Man Allegedly Kidnapped And Tortured After Dating An Akihabara Maid

18 responses to “Man Allegedly Kidnapped And Tortured After Dating An Akihabara Maid”

1. 

   pokedad

   January 29, 2020 at 9:14 am

   I can’t handle This Much Japan so early in the morning.

   Reply
   1. 

      germinalconsequence

      January 29, 2020 at 10:52 am

      Would you prefer something a bit more American; “Man kidnapped and shot by organised crime syndicate after dating night club hostess”?

      Reply
      1. 

         pokedad

         January 29, 2020 at 11:04 am

         I don’t think Americans would fetishise the illusion of virginity in their waitstaff enough to bother.

         I used to know a couple of women who worked in maid cafes and that whole industry is just… ugh. Even the good places aren’t super great.

         Reply
         1. 

            germinalconsequence

            January 29, 2020 at 1:21 pm

            I think you might be missing the point. The fact that it’s a Maid Cafe is a minor fact, this is a story about someone getting a little too intimate/frisky with someone they shouldn’t and paying for it. It’s a story that has been told in a million ways in a million different places.

            Reply
            1. 

               pokedad

               January 29, 2020 at 1:36 pm

               Oh no, I’m not missing the point at all.

               I lived in Japan a hell of a long time. There is weird cultural stuff going on in this that’s Officially Japan Shit. The fact that it’s a maid cafe bears real significance due to how the women who work there are treated, who owns them, and Japan’s fucked up as hell ideas of how women in the service industry must always seem like ethereal nymphs, accessible at all times to all men who pay the fee, but just out of reach.

               From Yakuza openly owning popular tourist attractions, to weird rules around work, to asking a woman’s boss for permission to date her, to kidnapping people for damn near anything, to them just blatantly dodging the question in the news media with zero denial… it’s just so fucking Japan.

               In fact, the only thing they haven’t done is publicly punish the woman for her “indiscretion”. They probably just decided to never roster her on ever again.

            2. 

               nuffman

               January 29, 2020 at 1:52 pm

               Careful.. you’re sounding like a right real racist there *shrug*

            3. 

               pokedad

               February 4, 2020 at 12:30 pm

               Explain how.

               I’m reporting my lived experience from 6 years of being immersed in Japanese cultural and social norms. I worked in government. I briefly worked in the entertainment industry. I had many friends who worked as hosts, hostesses, maids, bartenders, and some who worked for Tokyo Disney. I know enough about it to make informed critique.

               I didn’t say anything about The Japanese in a racial sense. I talked about cultural norms and social pressures in the workplace. Nothing i said there is likely to be debated by anyone who has had any contact with that industry or the women who work in it. The vast majority of what I said are easily verifiable, widely known facts:

               Yakuza have major legitimate business operations in the tourism industry
               The service and entertainment industries are notoriously unfair on women
               Those industries police the private lives of those women
               When the private lives of those women become public knowledge, they are often forced to apologise for whatever became public knowledge, up to and including their own sexual assault
               Kidnapping (or at the very least temporary deprivation of liberty) is pretty common in the organised crime industry in the country

               So, like. No, I guess is what I’m saying. That’s not racism.

            4. 

               nuffman

               February 4, 2020 at 2:17 pm

               I assume you’re white, correct?

               If so, you don’t have the authority to say what is and what is not racist.

               As a POC, I do.

               But you know… Making a very generalised comment on another “races” culture, (“There is weird cultural stuff going on in this that’s Officially Japan Shit.”) is racist.

            5. 

               pokedad

               February 17, 2020 at 4:43 pm

               As a person of colour, you are not automatically informed on all matters of non-white people. Sure I’m white, but as I said, I spent a long time living in a culture, working for their government, having a social circle made up mostly of its people. I’m almost certainly better informed and more able to talk about it than anyone who isn’t a born member of that culture and if they’re not particularly in the know about that subculture, I might still be a better source than they are.

               Culture and race aren’t the same. This issue is specifically a cultural issue with Japan and specifically with the subcultures around otaku culture and fandoms. Which I’m reasonably well informed about having lived in that culture and in those subcultures.

               Maybe I’m wrong and I’m open to being challenged, but unless you can actually give me a reason other than “you’re white” you’re not going to give me any reason re-examine anything.

2. 

   fishhead1982

   January 29, 2020 at 9:34 am

   I can’t handle that first sentence this early in the morning. I get the intent, but it took me a while.

   Reply
   1. 

      D2

      January 29, 2020 at 1:27 pm

      after he had quit his job at the cafe without permission was dating one of the maids

      Oh my, he quit his job without permission?
      No wait, he was dating one of the maids without permission?
      No.. wait.. I agree, that first paragraph makes no sense.

      Reply
      1. 

         cericat

         February 23, 2020 at 5:05 am

         Take your pick, both are problems frequently in Japan. There’s a history of bogus restrictions on personal liberty with women in the entertainment and service industries ie idols not being allowed to date at all and being given the boot if caught out. If he failed to give what was considered adequate notice, or not having asked to be allowed to leave that would go down badly with a number of less scrupulous bosses in Japan. The fact there was a Yakuza connection in the kidnapping makes that seem more likely just as a face-saving exercise even if they were unaware of the relationship.
         Japanese culture is sometimes very alien when you’re looking in from the outside. Their business culture even more so IMO.

         Reply
      2. 

         john_stalvern

         March 27, 2020 at 3:50 pm

         I thought I was having a stroke.

         Reply
   2. 

      badge

      January 29, 2020 at 5:21 pm

      Proofreaders and Editors! Where are they now?

      Reply
3. 

   thearbiter117

   January 29, 2020 at 12:43 pm

   Now the question is.
   How far did he get with the maid?
   That will determine whether the beating was worth it.

   Reply
4. 

   riddick

   January 30, 2020 at 2:36 am

   Yikes that took some reading. Sounds like these criminals are using some sort of Trump defence. Its not a crime if the other party is tricked into voluntarily taking part.. lol

   Reply
5. 

   transientmind

   January 30, 2020 at 8:07 pm

   Dunno about Japan, but in Australia, ‘Deprivation of Liberty’ is pretty generous towards the victims, based on what I was taught in security training.

   If you are, for example, a security officer, and you ask someone to enter the security office because you suspect them of shoplifting, that’s fine… unless you give them the impression that they are under arrest (section 6 of the criminal code: arrest without warrant, ie: citizen’s arrest). If you ‘arrest’ someone without having personally, explicitly witnessed a crime without doubt, the arrest is unlawful, and becomes the crime of deprivation of liberty.

   Now, in the scenario I described above, you can give this impression of them being under arrest simply by standing between them and the door, once they are in the room.

   If Japanese laws have even a passing resemblance to Australian ones on deprivation of liberty, the moment he attempted to leave or was prevented from being able to leave, the captors broke the law. Nevermind the assaults.

   Reply
   1. 

      pokedad

      February 4, 2020 at 12:21 pm

      Regardless of the letter of the law, the Japanese legal system is obsessed with conviction rates. It hovers around 98% at all times because prosecutors basically refuse to take anything in front of a judge that they aren’t certain they’ll win.
      These guys almost certainly have solid legal representation and if one is a “former” yakuza member, it probably means he’s simply publicly gone straight to help with legitimate business investments. I’d be surprised if these guys went away.

      Reply