Former porn star Rei Chinatsu arrested for romance scam

Former Japanese porn star Rei Chinatsu (千夏麗) has been arrested for an alleged romance scam with a man she met through social media.

The 26-year-old has appeared in several adult video releases, with 12 titles currently listed on Fanza, Japan’s largest online porn retailer, though this includes anthology-type releases with footage from multiple performers’ previous releases. Most of her releases have a schoolgirl theme and seem to date from 2019. Her other performer name was Nozomi Nakase.

She is not currently active as a professional performer, it seems.

The allegation is that Chinatsu, whose real name is Nagisa Nagahama, met a man in his thirties in 2019 and they had some kind of romantic relationship. Then she told him that she had previously aspired to be a nurse and needed to return money loaned to her by an acquaintance.

This was a lie and she obtained ¥4.6 million in cash this way from the man.

According to media reports on December 4, Nagahama/Chinatsu has admitted her guilt. The police suspect that she used the money to pay for visits to host clubs. Unlike hostess clubs, which are seen as the haunts of affluent men, male clubs are often framed by police and media as a place for vulnerable women, who become addicted to the affective relationship they build up with a certain host, who then exploits them for money and gets them into debt by allowing the customer to pay their bill at a later date. Some turn to prostitution to pay back their debts.

The increase in streetwalkers loitering at Okubo Park has turned the place into something of a spectacle and even tourist attraction. Police and lawmakers have in part put the blame for this on exploitative host clubs.