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Troubled talent agency in Shibuya accused of illegal solicitation

Sweets Selection
Sweets Selection

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have applied fresh charges of illegal solicitation to the former president of a talent agency in Shibuya Ward now under prosecution for rape, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Dec. 9).

Kenichi Ishii, the 34-year-old former head of Place, a now defunct company that operated the fashion site Sweets Selection, is alleged to have solicited two girls over the past two years by inquiring about whether they wished to be models while concealing that expenditures were required.

The suspect then entered into contracts with the victims, one of whom is a 23-year-old office worker from Asaka City, Saitama Prefecture, in which they were required to pay a total of 380,000 yen for the shooting of portrait and other photographs.

Under the law, it is illegal to make such an offer in which the general public cannot participate. A 40-year-old former employee of Place was also arrested in the case.

Between January of 2013 and June of this year, the suspects collected 300 million yen from 2,800 aspiring female models in their 20s and 30s.

Ishii is currently on trial for forcibly taking a 20-year-old woman to his apartment and sexually assaulting her after they dined out together in October of last year.

A consumer affairs center has received about 150 complaints regarding the business practices of Place, according to Fuji News Network (Dec. 9).