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crime (Page 66)

Two Japanese high school kids arrested in “really bad” attempt at cash fraud

Master Blaster
Nov 8, 2013
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On 4 November Osaka Prefectural Police announced the arrest of two teenagers aged 15 and 16 for fraud. The two boys are accused of trying to pass off a fake one million yen (US$10,000) bank note at a small cigarette stand in Suita City.

Although, passing off counterfeit money is usually considered “uttering” and may be punishable by jail time, the pair were given a reduced charge of fraud because, according to police, “the fake money used was really bad.”

Japan
(counterfeit • crime • Osaka • yen)

Two middle-aged men use 3DS to meet, assault 12 year-old girl, Ibaraki police say

Scott R Dixon
Nov 7, 2013

Japan’s Yomiuri Newspaper reported on Tuesday that Ibaraki Prefectural Police had arrested two men on suspicions that they abused a 12 year-old girl they had met using Nintendo’s Internet-connected 3DS portable gaming system. Even though the girl’s parents had used parental controls to disable the Internet access on the 3DS, she found a way to reconnect the device and go online, which led her to the two middle-aged men.

Japan
(arrest • Chiba • crime • Ibaraki • internet • Nintendo 3DS • police • Yokohama)

Report finds a dramatic increase in Japanese men taking up stalking in their golden years

Master Blaster
Oct 22, 2013

As Japan’s senior citizen population continues to steadily grow, changes in society occur regularly. We’ve seen inspiring tales of the elderly getting into modeling, mastering the latest technology, and forming idol groups. On the other hand we’ve also seen complaints of rampant spitting and pushing by Japan’s silver citizens.

And then we have a troubling trend which was discovered by the National Police Agency (NPA) which say that incidents of stalking perpetrated by people over 60 have increased 3.8 times in the past ten years.

Japan
(crime • Senior citizen • stalking)

Private investigator’s job takes him to the darkest depths of juvenile crime in Japan

Casey Baseel
Oct 22, 2013

Bullying has become a major concern in Japan over the last few years. As even elementary school students increasingly communicate and connect with their peers through technology, evidence of these instances of child-on-child cruelty is often stored electronically. Unlike in previous generations, bullies today don’t have the option of simply denying any wrongdoing took place once a victim comes forward with records documenting the incident.

Of course, there’s still the need to track down the evidence in the first place. This depressing yet necessary task often falls to Hirotaka Abe, a private investigator who specializes in helping parents when their child is victimized by hateful peers.

Japan
(bullying • children • crime)

Nagano police bust up cannabis tempura camping party

Master Blaster
Oct 21, 2013

Late last month 51-year-old resident of Azumino City, Nagano Prefecture, Kazuhiko Shirasaka, allegedly called together a camping party with around 30 other people including 62-year-old Naofumi Katsuragawa who lived in nearby Ikeda Town. Little did they know, these young rascals would be cooking up the makings of an after-school special, if late-middle-aged people still went to school.

Japan
(crime • marijuana • Nagano)

Two restaurants in China accused of adding poppy seeds to food hoping to get customers hooked

Master Blaster
Oct 20, 2013

Reports out of China have revealed that two restaurants in the Guangzhou area were found to be using ground up poppy seeds in some of their dishes. The reports allege that the businesses were “using the seeds of addictive poppies in an underhanded way to get repeat business.”

China
(crime • food • opium • poppy seed)

Japanese police officer sentenced to prison, found guilty of attempted extortion to settle his gaming debt

Master Blaster
Oct 16, 2013

When Takahiro Ueyama was a boy he dreamed of becoming a police officer like his father. Rain or shine, even on holidays, he would remember his dad rushing out to help people when needed. Ueyama studied hard to achieve his goal and in 1989 he was finally able to be like his old man. It didn’t stop there either, up-and-coming Officer Ueyama continued to work hard and eventually outperformed his father in police work, earning an award in the process.

Takahiro Ueyama told all this to the Kobe District Court last month where he stood trial for extortion. By this time his crime had become widely publicized as it was carried out in order to pay off his mounting mobile phone game bills of 500,000 yen (US$5,000).

Japan
(crime • police • Rage of Bahamut)

Man arrested after rice cooker found plugged into neighbor’s home

Master Blaster
Oct 16, 2013

In Kawazoe, Saga Prefecture, a 48-year-old homeowner received a shock when he found a rice cooker plugged into an exterior outlet on his house. He immediately called the police and reported the meal which was being prepared in his yard without his consent. Knowing that time was of the essence, police rushed to scene.

Japan
(crime • food • rice cooker)

Japanese man arrested for shouting that he studies English (weird) before grabbing woman’s butt (illegal)

Casey Baseel
Oct 10, 2013

Police from the Himonya Precinct in Tokyo’s Merguro Ward have announced the arrest of one Keiko Hatano. Mr. Hatano has an unusual given name for a man in Japan, but even more unusual is the crime he is suspected of: fondling a woman’s posterior after explaining to her that he “studies English.”

