Police in Nara city have arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl whom he met on a social network site.
According to police, Yu Ito, who works as a caregiver, met the junior high school girl on a social network site in early January, Sankei Shimbun reported. He arranged to meet her at a station in Nagoya at around 2 p.m. on Jan 4. He took the girl to his home where he confined her until Feb 1.
The girl’s parents reported her missing on the night of Jan 4.
One of Ito’s work colleagues contacted police and said he might be keeping a minor at his home. Police said the girl was unharmed after finding her at around 11:20 a.m. on Monday.
© Japan Today
25 Comments
Login to comment
wayan Ubud
Nutcase, he needs to be belted up in a straight jacket and not let out.
Btang
"works as a caregiver"
Now he should get terminal institutionalized care.
tooheysnew
Yet another reason for getting rid of all social media
Takumi
And he’ll be free as soon as he pays the girls family. Prosecution dropped “no reason given.” Then he’ll be back on SNS looking for his next victim.
The next victim’s family should be able to sue the previous family for accepting a bribe and not prosecuting.
Japan is safety land!
Goodlucktoyou
At least the girl was “unharmed”.
Do the hustle
Let’s hope they find a deep dark hole to throw this creep into.
sir_bentley28
Now I know she is still a child, but most children younger than her would know not to go off with a stranger. Especially to make plans to meet up where he kept her for almost a month. Her parents should've givven her the ol stranger danger chat!
Define unharmed? This sicko kept her for almost a month (Jan. 4th - Feb.1st). Who knows what took place with this child.
lostrune2
With all the cameras around a station, kinda surprised they didn't catch him sooner, and that it took a coworker to turn him in a month later
Does "unharmed" just mean "no bruises"? She could've been mentally coerced to do stuff she wouldn't otherwise, as 14-year-olds do
Zaphod
Same kind of story that we have heard several times now. Parents should really teach their children about the proper precautions with SNS.
shogun36
..........blame Japan, again. Where's that predators list?
Luddite
Throw away they key.
SandyBeachHeaven
Another site said she was actually happy cooking and doing the wash etc., and she had ample opportunities to leave as he was constantly going to work as a caretaker.
What a strange world we live in.
Toshihiro
I'm willing to bet she wasn't manhandled or placed inside a trunk and taken to his residence and could've fought back and escaped. As what Sandy said, she was doing chores, meaning she had a means to escape. I know this will be passed off as the victim not being old enough to know what's what but, we need to draw the line somewhere. More and more cases like this will happen and we might not close the case with the girl leaving unharmed next time.
sensei258
It doesn't legally to make a difference if she went willingly and stay there because she like playing house . The legal definition of kidnapping includes enticing them to go willingly .
SandyBeachHeaven
I am going to fax a friend that is a Japanese lawyer and ask him to fax the head office about the real legalities of this. When he gets a fax back he will let me know and I will post it here by this app as I cannot fax it here.
Zaphod
SandyBeachHeaven
That might be true, but since she is a minor and he is not her legal guardian, this would still be legally regarded as kidnapping I think.
girl_in_tokyo
Toshihiro Today 03:35 pm JST
You are remonstrating a 14 year old girl for not trying to physically fight off a grown man - how does that even compute?
You are completely discounting that he may have groomed her, brainwashed her, and threatened her, and terrorized her.
And how do you know whether she was really given any opportunity that she felt was safe enough to take the chance to try to escape?
If you are looking for people to support you in blaming a fourteen year old girl for her own kidnapping, you are in the wrong place. Try the Reddit forums where PUA, MRA, Incels, and other varied misogynists hang out. You should fit right in.
Zaphod
girl in tokyo
He might, or he might not. From the article, we only know that she went to see him on her own. No information on her motivation.
What is the point of all this wild speculation?
rcch
These people know that. They just choose to ignore it. The problem isn’t ignorance, it’s something worse.
MichiTokyo
What took the police a full month to find her and then just by the coincidence of a co-workers statement?
Meeting through SMS should be easy to trace.