TOKYO (TR) – Business, as they say, was booming — until he got arrested.
Earlier this month, Tokyo Metropolitan Police apprehended Ryo Natori, a 42-year-old male employee at an IT company, for entering a bathroom of a bar in Toshima Ward to retrieve a hidden camera that he used to take tosatsu, or voyeur, footage of female customers.
“I did it to make money to cover debts and living expenses,” the suspect was quoted by police, according to evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai (Oct. 26). And make money he did.
According to police, Natori spliced together footage of about 300 women taken inside the washroom to produce about 40 films that he uploaded to a pay-to-view site. With each film selling for between 1,300 and 3,300 yen, the suspect accumulated about 27 million yen in sales.
Police seized a personal computer from the residence of the suspect in Sumida Ward that was found to contain illicit films featuring more than 1,000 women.
The matter emerged after a woman, aged in her 20s, lodged a complaint with police in which she claimed to have found footage online that showed her inside the bathroom.
“The toilet is Western-style and inside a private room,” an investigator tells the tabloid. “When you sit down, there is a sink in front of you. Natori set the ultra-compact camera so that only its lens pointed out from under the washbasin.”
Natori maintained a strict schedule in carrying out the crime. Each morning on his way to work, he would stop by the bar and set the camera. Then, upon his return home, he would retrieve it. He did this five days per week over a roughly one-year period dating back to last fall, police said.
Thus far, police have accused Natori of violating a public nuisance ordinance, the anti-revenge pornography law and another statute related to the electronic dissemination of sexual content in video form.
“Originally, it seems like the camera was set up in multiple toilets,” continues the aforementioned investigator. “But since [the toilet at the bar] seemed ideal for not getting caught, he began using it repeatedly.”