but the deed wasn't done and then [a woman] called her accomplices and they threatened me,' another said. 'Pay me 10,000 yen first' Another suspect is Yuka Uchiyama. Just before her arrest, a camera for TBS News caught her putting cash she received from a man into her bag and disappearing into the night. Here's how she operated: After negotiating a deal — say, for 10,000 yen — with a foreign customer, they both go to a hotel. 'Pay me 10,000 yen first,' she will say. After receiving the amount, she'll announce, 'I came to the hotel for 10,000 yen. This is the end.' She'll then head for the door. 'Unique Japanese scene' However, many women actually engaged in sex with foreign tourists for money. The find out why foreign tourists prefer to pick up streetwalkers around Okubo Park, TBS News conducts several interviews. 'There is a YouTuber who introduces that there is a street in Kabukicho where you can have sexual relations [with women],' a Korean man says. A man from Finland shows the network a TikTok video. He says that he came across the video after it was recommended on the app. 'There are quite a lot [of these videos],' he says. 'I think it's a unique Japanese scene.' A man from France acknowledges that he went to a hotel with a woman. He says, 'This is the best place.' Sex tourism Kazunori Yamai, of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, raised the issue of foreign tourists visiting for the purpose of prostitution in the Diet 'Foreign men come to Tokyo for sex tourism,' said the House of Representatives member. 'Is this situation really something we can just ignore?' The Anti-Prostitution Law prohibits prostitution, but there are no penalties for those who buy sex. Kazuna Kanajiri is the director of PAPS (Organization for Pornography and Sexual Exploitation Survivors). She says that the law needs to be revised. '[Under the current circumstances] the buyers can approach women as much as they want without being punished If there are no buyers, [women] will not be forced to sell sex. We need legal penalties as soon as possible,' she says.
SoraNews24
21-07-2025
- SoraNews24
Mobile battery fire breaks out on Tokyo's main commuter line
Battery began to burn after less than a minute of use, owner says. Tokyo's Yamanote Line, which loops around the center of the city, is Japan's most infamously crowded commuter train line, and a stressful should-to-shoulder stint on it is part of the daily trip to/from the office for many Tokyoites. The atmosphere tends to be more relaxed outside of rush hour, and on weekends in particular, but last Sunday was a startling exception. At around 4:10 in the afternoon on July 20, passengers on a train traveling on the Yamanote's 'inner'/counterclockwise route between Shin Okubo and Shinjuku Stations noticed white smoke rising from the bag of a passenger. The bag's owner, a woman in her 30s, reached inside, where she had her smartphone connected to a mobile battery for charging. She disconnected her phone, but by this time the battery itself was on fire. A passenger hit the emergency stop button while another quick-thinking individual grabbed the train car's onboard fire extinguisher and began spraying the bag. The woman sustained burns to her fingers and a total of four other passengers suffered injuries such as bruises and sprained ankles in the rush to evacuate the train, but all are expected to make quick and complete recoveries. ▼ A report showing images of the charred remains of the bag the battery was inside. In speaking with investigators from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, the woman said that she'd only had her phone plugged into the battery for 'about 30 seconds' before it began to burn. While there's obviously ever a good time for a fire to break out in an enclosed space, it's fortuitous that the incident happened when it did, at a time when the train was comparatively uncrowded. During weekday morning and evening rush hours, it's the norm for the Yamanote Line to be so crowded that it's impossible to take a step in any direction unless the train is stopped at a station with its doors open and providing the bare minimum of wriggle room. The weekend mid-afternoon time also likely meant a lower ratio of sleepy, work-exhausted, on-their-way-home-from-drinking, or otherwise slow-reacting demographics that sometimes make up a sizeable amount of Yamanote ridership. Had the timing been different, the results of a fire inside a Yamanote train and subsequent hurried evacuation would have been far worse than a half-dozen or so minor injuries. The incident comes less than two weeks after Japanese airlines instituted new rules for passengers regarding mobile batteries onboard airplanes. Currently JR East/East Japan Railway Company, which operates the Yamanote Line, has no formal regulations about the use or transport of mobile batteries on its trains, but Sunday's fire may have the company considering adopting some, especially as the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation says that it has observed increased instances of mobile battery fires coinciding with higher temperatures during the summer months. Source: NHK News Web, Nihon Keizai Shimbun via Hachima Kiko, YouTube/ANNNewsCH Top image: Pakutaso ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Tokyo Reported
20-07-2025
- Tokyo Reported
Satoshi Kirishima: Hiding in plain sight
