crime

Man arrested for abduction of 15-year-old girl he met online

24 Comments

Police in Inashiki, Ibaraki Prefecture, have arrested a 25-year-old man from Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, on suspicion of abducting a minor after he met a 15-year-old girl online and took her to his home without notifying her parents.

According to police, Shuntaro Saito, who works in the construction industry, arranged to meet the girl in Inashiki at around 6 p.m. on Friday and then drove her to his home where she remained until 5 p.m. on Saturday, Kyodo News reported. 

Police quoted Saito as saying he got to know the girl on an SNS site and that she told him she wanted to run away from home. Police said he admitted knowing she was a minor.

The girl’s parents contacted police on Friday night after she did not return home. Police traced her after street surveillance camera footage showed her getting into Saito’s car.

Police said the girl was not injured when they visited Saito’s residence on Friday.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

24 Comments
Login to comment

Maybe she is getting abused at home.

In that case this guy would be a saviour.

Savior or not, it still doesn't look good on paper for a grown man picking up a 15 year old girl on the Internet and taking her to his home.

8 ( +13 / -5 )

More and more of these stories coming to light. I wonder if the girl had the freedom to leave or she was happy to be there. We need more information before people can judge the situation.

6 ( +16 / -10 )

 I wonder if the girl had the freedom to leave or she was happy to be there

Exactly.

I guess she got volunteer in the car and agreed to go to his home.

And who knows, probably these two were just playing computer games together.

We don't know any detail about the whole story.

So a title for an article, abduction of a 15 year old girl, without any detail can lead in a complete false conclusion.

6 ( +18 / -12 )

Japan needs to have an alert system for smartphones - in the US there is the Amber Alert. Realistically think about it: 25 year old man meets 15 year old girl on SNS. Are his intentions to rescue minors from homes where there could be any number of problems: abuse (psychological, sexual or physical), being bullied at school and various other issues. I doubt his intentions are honorable....

With an Amber Alert type system the authorities can investigate the specifics after the girl has been found. Japan in no less like any country with SNS trolls looking for young girls.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Michael - that’s a little disrespectful to 15 year old boys and girls. They are not all stupid you know.

Yes, the man could have contacted the parents, let them know he was looking after her and tried to explain to them the situation that their daughter wanted to run away. However, before we go accusing him of this and that and persecuting him without the full details, maybe we should ponder for a moment that there was no sinister motive here and he genuinely wanted to help her.

4 ( +13 / -9 )

Police traced her after street surveillance camera footage showed her getting into Saito’s car.

Right, so definitely not from tracing her cell phone to Saito's address. Or are they still trying to keep this secret?

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Well I hope for those saying that there is no issue with a 25 year old guy luring a 15 years old girl in his home that they don't have daughters or nieces....

4 ( +9 / -5 )

What does abduction means in this case? Did the girl go willingly, but didnt have her parents permission which makes it abduction, or was she taken against her will, which is what i assumed abduction meant.

Im not condoning what the guy did at all, i think his behaviour is predatory.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

No we don't need more info before we can judge this is a red flag.

I don’t think you understand what a red flag is. A red flag ia an indicator that something might be wrong, not a sign that it definitely is. Which is exactly what the previous responder was saying, and why he/she felt that more information was required.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The government needs to do those sting operations on potential offenders like these. This 15 yr-old girl got out safe, others may not be so lucky.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Hello Michael Machada....you could join the Australian Navy aged 15 and 9 months in the 1970.s.

Now the earliest to join any of the Armed Services is 16 years, 6 months of age .'Apprenticeships on building sites {quite dangerous } start around the same time.

Not sure if a blanket "aged 15 and your frontal cortex dont work " is correct in all cases.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

That’s a pretty strong charge, but I doubt if he’s punishment will match the charges. Using the internet to groom minors carries hefty jail sentences where I come from.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Based on how many times I read about similar occurrences, there seems to be websites/SNSs specifically for teenage girls to meet older men, or if not specifically for that purpose, where teenage girls gather and older men lurk.

I wonder why there isn't more regulation or at least monitoring of such sites?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It doesn't matter if she went willingly. Girls at 15, like boys at 15, are stupid. Stupid in the sense that they think they know everything, can handle what life throws at them, are mature enough to make their own decisions, blah blah blah. Anyone with a teen knows how arrogant, but also stupid, they really are.

The very reason we classify them as minors is because they don't have the experience or the judgement needed to determine what's right for them. So the fact that this 15 year old chatted online with an adult man and then willingly went home with him when she essentially knew nothing about him shows exactly what bad judgement she had. That is why the onus is on the adults in the room to take responsibility - in this case, the adult man who made an active and informed decision to transgress legal, social, and moral boundaries.

Again and again, it's the same issue on here: men trying to find justification for other men committing crimes against women. I tend to think that means these men would themselves would commit these same crimes, under the right circumstances - that's what is truly scary. It shows just how many men are predators.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

The real question is

Why did this man think it was ok to abduct a minor?

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

“ And who knows, probably these two were just playing computer games together. “

Computer games… sure

( Lmao (!)(!)(!) )

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Isn't this just a plot to a TV show?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

No we don't need more info before we can judge this is a red flag

Of course we need more info.

The Guy said, the girl told him she wanted to run away from home.

If that is true, it must be found out why she wants to run away from home. There must be a reason for this.

Maybe she is getting abused at home.

In that case this guy would be a saviour.

-3 ( +12 / -15 )

Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part. This is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. Teens process information with the amygdala. This is the emotional part.

In teens' brains, the connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making center are still developing—and not always at the same rate. That’s why when teens have overwhelming emotional input, they can’t explain later what they were thinking. They weren’t thinking as much as they were feeling.

-3 ( +10 / -13 )

The real question is, why she has much less trust in her parents, school teachers, police or public help centers, but instead only can search help as a last resort from dubious strangers via SNS.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

MontyToday 07:54 am JST.

Maybe she is getting abused at home.

In that case this guy would be a saviour.

And maybe his plan was to have sex with her, or rape her, or sex traffic her. In that case, he would be taking advantage of a vulnerable abuse victim.

She didn't know what his intention was when she went with him.

The police don't know what his intention was - even now, he could easily be lying.

So what are we to do? Assume he had the best of intentions, and let him go? Not charge him with kidnapping?

And then what happens the next time this guy decides to chat up a 15 year old online? What will stop him from thinking he can do it again?

Or what about the next men who decide to chat up a 15 year old? Let them go, too, as long as they promised they were just trying to be her savior?

I mean really, what exactly IS your point? Do you even have a point in this knee-jerk defense of this man?

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part. This is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. 

So just how many 15 year olds could you name who have started wars, ruined economies, destroyed the planets ecosystem?

Of course teenagers run away from home sometimes, but it’s mostly the parents fault.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

No we don't need more info before we can judge this is a red flag. You don't lure a minor from SNS out of her home in general, especially without telling her parents and especially when you are 25. If you think she is being abused, contact police or social services.

-9 ( +11 / -20 )

A 15 year old girl or boy has not the brain maturity or the cognitive ability to make proper decisions. But you go ahead, tell us why this situation should not be judged.

-21 ( +7 / -28 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites