Busted For Returning Lost Wallet: “She Said She Was 19!”

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: Japan, News
• Date: Aug 31, 2011 11:48 JST


• Tags: Bizarre, Crime, Law, Misandry, Nagoya, Old People, Police, Prostitution, Schoolgirls
  

An elderly man who was kind enough to report to police the wallet dropped by the prostitute he had just had sex with has been arrested after they discovered she lied to him about her age and was actually a schoolgirl.

The 75-year-old manager of a Nagoya hanko store had paid a harlot ¥20,000 to have sex with him one afternoon in May.

The pair went to a local love hotel, but after she had left he discovered she had dropped her wallet in his car on the way there.

Apparently he did not so much as look inside, instead resolving to hand it over to police as lost property in the hopes that they would be able to return it to her.

He presented the wallet at a police station, helpfully informing them that “it was dropped by a sex worker I received sexual services from.”

Police soon discovered that the young lady the wallet belonged to was actually a 16-year-old high school student, and accused the old man of “knowingly engaging in indecent acts with a minor” as a result of violating child prostitution laws.

He protested his innocence, saying “I met her on a chat line, she told me she was 19” – police charged him anyway.

Some clarification about the nature of the offence may be helpful – in Japan, the age of consent is 13 (below which sex with an adult constitutes statutory rape), but a raft of national and regional child welfare laws make it unlikely any sexual encounter between an adult and a minor is not possible for police to interpret as breaking some law.

Though it is technically possible for sex with a minor to be legal (it is legally possible to wed 16-year-old females, and courts have upheld “sincere” sexual relationships), underage prostitution is unambiguously illegal, although as a “victim” the younger party escapes prosecution irrespective of whether they initiated the encounter.

In particular, the law relating to child prostitution specifically states a defence of not knowing the age of the “victim” is not possible; as might be expected, this has given rise to people being prosecuted for being tricked into offences by underage girls using fake IDs and so on.

Just where the “knowingly engaging in sex with a minor” phrasing comes from remains something of a mystery – it is never referenced in the text of the law itself.

2ch is coming to the conclusion that both good deeds and having anything to do with police are equally unwise:

“At least he is still healthy!”

“A 16-year-old prostitute, ‘knowingly,’ ‘she told me she was 19’ – ????”

“Are they idiots? Would he have reported it if he had known?”

“Nobody is even surprised at a 16-year-old prostitute any more.”

“This is truly an age in which honesty doesn’t pay!”

“This country is heartless.”

“Cheap!”

“Arresting him at all was going to far, even if they let him go the same day.”

“Arrest the damn prostitutes as well!”

“He was too honest, as were the cops…”

“Telling them what he did with her really was too honest…”

“I feel sorry for girls driven to this, or desperate enough to do it.”

“That was in the Shouwa era. Now all they care about is money.”

“They should let him off!”

“They are way too soft on female criminals.”

“Tell us the chat line he used!”

“I’m sure this is not the first time someone got arrested for reporting lost property to police.”

“I heard of someone being arrested for asking directions at a koban.”

“True story Usagi Drop.”

“Poor grandpa!”

“Even at 75 you can get a 16-year-old for ¥20,000 – how good is that.”

“How is a 75-year-old realistically going to be able to tell a 16-year-old from a 19-year-old?”

“59 years his junior…”

“Dojikko-schoolgirl-who-whores-herself-out-but-forgets-her-wallet-moe, old-man-so-honest-he-reports-it-but-gets-arrested-moe.”

“A few decades ago this sort of thing would probably have been sorted out with a harsh lecture at the police box.”

“I bet most of them still are. But coming out with the fact that he just did her to police was probably taking things to far to be ignored.”

“He is pretty fishy if you ask me!”

“Stupidly honest. He could have just said he found it in the street.”

“Police really have nothing better to do than this?”

“Arrest the damn yakuza already!”

“Oh come on. He runs a business, he’s honest and he’s sexually active – in an elderly society, isn’t he an exemplar? With more like him our nation’s financial problems would be a lot less worse.”

“Her parents are the ones who ought to be arrested.”

“The police are to blame – they are the ones who give the permission for all these sex establishments to operate in the first place.”

“What is the point of even arresting people for having sex with minors?”

“They’ll never prove he knew she was a minor.”

“This politician was sold a 16-year-old by the yakuza and the police dropped the charges against him because he said he didn’t know how old she was.”

“As usual, the police are nothing but errand boys for the yakuza.”

“The police are the nation’s biggest yakuza.”

“If you want to have sex with children, try becoming a police officer – ‘She lied about her age so it’s safe – Tochigi officer suspended, charges dropped, for having sex with 16-year-old’ ‘Charges against ¥10,000 middle school girl sex cop dropped‘”

“Civil servants…”

“The most frightening thing about this story is the thought of a 16-year-old who thinks nothing of having sex with a 75-year-old for money.”

“Being a man is great – 75 and you can still get a 16-year-old. Try that as a woman.”

“Would any of you do a 75-year-old man if you were women?”