TOKYO (TR) – A taxi driver from Chiba Prefecture and a 15-year-old girl have been arrested for violating child welfare statutes after prostituting a group of six high school girls, reports Nikkan Sports (Nov. 3).
Yoshinori Kawai, 30, and a third-year high school girl, also from Chiba, were taken into custody by Chiba prefectural police for arranging sexual encounters between six high school girls, aged between 14 and 17, and customers recruited through telephone club dating services.
According to police, Kawai allegedly used his private car to deliver the girls while off duty to local hotels to meet customers. He also escorted them home.
The 15-year-old girl was the ringleader, going by the title “company president,” and the girls were known collectively as the “enko group,” or literally “group of prostitutes.” The teen suspect brokered the deals with customers for the group members.
The scheme unraveled over the summer. In June, Kawai is alleged to have introduced a 14-year-old girl to a 37-year-old customer at a Funabashi love hotel. One evening the next month, Kawai and the girl were questioned by police officers while driving in his private car. After meeting with another customer soon after, the girl felt a sense of guilt and went to police authorities to reveal the arrangement.
The high school girls allegedly told customers that they were 19 years old and charged 20,000 yen for one hour of sexual services. Kawai and the 15-year-old suspect took between 8,000 and 10,000 yen as a commission.
The two suspects became acquainted at an outdoor party a few years ago. The relationship between the pair was strictly a “business partnership,” according to the article.