Police in Osaka Prefecture have arrested a 22-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of fraud and extortion for allegedly coercing two women in their 20s into buying him two sports cars and transferring money to him.
Mitsuhiro Shiraishi and the two women had been living together for about five months, and during questioning he reportedly stated that he had "brainwashed the two in order to live an easy life,” NHK quoted police as saying.
According to police, Shiraishi met the two women through social media in February and he began dating one of them. In March, the three began living together.
Police said Shiraishi, posing as fictitious characters, sent the two threatening emails more than 2,000 times, making them believe that they were being targeted by hostile forces, and making various demands of them under the pretext of protecting themselves.
The women bought him a car and transferred money to his account between March and June.
Police said Shiraishi also kept the women confined in his apartment by convincing them it was dangerous to leave because “enemy forces that wanted to harm them” were outside the building.
The incident came to light when one of the women asked for help from an acquaintance she had met while playing an online game. The acquaintance contacted police and said her friend was being confined by a man named Shiraishi.
Police said Shiraishi has admitted to the charge, and quoted him as saying, "I brainwashed the two women to satisfy my desire to have everything I wanted in order to live an easy life."
© Japan Today
16 Comments
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garypen
That is every "host" at a host bar.
BB
How were they able to earn the money to support him, and buy him a car, while also being confined to the apartment?
vallum
Yeah, the biggest problem was probably the 'keeping them confined' part. The rest was the usual 'host', only changing the method.
shogun36
Is this supposed to be real life?
Or the plot for some kind of absurd J-Drama?
TumbleDry
Not the first one, not the last one, nor the only one.
There is another guy having 5 girlfriends, all having a child with the guy and the guy doesn’t work or do anything. He was in TV before.
Plain insanity.
Reddit praise the guy, living the dream.
Stewart Gale
"I brainwashed the two women to satisfy my desire to have everything I wanted in order to live an easy life."
The confession couldn’t have been worded any better. I wonder what goes on in those police interviews to get such a perfect confession……
Geeter Mckluskie
Yeah, let's blame the police, because randomly picking out some guy to tack a fraud and confinement charge on someone is what they do
Maybe grow up just a tad there Stew and try to figure out who the bad guy is here...I'll give you a hint. It ain't the police
Stewart Gale
I’m not saying the guy isn’t guilty of the crime and doesn’t deserve to be punished for it.
It just strikes me as a bit strange that so many suspects seem to readily confess in detail to their crimes in Japan, in comparison to in other countries.
Other countries that allow suspects proper access to legal counsel, record police interviews and can’t hold suspects without charge for 23 days.
Geeter Mckluskie
As someone who is married to an ex-cop and whose wife's brother is a cop and father was a cop. What they do with suspects is wear them down with fatigue, sleep deprivation etc. until the suspect confesses. Now, what critics don't get is that they only charge someone if their confession matches the details they have been able to glean from their investigation, details that only the perpetrator would know. Unless it does, no charges are laid. Hope that clarifies things for you.
Mocheake
The comments at the top were to the point! Just how do you "confine" someone with words anyway? Sounds like bs and as the saying goes "A fool and his (her) money are soon parted." Seems like they aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. "Enemy forces outside." lol.
Geeter Mckluskie
by persuading them they were in danger?
There are countless tools in the shed that are not, in fact, sharp. Everyone is different, shall we mock the vulnerable because they're not as "sharp" as us?
Zaphod
Good grief.... I am sympathetic to the victims, but they could have had a bit more common sense and critical thinking. This found 2 victims who were really gullible.
Michael Corleone
it's a proven technique to confine two or more victims. that way they can keep each other company and are less likely to escape.
it's good that he was stopped now before he formed himself a cult...
well done that girl!!
Yubaru
And every "kabakura-jo"
Yohan
Not so few people are living in a lala-world of fantasy, unable to decide anymore between real people and what is internet-fiction, likely drug abuse and alcohol also plays a major role.
Questionable religious sects and dubious salesmen are operating in a similar way to brainwash gullible people.
Some fraudsters are fairly good to pinpoint vulnerable people, who might be old or young, men or women, approaching them and convince them to give them money - and get it.
If a Mr. Nobody sends me 2000 threatening emails posing as Micky Mouse ending up in my spam filter and asking me for money for a sport car, I would just laugh and press the delete button.
However some people really do not know how to handle frivolous internet correspondence.
In this case there is still hope for these two women for a partial refund, maybe it is possible to confiscate these two sportcars and return them to the dealer as used cars.
Debora Jennison
Right ...... i´ve read some stories on here that have interested me, enraged me, baffled me and just plain put me through quite a few "emotions" some of which i have been tempted /prompted to comment on, and have......
but this one?
this one , folks ........ this one leaves me not only at total loss for words concerning it, it leaves me utterly gob smacked ......... with no further ado, i am officially responding to it with the BIGGEST FACE PALM known to mankind. ferf*ckssake. and there i was thinking all those OL´s getting turned out by "hosts" /"idols" was bad, if not insane enough.