AICHI (TR) – A court here last week overturned a previous ruling against a former bar host, finding him not culpable to pay a fine for receiving funds defrauded by a female customer.
In the ruling handed down on March 12, the Nagoya District Court said that a penalty is not owed by Yuji Tanaka, 27, despite his knowing that money used to pay tabs at a host club in Tokyo was defrauded by Mai Watanabe.
According to the indictment, Tanaka accepted 38.5 million yen in cash for food and drink at the club from 2021 to 2022 while knowing that the money was defrauded from men by Watanabe, whose handle online was “Itadaki Joshi Riri-chan” (Sugar Baby Riri).
Last year, the same court handed Watanabe a sentence of eight years and six months in prison. She was also fined 8 million yen.
The ruling handed down on March 12 was made for an appeal. In November 2024, the same court imposed a suspended sentence of three years in prison and a fine of 10.79 million yen upon Tanaka.
In handing down the ruling, the court said that Watanabe had already paid compensation to the victim in her case, making Tanaka not required to pay.
