Last year, we reported on the strange case of the Japanese guy with four "wives." The situation seemed straight out of a manga and yet it was true.
In that case, the man and his harem were all relatively young. But age didn't stop another man.
The 76-year-old Hirohito Shibuya lived with nine wives in Higashiyamato, a suburb of Tokyo. Technically speaking, since polygamy is illegal in Japan, eight of the women were his ex-wives and he was only married to one of them.
Three of his children with the women also lived at the residence.
Shibuya was found dead on Sunday of an apparent suicide, ...
In Tokyo, we always see signage warning to be on the lookout for chikan (train groping) at stations and inside carriages. The government and police frequently issue awareness and prevention campaigns. We see videos on social media of passengers detaining a perpetrator or of suspects fleeing dangerously across the rails between platforms. And of course, there's no missing the presence of women-only carriages on most lines during rush hour periods.
But how common actually is chikan groping in Japan?
According to one new survey, it's very common: more than half of women in Tokyo have ...
The trial of former House of Representatives member Tamotsu Shiiki got underway at Tokyo District Court on December 24. He is standing trial for sexual assault of a junior high school first grader in August last year, having picked the runaway up in Kabukicho -- one of many such so-called Toyoko kids in the Shinjuku district -- and taken her to a nearby karaoke place knowing that she was underage.
At the karaoke parlor, the member of staff was concerned, because Shiiki and the 12-year-old girl did not seem to be a father and daughter. They asked for a name and phone number, and Shiiki gave a ...
It's almost the New Year holidays here in Japan, a time when everyone gathers with their family, eats nice food, and watches a lot of bad TV.
Likely to feature on one or more of those shows was former SMAP singer Masahiro Nakai, among the most famous male celebrities in the country but whose career is now in jeopardy after a scandal and serious allegations emerged this week.
In a scoop broken by the tabloid Bunshun, the 52-year-old is accused of paying a massive fee of ¥90 million to a woman as compensation, after a possible sexual assault in June 2023.
Nakai was in a relationship for ...
A 31-year-old Pakistani man has been arrested for sexual assault on a female high school student on a train near Takao, West Tokyo.
Muhammad Afzal is accused of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl as the second grader slept on a train on the JR Chuo Line in August, and then of taking her to a nearby copse and raping her.
According to a police statement reported in the media on Wednesday and Thursday, Muhammad Afzal groped the girl's chest and took her underwear off.
When the train reached Takao, where it terminated, Afzal allegedly took the girl's bag and then forcibly carried her to a ...
Be careful when something seems too good to be true. Especially when it's with someone you don't know.
Dating apps have made it a lot easier to meet people and arrange hook-ups, but you're still interacting with a total stranger when all's said and done.
According to a media report by Shizuoka TV last week, a man has been arrested for sexual assault on a woman he met through an app.
The 36-year-old man from Hamamatsu admits having sex with the woman but says he believed there was consent. The women says there wasn't consent.
The incident took place in late June at a love hotel in Yaizu, ...
You're safe during that postcoital sleep, right? Perhaps not.
A Japanese woman was enjoying her post-sex slumber at a love hotel in Shibuya, Tokyo, when she was sexually assaulted by a 49-year-old man who works at the hotel.
The man, Kenji Honda, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, police announced August 8.
The incident itself dates back to March, according to media reports, and it's not clear why it has taken so long for the arrest to take place.
Honda is accused of sneaking into the woman's room on March 25 between 5:30 and 6:50 a.m. and forcibly touching her breasts and ...
More bad news about compensated dating now as the moral panic over papakatsu continues.
Papakatsu is a kind of newish buzzword to describe compensated dating that involves an older man and younger woman (though in practice, compensated dating often meant such sugar daddy relationships regardless of terminology).
Following media stories about female fraudsters and even at least one murder, it helps to remember that the men are not always the victim here -- and since they're the ones with the money, quite the opposite in many cases.
The young women involved in papakatsu may be barely over ...
There has been a lot of outrage recently about male hosts in Japan exploiting vulnerable women, young and old, in order to get them to pay the ridiculous fees their clubs charge. This includes forcing underage girls into prostitution.
We shouldn't overlook the dark and controversial world of music idols, however, where the casting coach is commonplace (as it is in gravure modeling). Things get particularly murky in the far less lucrative world of minor and underground idols, who don't get mainstream exposure and are more vulnerable to managers and so on promising success and money.
A ...
The biggest entertainment world scandal in Japan of late has been the allegations of past sexual assault made against one of the nation's most famous comedians, Hitoshi Matsumoto.
The reports first emerged in a tabloid magazine in late December and have continued to unfold. At first, Matsumoto, his agency (Yoshimoto Kogyo), and broadcasters ignored or gave the report a minimal denial, and colleagues offered on-air support, but more revelations are still trickling out in further articles, and 60-year-old Matsumoto has now withdrawn from his television commitments, nominally so he can pursue a ...