KANAGAWA (TR) – In February 2024, Tokyo Metropolitan Police confirmed that a man who died in a hospital here the month before was Satoshi Kirishima, a fugitive wanted over a series of bomb attacks in 1974 and 1975. According to investigative sources, the man was admitted to a hospital in Kamakura City in early January under the name 'Hiroshi Uchida.' He was suffering from terminal stomach cancer. When he died the next month he was 70 years old. On January 25, he disclosed his real name to the hospital staff, saying, 'In the end, I want to die as 'Satoshi Kirishima.'' He died four days later. Kirishima had remained on the run for nearly half a century. One year after his death, TBS News (Mar. 1) visited the home where he lived. Through interviews, the network was able to get a glimpse into his life on the run, one where he was hiding in plain sight. Following a series of corporate bombings in the 1970s, Satoshi Kirishima was a fugitive for nearly 50 years (X) Hiroshi Uchida A photograph presented by the network shows a man smiling with a wine glass in hand. This is Satoshi Kirishima, the suspect who committed a series of corporate bombings in the 1970s. The photo obtained exclusively by the program was taken 30 years after he was put on a nationwide wanted list. His joyful appearance, in the company of friends, does not look like that of a wanted criminal who fears arrest. In Fujisawa City, there is a building where suspect Kirishima lived until just before his death. With special permission, the program was able to film the inside. There, he was left with his life under the pseudonym Hiroshi Uchida and the inner conflict of being a fugitive. His guitar, handwritten lyrics cards, manga, movie DVDs, and other items were piled up in a cluttered mess. Medicines prescribed under the name 'Uchida' and books on cancer also gave a glimpse into his later years. There is a magazine looking back at the year 1974, the year of the bombing. A number of words are scribbled: selflessness, courage, tenacity, weakness. Maruonouchi blast Kirishima was a member of Sasori (Scorpion), a unit for extremist group East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front. The extremist group was tied to a series of bombings in the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front said they were behind more than 10 bombings that targeted contractors and other organizations. In 1974, a time bomb exploded at an office of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. in the Marunouchi business district of Tokyo. The blast killed eight people and injured 380. It was the worst terrorist attack in Japan since the end of World War II. Kirishima is suspected of being involved in a bombing at a building of the Economic Research Institute of Korea in the capital's Ginza district on April 19, 1975. The next day, he was listed as wanted. Before he died last year, Kirishima denied involvement in the Ginza blast. However, he did admit to carrying out at least one of the three blasts on February 28, 1975 that rocked the Hazama Corp. headquarters and its plant in Saitama Prefecture. According to the Asahi Shimbun (Feb. 27, 2024), Kirishima told police, 'I had worked day-labor jobs in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, before living and working at the construction company in Fujisawa.' On the day of the publication of Asahi article, Tokyo police sent Kirishima to prosecutors over five cases on suspicion of violating the Explosives Control Law and attempted murder. Of the 10 members of the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, police arrested nine. Kirishima had been the only one to evade arrest. Toshikazu Ugajin (X) Daichi no Kiba Sasori joined East Asia Anti-Japanese Armed Front after the Mitsubishi blast, meaning Kirishima was not involved. Sasori was accompanied by another group, Daichi no Kiba (Fang of the Earth), in joining the extremist group. Either individually or together, the three groups carried out a total of 12 bombings. Sasori had a policy of not causing any casualties, but in 1975, a man was seriously injured by a bomb set by Kirishima. Afterward, eight member of the three groups were arrested. Kirishima and Toshikazu Ugajin, 72, a former member of Daichi no Kiba, were not among them. Ugajin tells TBS News that he immediately went to Kirishima's residence. 'The idea of using weapons or anything like that to achieve some goal was wrong in itself,' says Ugajin. Kirishima was shaken. '[Kirishima] had a look on his face saying, 'What have I done?' He said, 'I've done something that can't be undone,'' Ugajin remembers. The two men were afraid that the investigation would reach them, so they kept watch over each other's apartments as investigators closed in. Ugajin lived near Saginomiya Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line in Tokyo. Meanwhile Kirishima was at a residence two stations away. 'There were no investigators at Kirishima's apartment,' Ugajin says. 'But when Kirishima went to my apartment, there were about 10 people wearing white gloves.' Satoshi Kirishima with a glass of wine in 2005 (X) The escape Ugajin explains to the network how the two escaped 50 years ago. 'As we were walking, two of the [men in white gloves] followed us and said, 'Let's take a taxi to Shinjuku,'' Ugajin says. 'We were lying down on the grass and asking, 'What on earth should we do?'' While moving from one cheap lodging to another, Ugajin cut Kirishima's long hair with scissors. 'I thought if I cut his hair, they wouldn't know,' he says. 'The blade started moving around, and I wound up cutting it short.' After learning in the newspaper that they were wanted, the two decided to split up and go on the run. 'I was in a panic,' Ugajin says. 'It was bad to be together, so we decided to split up, run away and meet again.' Satoshi Kirishima at his favorite bar in Fujisawa (X) 'Never says no' Despite that promise, they never did meet again.,Ugajin was arrested seven years later and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Meanwhile, Kirishima continued to flee. There are people in his hometown in Hiroshima Prefecture, where he was born in 1954, who were caught up in Kirishima's flight. Kirishima's high school classmate, Ryutaro Okada, 71, went on to a different university in Tokyo than Kirishima. '[Kirishima] was easily influenced by others,' says Okada. 'If someone says, 'Hey, Kirishima, let's go hang out,' he'll go. He was the kind of guy who never says no.' When Kirishima was in his fourth year of university, his classmate was subjected to relentless questioning after Kirishima was put on the wanted list. 'Because he ran away, the police investigated his classmates in various ways, and I think his family got it even worse,' says Okada. 