Mocked Man Mows Down Line of Children in Car

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: News, Tokyo
• Date: Jun 2, 2008 16:16 JST


• Tags: Cars, Chiba, Crime, Tokyo
  

A man (32) was so enraged at allegedly being pointed at and laughed at by a group of young boys that he decided to plough his car into them as revenge.

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Business As Usual In Akiba

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: Akihabara, News
• Date: Jun 2, 2008 15:34 JST


• Tags: Akihabara, Bizarre, Mrs Wide Open
  

The parade atmosphere in Akiba seems little diminished after the fallout from Mrs Wide Open’s scandalous antics – this cross-dressing live goldfish earring sporting elderly gentleman seems still to be a regular fixture, lolita performers seem unperturbed by police attention, and sign perching cat is still ensconced on his sign. Business as usual then?

McDonald’s Groper – Yet Another Principal

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: News, Tokyo
• Date: May 31, 2008 16:56 JST


• Tags: Crime, Saitama, School, Tokyo
  

“An evil influence came over me”. A man (62), who brazenly put his hand up a high schooler’s skirt and fondled her in the middle of a McDonald’s, was also a former principal, the latest in a string of such crimes perpetrated by school heads.

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Shibuya Porn Truck Charged

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: News, Tokyo
• Date: May 27, 2008 16:02 JST


• Tags: AV, Cars, Crime, Shibuya, Tokyo
  

The filming of an adult video, on top of a truck in broad daylight, in the middle of Tokyo, led to arrests on suspicion of public obscenity; police say AV production company “Hot Entertainment” staged a lewd performance on the back of a large dump truck driven through central Shibuya, and have conducted raids on the company’s four Tokyo offices in response.

Though apparently passersby could not see the performance occurring on the bed of the truck, those in overlooking buildings were treated to quite the spectacle, which prompted the vigourous police response.

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$38,000 Phone Pervert Arrested

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: News, Tokyo
• Date: May 26, 2008 05:20 JST


• Tags: Bizarre, Crime, Fetish, Gunma, Tokyo
  

“I was excited by the lady’s recorded voice”. So excited, that over a year the 38 year old plumber made more than 500 calls to a local food company’s order line, racking up 3,100 hours at a cost to the company of ¥3,800,000. His less than prompt arrest was for the charge of interfering with company duties; he is also suspected of having made nuisance calls to other companies, so the extent of his activities may be even greater.

His arrest seems to raise more questions about the behaviour of the company and of police than about his own warped tastes. Perhaps they might have considered caller ID blocking or changing the recording to that of a man’s voice? Via Asahi.

Tokyo World Hikikomori Capital?

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: News, Tokyo
• Date: May 21, 2008 23:07 JST


• Tags: Demographics, Hikikomori, Statistics, Tokyo, Welcome to the NHK
  

The Tokyo government has recently conducted some empirical research into the number of adult hikikomori to be found in the capital, and their findings are some of the first credible statistics regarding the “issue”, as there have been a number of baseless assertions previously. They claim over 25,000 adult hikikomori in the capital, and they seem to think this worthy of action. Details follow.

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Pants Procuring PE Teacher Put Away

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: News, Tokyo
• Date: May 20, 2008 07:31 JST


• Tags: Business, Crime, Pantsu, Saitama, Schoolgirls, Tokyo
  

“They were for me to enjoy myself with”, he laments. A high school teacher has just been arrested on suspicion of violating laws against child prostitution and pornography; his crime? He attempted to arrange some pants and photos thereof from a high schooler, on a pants trading site, a common enough pastime amongst Japanese teachers, it would appear.

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Cops Grab 93,000 Porno DVDs, Scores Arrested

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: News, Tokyo
• Date: May 19, 2008 15:28 JST


• Tags: AV, Censorship, Crime, Kabukichou, Police, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Yakuza
  

43 proprietors and employees of 42 shops selling “obscene” DVDs in Shinjuku’s Kabukichou red light district have been arrested for peddling smut, Asahi reports. Police claim the arrests are unprecedented in number.

