KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested a 52-year-old man started a fire at a sex parlor in Kawasaki City as a part of an extortion plot, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Aug. 7).
At around 4:05 a.m. on June 16, Masaru Kosaka, a company employee living in Chigasaki City, ignited gasoline after pouring it over a plastic mat in a first-floor parking lot for the fuzoku (commercial sex) business, located in the Horinouchicho area, according to the Kawasaki Police Station.
“I’ll burn down other parlors within your chain as well, you won’t pay 100 million yen,” Kosaka reportedly threatened a female employee, 41, of the parlor by telephone after starting the fire. The resulting blaze burned 84 square meters of space at the parlor, police said.
Kosaka, who has been accused of arson in an uninhabited building, admits to the allegations, police said.
On July 20, police first arrested Kosaka for attempted extortion. He was sent to prosecutors on August 6.
Through March, Kosaka was employed at a photo studio contracted to take photographs of women working at the parlor. However, he was dismissed from his post due to money-related problems, police said.
