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Kanagawa prefectural police have arrested a 23-year-old man on suspicion of violating the child prostitution and pornography law after he allegedly coerced a junior high school boy to send naked pictures of himself and committed obscene acts with the victim with the promise of payment.
According to police, Yoshitaku Maehara, a company employee residing in Ota Ward, Tokyo, said he never paid money to the minor, Sankei Shimbun reported. However, police said the arrest warrant was issued for an incident that occurred last year on April 20 when Maehara received a naked photo of a first-year junior high school boy (then 12) via a messaging app.
The boy, now 13, who lives in Kawasaki City, sent photos of himself fully naked to the suspect. That same day, Maehara is accused of meeting up with the boy inside a commercial building's restroom where he performed indecent acts, between 4:10 and 5 p.m. The suspect allegedly promised to pay cash in exchange for his actions.
Police said a cyber patrol uncovered Maehara’s unlawful acts after he and the boy began contacting each other on the messaging app.
Police have seized Maehara’s smartphone and are looking for evidence for similar crimes in violation of Japan’s anti-prostitution law.
© Japan Today
10 Comments
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sensei258
Convinced perhaps but not coerced
Goodlucktoyou
What has society come to when 12 year old boys have to sell their bodies for money?
Strangerland
I mean 12. Not sure where 17 came from.
Lindsay
Japan needs to introduce a law against using an internet service to groom minors. Charging these creeps after they have committed lewd acts with children is too far after the fact. Grooming children on the Internet carries a 7 year jail term in Australia. They also have a cyber security division who pose as children on social media to trap these predators before they can harm children. .
TIJ
Kawasaki City. Not surprised. In the Kawasaki station restrooms I've seen men standing just inside the men's restroom entrance staring at guys while they relieve themselves at the urinals. I don't mind that there are areas that have a higher concention of homosexuals, but Kawasaki has the some of the more perverted ones.
TIJ
*has some of the more..
gogogo
While I'm glad they caught the dude, the Japanese police are reading everyone's messages without a warrant?
Chip Star
A fair question that's not answered in this article.
Goodlucktoyou
@gogogo. thats a gray area. the biggest problem with japanese police is they are always good at catching the criminals...after the crime.
gogogo
@goodlucktoyou : I would hope people only got arrested after a crime and not before.