TOKYO (TR) – A 22-year-old man was arrested yesterday in Tokyo for prostituting a teenage girl, who had been using the proceeds to purchase stimulant drugs, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Oct. 13).
Yoshiteru Saga, residing in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward, was taken into custody by Tokyo Metropolitan Police for violating the Child Welfare Law after introducing a 15-year-old girl, who is now 16, to numerous men beginning late last year. “From November, I introduced her to around 30 men,” Saga is quoted as saying.
Nikkan Sports, however, reports that the teen believes it was “around 100 men.”
Saga met the girl in the streets of the Kabukicho red-light district through an acquaintance and arranged the encounters by advertising the girl’s services, which were priced at 20,000 yen, on dating sites.
The teen was sleeping in a car with other girls and dispatched to hotels by Saga. The suspect and the girl split her income.
“Runaway girls don’t have identification papers and therefore can’t work, so I targeted them,” he is quoted as saying by TV Asahi.
Police confirmed that on March 2 the girl met a 53-year-old security guard at a hotel in Kabukicho. Then on the morning of April 7, she phoned authorities seeking help regarding repeated purchases of stimulant drugs with her income.
“I wanted money to have a good time,” Saga is quoted by police.