‘Super copy’ brand goods help guys to bag girls

Offering a kyaba-jo, or hostess, a “super copy” of a brand name bag is becoming a better way for playboys to play the field, reports Nikkan Gendai (Jan. 25).

A super copy is a counterfeit article so carefully crafted that it is impossible for an amateur to determine the difference from an original.

According to freelance writer Taizo Ebina, such duplicates started started emerging around four years ago and replicate items by such popular brands as Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermes. “The bags use the same leather as the original and have product numbers imprinted,” says Ebina. “The color of the bag’s skin changes the way an authentic version changes. It takes a well-trained person to detect the authenticity of these fake products. Packages, both boxes and labels, are also dutifully printed at factories. Once, I saw the parts of a fake Rolex and they had been sourced from quality makers in Japan.” Read more

Little progress in ‘black widow’ case, fraud victim still uses matchmaking sites

Police are not making substantial inroads in bringing murder charges against suspected “black widow” Kanae Kijima, the 35-year-old arrested for fraud and linked to the suspicious deaths of six men, reports Shukan Post (Jan. 1).

Police are presently building cases for murder around two of the deaths. Thus far, Kijima has been arrested five times for defrauding over a dozen other men, in their 40s and 50s and residing in various prefectures across the Kanto region, after posing as a prospective marriage partner on Internet matchmaking sites. All told she is believed to have collected 100 million yen from her victims.

“The police are trying to make cases for the burn death in May in Chiba Prefecture and the guy in Tokyo who died in a car in August from carbon monoxide inhalation,” a writer specializing in the legal profession tells the tabloid. “However, it is hard to gather evidence against her since she herself has remained silent.” Read more

Born as tigers, Kijima and Ueta now ‘around 35′ and ready to roar

Possible serial killers Kanae Kijima and Miyuki Ueta join Kaori Mihashi, accused of carving up her husband’s body with a knife in Tokyo’s Shibuya district three years ago, as having been born in 1974 — the zodiac “Year of the Tiger” that Weekly Playboy (Nov. 30) believes is the source of a number of aggressive females making themselves known today.

Expectations play a role, says Atsushi Miura, a marketing researcher and author of the best-seller “Karyu Shakai” (Lower Classes). He explains: “International Women’s Year was dedicated in 1975. This led to a decade-long worldwide campaign advocating women’s social status. In Japan, too, there was the birth of publications such as More, With and Cosmopolitan. They provided voices for the advancement of women in society. Those around the age of 35 were in their childhood (up to elementary school) and were raised under the social ideal that it is natural for women to become independent.” Read more