Tokyo Police Arrest Thai Woman over Sex Work Case Involving Girl

Tokyo, Jan. 15 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo police have arrested a Thai woman on suspicion of having a girl from the Southeast Asian nation provide sexual services at a massage parlor in the Japanese capital in violation of the child welfare law. Arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department in the high-profile case was Punsiripanya Phakhaphon, 38, a former manager of the shop. The suspect denied the allegations, saying that she has nothing to do with the matter as she has already quit the shop. Phakhaphon allegedly had the girl, then 12, provide sexual services to a male customer around June 30 last year without checking the girl’s age, according to her arrest warrant. According to the MPD, Phakhaphon introduced 30 to 40 women, including the girl, to the parlor in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward through social media and the Thai community in Japan. Having found some 3,000 contact numbers in her mobile phone, the police believe that she is a broker. The police said that the girl’s mother worked at the parlor for a few days around May last year before contacting Phakhaphon in mid-June. She left her daughter to work at the parlor later that month. The girl is believed to have provided sexual services to some 70 customers by mid-August. A notebook in which the girl wrote in Thai has been found at the massage parlor. The notebook describes the girl sleeping alone at the parlor, with no internet access, and feeling so lonely that her hands, arms and legs shook from fear. The girl returned to Thailand on Dec. 26. The police have served a fresh arrest warrant on Masayuki Hosono, 52, the owner of the parlor, on suspicion of letting female workers, including the girl, work illegally in violation of the immigration control and refugee law. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]