TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a Nigerian national for aggressively soliciting passersby in Shinjuku Ward’s Kabukicho red-light district.
With a spate of reports from foreign tourists regarding rip-off scams in the Kabukicho area, police are stepping up enforcement in the area, reports Jiji Press (July 10).
According to police, Waduku Sylvester Ikenna was taken into custody on the 9th after he grabbed a person’s left hand on the street and persistently pressured them. He allegedly lured the victim by saying, “Not scary, I love you,” and “90 minutes for 5,000 yen.”
Upon his arrest, Waduku partially denied the allegations. “I just shook hands,” he reportedly told investigators.
Investigators caught the suspect red-handed. Officers had been on high alert and patrolling the neon-lit district following a surge of complaints from foreign tourists regarding aggressive street touts.
Police are continuing their crackdown in the area, estimating that total financial damages from malicious touting schemes targeting foreign tourists in and around Kabukicho have ballooned to nearly 100 million yen.
