Targeted high school girl who lingered in downtown Osaka, lured her into prostitution, received over 100 customers in 10 days

A 26-year-old man in Japan lured several female high school students into prostitution and used them as sexual tools to make money. The man argued that he thought he should stay with the girl because he heard that she ran away from home, trying to excuse his behavior.

Sankei Shimbun reported that the defendant, 26-year-old Takimoto Eto, was suspected of violating the “Prostitution Prevention Law” and the “Child Welfare Law”. Around May 2024, he established an illegal prostitution organization, disguised as a woman on dating websites to solicit customers under the name of “compensated dating delivery”, and arranged for female high school students to engage in sexual transactions with men.

Two of the female high school students were the most seriously victimized. One had received at least 109 people in the Tohoku area within ten days, and the other had received at least 28 people in the Hokuriku area within five days. Although the defendant admitted the content of the prosecution in court, he emphasized that he had an “emotional connection” with the girl and claimed that he did not know that the other party was underage.

He also argued that he was originally just a delivery man, and later chose to “be independent” because he was dissatisfied with the management method of the old organization. Although the girls said they had “reached their limit”, the defendant still claimed that he “acted at their pace” and emphasized that prostitution was the girls’ initiative to earn money to rent an apartment.

The prosecutor pointed out that the defendant received 15,000 to 20,000 yen from each transaction. The two victims earned more than 2.2 million yen for him, and most of the money was earned by the defendant and others. The prosecutor criticized his behavior as “despicable and bad” and asked for a two-year and six-month prison sentence and a fine of 300,000 yen. The verdict will be announced by the Osaka District Court on July 2.

The defendant said at the end of the trial: “The most painful ones are actually those girls. I feel very sorry.”