EXCLUSIVE: Tokyo Man Held for Luring Girl into Prostitution

Tokyo, May 15 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 24-year-old unemployed man for allegedly luring a junior high school girl into prostitution in violation of the child welfare law, investigative sources told Jiji Press. Shota Inoue, a Tokyo resident, is suspected of talking a then 15-year-old student, who was hanging around an area called “Toyoko” in the Kabukicho entertainment district, into prostitution for a former entertainment-related company head at a hotel in the district in early July last year. Toyoko is the area next to Toho Cinemas Ltd.’s cinema complex where lonely youth gather. Inoue admitted the allegations against him, saying that he lured the girl into prostitution knowing that she was 15 years old. According to the sources, Inoue talked the girl into living together, saying that she could make money by sugar daddy dating, while he knew that she was under 18. The former company head is Akira Awazu, 51, who was arrested in January this year for selling sexual videos of the girl without permission in violation of laws including the one to prevent harm caused by pornographic video appearances and provide relief to victims. Inoue and the girl met in early July last year. He put her into prostitution by exploiting the girl’s romantic feelings, telling her to stand at a place with many hotels and engage in prostitution three times per day. The girl prostituted herself about 40 times over one to two weeks after meeting Inoue and handed him 200,000 yen after withholding her living expenses. This came to light after the girl was taken into protective custody in mid-July. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]