'I felt strongly that he should have come out quickly and say at least one word of apology.' 'I've seen you somewhere before' When Kirishima started his escape, he wound up at a steelworks plant in Fujisawa City. He was introduced to the manager by a gang member under the name 'Uchida.' Takashi Komura, 76, was that manager: 'The gang member said, 'Please take care of him for a bit.'' After working there for about three months, Kirishima disappeared. Komura remembers, 'I said to Kirishima, 'I've seen you somewhere before.' He responded, 'There are a lot of people who look like me.' Then he disappeared at the end of the month.' Kirishima then worked at another construction company for about 40 years. Acquaintances said that although he was quiet at work. But they also said that in his private life he acted boldly, which was hard to believe for a wanted man. At the height of the so-called 'bubble economy,' he danced at discos and visited Tokyo and Yokohama to watch live music. He also went skiing, camping and fishing with friends. 'Excited about movies and music' Kirishima frequented a bar in Fujisawa for 25 years. TBS News got the proprietor to speak on camera for the first time. 'We called him 'Woo-yan,' the manager says. 'He seemed to like getting excited about movies and music the most.' The nickname 'Woo-yan' is also written on the event list at the bar. The manager felt a special bond with Kirishima as a friend. 'He remembered my birthday and brought me something every year,' the manager says. 'He would give me old movie videos, or if he happened to go to a discount store and saw some clothes that looked good on me, he would buy them for me.' He was a cheerful figure at the bar, livening up the atmosphere with the regulars. 'There was a musician he loved,' the manager remembers, 'and he would save up cans of canned chuhai that he drank every day, put a lot of pebbles in them, tie them up with duct tape, and make dozens of them as maracas for all the customers who came in, telling them to support him.' In 2023, Kirishima confessed his illness to the manager. 'He told me he had pharyngeal cancer and said he couldn't go out drinking for a while,' he says. 'About a month later, he said he'd had surgery and was cured, so he'd come again.' That never happened. Satoshi Kirishima was wanted for 50 years Afterward Ugajin was released from prison in 2003. On January 29 this year, the anniversary of Kirishima's death, he visited a shrine in Kamakura. 'The place where I met Kirishima. The place where we agreed to meet again, three months after we started our escape,' he says. 'We parted ways, agreeing to talk things over [another time].' On the appointed day, 50 years ago, Ugajin walked around the shrine grounds, but could not find Kirishima. After that, he visited the shrine almost every year. 'I couldn't meet him. I couldn't meet him. I haven't seen him for 50 years,' he says. Kirishima's classmate Okada said he felt uncomfortable with the reports that Kirishima was involved in the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing. 'He's being treated like a villain,' Okada says. 'There were some things about that that I couldn't forgive. But I want to make it clear to what extent Kirishima was actually involved. For Kirishima's sake.' For Okada, one question remains: Why did Kirishima join the extremists? To find out, he visited Kamakura to ask Ugajin. 'I thought that Kirishima was a man who was easily influenced by others. So I always had a strong feeling that he was pulled in that direction,' Okada says. Ugajin disagrees. He says, 'He's not the kind of person who is influenced by others.' After Okada suggests it was Ugajin who forced Kirishima to join the group, Ugajin says, 'Do I look like the kind of person who would pull someone along? Me? He wasn't pulled along by someone, he chose that fight of his own volition. That he's just a person who doesn't think about anything. That's absolutely wrong. It's wrong.' 'An apology' Okada and Ugajin's opinions were at odds. Later, the two visited visited the Fujisawa bar. 'When we talk, we only have happy memories,' the proprietor says. 'When I think about the victims, I can't express those feelings honestly. To me, Uchida is Uchida, and because we were close, it feels like a friend has died, so I'm sad.' In 2024, Ugajin wrote in his memoir that Kirishima's escape was a 'victory against the public security police.' Since then, his feelings have changed. 'He will live life anew as an ordinary human being, not a terrorist,' he says. 'It's not fitting to call it a 'declaration of victory.'' In January 2024, Kirishima was found unable to move on a street and was taken to the hospital. Stricken with cancer, he made the aforementioned confession as to his identity on his deathbed. When police arrived, he divulged information about the attacks and the background of Kirishimia that only the man himself could have known. The results of a DNA analysis verified his identity. Why did Kirishima reveal his real name at the end? 'He wanted people to know that it wasn't just some nameless person named Uchida who died, but that he was living as Satoshi Kirishima, pretending to be Uchida,' Ugajin says. The proprietor thinks the reason might run deeper. 'I think he was a serious person, so I feel like he drew a line under himself in the end,' he says. 'By calling himself Satoshi Kirishima, it felt like he erased Satoshi Kirishima, partly as an apology for the incident.' Ugajin also visited the building where Kirishima lived for the first time. 'I made a mistake, or rather, I fought in a way that I shouldn't have,' he says. 'I've come to understand that. I think that's natural. When I look at the people he's been with, there's not much difference between my feelings and theirs. I really want to know what he was thinking. I wish I did.' A piece of paper was left behind in Kirishima's room. Handwritten on it were the words of a philosopher: 'You can understand life by looking backwards.'
