TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested the manager of a tanning salon in Ota Ward on suspicion of voyeurism.
It is believed that Hirotaka Yamamoto, 62, carried out the crimes at the long-running Crocodile Tanning Studio in the Kamata area of the ward for some three decades, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Sep. 5).
Upon his arrest on suspicion of violating the Law Banning the Taking of Sexually Explicit Photographs, Yamamoto said, “I filmed my favorite customers to satisfy my sexual desires.”
Sound of curtains opening
According to Kamata Police Station, Yamamoto used his smartphone to photograph the uncovered legs and buttocks of a female customer, aged in her 20s, while she in a tanning machine at around 4 p.m. on August 6.
The woman had heard the sound of curtains opening and shutters clicking when she had visited the establishment in the past, which made her suspicious.
On that day, she placed her smartphone next to her pillow and pointed the camera at her feet, and saw Yamamoto taking pictures inside through a gap in the curtains.
The woman then reported the incident to the police.
Yamamoto told police, “I’ve been taking secret photos with video cameras and mobile phones since the salon opened about 30 years ago. I thought I wouldn’t get caught.”
Police found about 400 photos of naked female customers were found on his seized smartphone.
“Really good reputation”
The Crocodile Tanning Studio is popular among male and female athletes, dancers, influencer and those competing in bodybuilding competitions.
In fact, Yamamoto himself seems to have once partaken in bodybuilding. A photo he posted on social media, claiming to be of himself 33 years ago, shows a man with a hefty chest and six-pack abs.
Regulars were often puzzled by Yamamoto’s business plan whereby certain female customers were given steep discounts.
A 28-year-old female dancer tells Shueisha Online, “This place has a really good reputation among athletes who often compete in bodybuilding competitions. It seems like it’s standard for everyone to come out of competitions completely broiled, so word of mouth has spread about how good the crocodile tanning is.”
She adds that at other salons she would experience “over-tanning,” which would cause her skin to peel off. “But that never happened at Crocodile,” she goes on. “Manager Yamamoto has an incredible amount of knowledge about the machines, and he adjusts the tanning level accordingly.”
The salon has about five different machines.
“When I made a specific request,” she continues, “like ‘I want to lighten my current skin tone by one tone,’ he gave me detailed instructions on how to tan using multiple machines. When I asked, “I have a shoot on this day, so when should I go to tan?” he politely explained to me via Line, ‘If you come on this day and plan your tan over a few days, it will turn out just fine.'”
“Secretly filmed”
A 38-year-old female salon owner who participates in bodyshaping events says she went to Crocodile for the first time in July after receiving an introduction from another contestant.
“Even though it was my first time there, manager Yamamoto was very polite,” she says, “showing me poses with my legs spread and my butt thrust out, saying, ‘For areas that are hard to tan, like the base of your crotch and the crack of your butt, it’s good to pose like this in the machine.’
She concedes that it’s natural to spread your legs and perform risky poses in the machine to avoid uneven skin tone around the crotch. “But it’s scary to think that those poses might have been secretly filmed,” she says.
Currently posted outside the Crocodile Tanning Studio is a notice announcing its temporary closure.
