TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 43-year-old man for allegedly engaging in lewd acts with a runaway high school girl in Shinjuku Ward earlier this year.
Between September 13 and the following day, Yasuhiro Mita, an office worker, allegedly paid 10,000 yen to the girl, then 16, to engage in lewd acts at a hotel in the Kabukicho nightlife quarter while knowing that she was under 18.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of violating the anti-child prostitution and pornography law, Mita partially denied the charges “I asked her age after we’d finished,” he said, reports the Asahi Shimbun ().
According to police, the two were not acquainted before the incident. The girl is a runaway from her home in the Kanto area.
At the time, the female student was apparently looking for a place to stay in the area of the Kabukicho frequented by “Toyoko Kids,” a reference to the Toho Cinemas complex in the heart of the nightlife quarter. Such children who frequent the area are runaways and delinquents.
On September 13, Mita approached her near the complex. “You’re probably around 16 years old,” he said. “I’ll give you 10,000 yen if you stay the night.”