The heinous crimes they allegedly committed were for 12 of their number to sell 141 “obscene” adult DVDs worth ¥102,000 ($1,000), and for the rest to display with intent to sell AV DVDs and magazines inside their shops, which each had monthly earnings of some ¥5,000,000; small fry indeed. How bold these criminals have become to sell adult materials inside their adult shops in the middle of the red light district. Police also helped themselves to all the porn in sight, grabbing 93,000 adult articles, they say. Enough to keep the police busy for a while it seems.

The article, and police, are silent on just in what manner these DVDs were “obscene”, my guess would be they fell afoul of local government or had mosaic issues, as the numbers seem rather large for age issues, but it is at any rate clear that Japan’s ludicrous censorship regime has claimed yet more victims, not that many tears will be shed for a mob of Yakuza pawns.

Mrs Wide Open’s Exposure Bought by Press

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: Akihabara, News
• Date: May 16, 2008 18:13 JST


• Tags: Akihabara, Crime, Exhibitionism, Idol, Mass Media, Mrs Wide Open
  

Mrs Wide Open, or 沢本あすか / Asuka Sawamoto as she likes to call herself, Akiba’s “eternally 22” exposure idol and career criminal (30), has revealed in a shocking admission to gossip rag Spa that she was put up to her antics by a TV producer offering cash to guarantee a “performance”. Mrs Wide Open says she was propositioned by one of the numerous TV pressmen covering her exhibitionistic antics – “I’d like to pin it [a flash of your posterior] down” she alleges she was asked.

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Arrest for $30,000 Eroge Pirate

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: News, Tokyo
• Date: May 14, 2008 16:00 JST


• Tags: Auctions, Copyright, Crime, Elf, Eroge, P2P, Tokyo
  

Asahi reports that a Tokyo area student has been arrested on suspicion of unauthorised copying of Elf All-stars Strip Mahjong 3 (the ignominy – not even arrested over a decent game), amongst many others, but ardent P2P users can, for once, relax as this idiot was not arrested over P2P usage, as other unfortunates have been lately, but for loading the games (some 180, it is claimed) onto HDD and selling them in online auctions.

Apparently he managed a modest profit, selling a hundred drives over a year, and netting himself ¥3,000,000 (for study expenses, he pleas), though as you can see, the risk/reward ratio ultimately was hardly favourable. It seems he downloaded the software from a Chinese P2P service, presumably a torrent forum.

Huge Itasha Convention

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: News, Tokyo
• Date: May 13, 2008 05:31 JST


• Tags: Cars, FSW Itasha Meeting, Fuji Speedway, Itasha, Tokyo
  

I couldn’t help but be astonished on seeing this enormous itasha convention (easily the largest in Japan, and also the world), the FSW Itasha Meeting, covered by Ascii.jp in detail in three parts here, here, and here. Veritable throngs were in attendance, and participation (including non-itasha observers) was around 300 vehicles, gathered from all over Japan, despite the bad weather.

All kinds of vehicles seem to be in evidence, from flatbed trucks to motorcycles, and the meet was held at a race track, the Fuji Speedway, so they naturally hit the track (great Shana paint job there), though not all look as if they belong there.

Itasha seem to be gaining prominence lately; there has been media coverage, of course they are omnipresent in Akiba, and now this. Not long before we see itasha paint jobs as options on the latest models? Still a bridge too far, I’d wager.

Mrs Wide Open’s Life of Crime

• Author: Artefact
• Categories: Akihabara, News
• Date: May 11, 2008 09:24 JST


• Tags: Akihabara, Crime, Exhibitionism, Idol, Mrs Wide Open
  

Mrs Wide Open, or 沢本あすか/Asuka Sawamoto as she likes to call herself, 30 but “eternally 22”, now famous for exposure and arrest in Akiba, reveals plenty of lurid details about her life of crime, exhibitionism, theft, and (alleged) prostitution, in an exclusive interview given to ZakZak. Regarding the photos surfacing on 2ch, flyers for call girls and the like, allegedly of her from her days of disgrace (if these can indeed be said to be over) working in the sex trade, she says of the woman in the photos: “Her size is the same”, and sympathetically laments “If she gets mixed up in this, she’ll probably get some strange customers”. But it doesn’t stop there, unfortunately.

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