Man Posed As Talent Scout To Solicit Sex From Aspiring Teen Idol In Osaka

A predatory Osaka man has been accused of posing as a talent scout to solicit sex from an aspiring teen idol, exploiting the victim's dreams of becoming a popular singer, Osaka Prefectural Police confirmed.

The accused has been identified as Takashi Fuchigami, 46. The middle-aged sex offender allegedly paid 10,000 yen (US$90) in cash to a teen high school girl, 17, to have sex with him at his residence in Chuo Ward, Osaka City on Jan. 17, according to Tokyo Reporter.

“I had sexual intercourse, but I thought she was 18, and I didn’t provide any money,” Fuchigami said when he was arrested on Tuesday, June 29, on suspicion of violating the anti-child prostitution law.

Fuchigami reportedly met the girl on social media, and after convincing her that he was a talent scout, lured her into his trap by claiming that he was responsible for the rise to stardom of a handful of other high school girls who had become entertainers.

The predator was finally nabbed by the police after the girl's mother lodged a police complaint in March alleging that her minor daughter engaged in sex with a man claiming to be a talent scout.

Sexual exploitation perpetrated by supposed talent scouts is nothing new in Japan. In 2017, Kurumin Aroma, 26, was reportedly approached on a Tokyo street and asked if she was interested in “glamour modeling." Believing that it was a chance to fulfill her dream of becoming a TV celebrity, she had pounced at the opportunity.

However, months later, Aroma revealed that after being "scouted" she was reportedly forced into appearing in pornographic films by unscrupulous and unregulated production companies, the Guardian reported.

In 2016, the Japanese government launched a survey into the matter baring that some 200 among the 20,000 women surveyed had signed “modeling” contracts after being approached by dubious agents, and more than 50 of them were later coerced to pose nude or have sex on camera.

Women in their late teens and early twenties are reportedly perenially approached on the street by very persuasive talent scouts and, after being told they have the looks and charisma it takes to make it in show businesses, are rushed into signing contracts.

When these women do object to shooting erotic and sexual content, producers allegedly threaten them with millions of yen in fines or blackmail them by saying that they will tell their relatives about their new “career.” Sometimes, the girls are reportedly confined to hotel rooms or taken to remote locations where it is impossible for them to escape.

In a bombshell 1999 incident, 68-year-old agent music mogul Johnny Kitagawa was accused of having sex with several teenage boys at his talent agency, one of Japan’s most popular weekly magazines, Shukan Bunshun, wrote, the Associated Press reported.