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A 12-year-old girl who disappeared after leaving her house in Osaka on Nov 17 turned up Saturday at a police box in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, saying she had been confined in a house by a man.
According to police, the girl, Iroha Akasaka, appeared at the police box at around 1:30 p.m. Police said she wasn't wearing shoes. She told them she had escaped from a man’s house where another girl was also being confined, Fuji TV reported.
Police went to the house and arrested a 35-year-old man as he was leaving with a 15-year-old girl. Police said both girls were in good health. Police said the man, Hitoshi Ito, a part-time worker, has denied kidnapping Akasaka whom he met on a social networking site.
Police said the other girl in Ito's house was from Ibaraki Prefecture and been missing since June, but gave no other details.
Iroha was last seen leaving her home in Osaka's Sumiyoshi Ward by her mother after having breakfast at around 7:30 a.m. last Sunday. She then exchanged text messages with a friend at 10:30 a.m. That was the last communication anyone had with her.
Her mother took a nap after breakfast and awoke at around 11 a.m. When her daughter failed to return home in the afternoon, she tried calling her phone but it was apparently turned off. After contacting her daughter’s friends, she notified police Sunday night that Iroha was missing.
Iroha told police she met Ito online on Nov 10 and that on the day she disappeared, agreed to meet him in a park near her home. Ito then took her by train to Oyama. Kyodo News reported Sunday that Iroha told police Ito he sent her a message asking her to come to his house in Oyama. He also told her that he was with another girl who had been in his house for about six months and that he wanted Iroha to be "a conversation partner" for her, Kyodo reported.
© Japan Today
28 Comments
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Marsh Mallow
Why are they disclosing her name? She's a minor.
therougou
They don't need it to draw attention. They had her pictures and probably description of what she was wearing that day, as well as the relative time she left her house. As mentioned, there are cameras everywhere.
Strangerland
Right. It’s pathetic that these police can’t tie things up in 42 minutes plus commercial breaks. They do it on tv. Why can’t these police be competent like we’ve seen they can be on tv?
Satedaya
I see another problem here.
Why Police didn't find her? In the century of cameras at every corner it sounds pretty obvious to me to check ones surrounding the park and then just follow them to their location in Osaka.
Mom taking a nap or letting her kid use phone it's not a problem at all. I guess gaikokujins should mind their own business as they like to stick their big noses and tell other people how to live.
Bugle Boy of Company B
A 35 year old man traveling with a 12 year old girl itself is not particularly strange. I doubt it would draw any attention.
macv
Why aren't defense against these types of creeps taught in all schools? I teach my daughters how to avoid creeps and scams, teach them that all bad guys at first act like they're good guys and so forth. Japanese girls are so naive but parents and authorities don't seem to care.
therougou
Seems the girl went with the guy in broad daylight and by train. I know this is the Osaka police and all, but couldn't they have tracked her down earlier?
Bugle Boy of Company B
What could he have possibly said to convince a 12 year old to run away from home??
The mind boggles!
WilliB
quercetum:
You have perverts in every country, including yours, whereever that is.
JJ Jetplane
While I am curious about her reasons for going to meet a grown man at 12 years old. I'm just happy that this monster was caught. Confining two young girls. There's no telling how many more girls could have become victims of this monster.
WilliB
Good for her that she escaped, but this social networking thing sounds terribly naive. Her parents should have warned her not to trust everybody on such sites and to always leave a message as to where she was going.
quercetum
They steal underwear and kidnap girls who look like the ones in the mange they read. Many Japanese men are emasculated.
Bugle Boy of Company B
I’m sure that this 12-year-old has learned a lot from this experience, most importantly of which would be not to meet up with strangers online.
Toasted Heretic
Glad she's ok.
No, that kind of bloodthirsty barbarism belongs in the dark ages. He needs a jail sentence and psychologists need to study him so to learn about what makes someone like him tick & hopefully put in place strategies to avoid others committing such crimes.
John Beara
Holy.... This bring me some back memories... Marc dutroux story in Belgium.
John Beara
How come the other girl was not in any news?
Vince Black
Creep. The saddest thing is he won't get locked up for long. He deserves the death penalty actually, but one step at a time
B. Jay
This 12 year old girl must be told that there are creeps all over the place. She should never meet strangers alone and must never agree to go anywhere with strangers alone. Her mom must seize her mobile phone and must be told in strict terms never to make friends with adult males online. Good she is found healthy and safe.
therougou
I can admit to being tired but waking up to give my kid breakfast and then going back to sleep again. With an elementary school kid it is OK to take naps. But she should have a kids phone if any and learn not to talk to 35 year old perverts!
Chip Star
Glad both of these girls are okay and this dude was caught.
A lot of Japanese men seem to have huge issues with females. I wonder why that is? It couldn't be the numerous reasons previously listed before such as overbearing mothers, rampant misogyny, rape comics/anime, hypersexualization of girls/women, could it?
John Beara
It's ok at 12 years old to have a smartphone, it's not to be on some social network.
There's a serious problem here. I have a daughter as well, i don't want to be behind here looking at what she does. Kids need freedom, but they also need to protect.
Do the hustle
Wow! Again! This seems to happen pretty often in Japan. There was that one earlier this year where the creep had modified his house to include a soundproof room for his captive young girl. I’ve always said, there is an extremely unhealthy fascination with young girls in Japanese men. These particular creeps want to keep them as pets. They should just get a cat.
Glad she is ok although, the mental scars of being kidnapped will last forever.
I wonder if that little girl who went missing at the camping ground a month ago has met with the same fate.
sensei258
Just happy that she's okay, I just warned my 12 year old granddaughter about this
3RENSHO
"...whom he met on a social networking site."
Parents, your elementary school-age children should not have cellphones!