TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested the 78-year-old man believed to be the real power behind a Yoshiwara soapland chain for providing the premises for sexual services, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Oct. 29).
Masayuki Oguri, of Ueno, Taito Ward, was taken into custody following an investigation into the soapland known as Baron.
Oguri is denying any wrongdoing under the Anti-Prostitution Act. “I am not the owner,” he told investigators, according to police.
Police believe otherwise. Investigators say Oguri has served as ‘chairman’ of the so-called Reijo Group, a chain of soapland establishments in the Yoshiwara district, since 2016, and that the operation has raked in more than 3 billion yen over that period.
The arrest follows a sweep on October 5, when officers detained four people, including the shop’s manager and staff members, on the same prostitution-related charges. Their statements implicated Oguri, police said.
According to the allegations, two female employees in their twenties and thirties were provided a venue at the Baron premises to engage in prostitution with male clients on the day of the initial raid.
Investigators say the majority of the female workers told police they “began working through a scout.” Police are now examining whether illegal recruitment networks were involved in supplying women to the operation.
