CHIBA (TR) – Investigative sources with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Monday revealed the arrest of three former baseball players at a high school in Chiba Prefecture that has appeared regularly at a popular nationwide tournament for forcing a teenage girl into prostitution, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (July 11).
According to the sources, the three boys, aged 18 and 19, allegedly forced the girl to serve as a prostitute while they were enrolled as second-year students and members of the baseball club at Takushoku University Koryo High School in Kisarazu City earlier this year. The boys, aged 17 and 18, have since dropped out of the school.
The suspects solicited three men, aged in their 20s and 30s, via Twitter in January and February, for illicit encounters with the girl at hotels in Chiba.
Two of the suspects, who have been accused of violating the Anti-Prostitution Law, have admitted to charges, telling police they did it to earn money. The third suspect denies the allegations. The three men have also been accused of violating the same law.
Takushoku University Koryo High School has appeared in the spring and summer versions of the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament at Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture nine times. According to Nippon News Network (July 11), the school has pulled out of the Chiba Baseball Tournament, a qualifier for the national tournament, that is set to start on Tuesday.