Japan
(chikan • crime • funny • pervert • video • wtf)

“Would you rather breathe or play DS?” Mother on trial for suffocating five-year-old son

Philip Kendall
Oct 3, 2013

On September 25 at Tokyo District Court, 42-year-old mother of four Shizu Shigeta took the stand in a packed courtroom, accused of killing her five-year-old son.

Teary-eyed and clinging to a handkerchief as she spoke, the defendant admitted that she had caused the death of her son, Koushi, after sealing him inside two plastic garbage bags and then falling asleep beside him while under the influence of sedatives and alcohol.

Japan
(crime • DS • manslaughter • video games)

Grand Theft School Girl Outfit: 33-year-old man arrested for stealing high school uniforms

Master Blaster
Oct 2, 2013

On 29 September, Kumamoto Prefectural Police announced the arrest of 33-year-old Akira Katayama for robbing a private high school in Kumamoto City. The intended score of this particular heist was three girls’ uniforms used by the school.

Although he nearly succeeded, Katayama’s plans were dashed when it became obvious mid-robbery that he didn’t come close to resembling a high school student.

Japan
(crime • Kumamoto • School uniform)

College students “go shoplifting,” document the act with Twitpics

Master Blaster
Oct 1, 2013

Someone believed to be a college student recently posted an image of another college girl shoplifting food on Twitter. According to the photos, she girls stole some onigiri and what appear to be two cups of instant noodles.

This is just the latest installment in the recently growing fad of posting obnoxious or illegal behavior on Twitter with the apparent aim of receiving hate posts from other netizens. This tweet was no different, receiving scorn and speculation for scores of watchers.

Internet, Japan
(bakatta • crime • shoplifting • twitter)

Man caught driving the wrong way on expressway: “I went too far and was going back the way I came.”

Master Blaster
Sep 24, 2013

On 22 September at around 10:40 a.m. a 77-year-old man was caught driving at high speed in the wrong direction along the Takamatsu Expressway in Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture. According to police, the unidentified man was trying to retrace his steps after traveling one kilometer the wrong way.

Japan
(accident • crime • driving)

Osaka woman arrested for attempting to kill husband after he saved her life

Master Blaster
Sep 23, 2013

Osaka prefectural police announced on 20 September the arrest of 48-year-old Masumi Nishino for the attempted murder of her husband and arson of their home and office. This arrest was made possible only after Nishino’s allegedly intended victim/husband saved her life by pulling her from the very same building she set on fire.

Japan
(arson • crime • marriage)

Would-be bank thief just fails at everything

Preston Phro
Sep 23, 2013

Working in a bank seems like a fairly boring job most days. You talk to customers, fill out some paper work, deal with large sums of cash that you can’t use in awesome rap videos, and hope there aren’t any crazy people looking for a quick payday. But what happens when one of those crazy people walks into your branch and demands a bunch of money? Well, if you’re lucky, it goes about as well as it did for this bumbling bank robber in Chiba Prefecture.

Japan
(bank robbery • crime • fail)

Pensioner pretends to be deceived by telephone fraud, helps catch criminals

Andrew Miller
Sep 21, 2013

Telephone fraud is a serious problem in Japan and many elderly people fall victim to it each year. Known as “ore ore sagi“, fraudsters often pretend to be the call recipient’s son, using such lines as, “Mom, it’s me, it’s me! I’m in trouble!” to trick large sums of money from the unsuspecting party, and banks now post warnings next to their ATMs asking people only to send money if they’re 100-percent sure of who they’re sending it to.

Thanks to increased awareness of the problem, however, more and more people are beginning to see through this type of scam. One particularly clued-up 69-year-old who realized something was wrong, in fact, has recently been co-operating with local police by pretending that she had been duped by a call she received from fraudsters, ultimately leading to their arrests.

Japan
(crime • old-age pensioner • police • telephone fraud)

“You’re taking peeping photos, aren’t you?” Smartphone extortion scam hits hard in Shinjuku

Rachel Tackett
Sep 19, 2013

Many would agree that smartphones are the easiest and most convenient way to stay entertained no matter where you go, provided there’s reception. Although, they do distract us from what’s happening in the immediate vicinity. Texting and checking apps while walking through the streets of a busy city can lead to collisions with people or signposts, or even traffic if one isn’t careful! Now, a recent string of scams in Tokyo shows that the distractedness we experience when on our phones also make us a target. Read More

Japan
(arrest • blackmail • crime • shinjuku • smartphone)

Japanese pro boxer condemns the law for classifying him as a dangerous weapon

Rachel Tackett
Sep 11, 2013

On September 9, Hozumi Hasegawa, a second-division professional boxer competing successfully at a world level, made a very angry post to his blog condemning the nation’s laws for preventing him from raising his hand against anyone outside of work, regardless of the circumstances.

We’ve probably all heard the story in unspecific terms: rumor states that a trained fighter must register his own fists as lethal weapons. It would then stand to reason that any scuffle involving that person would put him on the receiving end of severe charges for battery and assault with a dangerous weapon. Could it be that all the hearsay is actually true?!

Japan
(boxing • crime • Hozumi Hasegawa • law • rant)

Supermarket rampage leaves 103 groceries in critical condition

Master Blaster
Sep 8, 2013

A tragic scene unfolded in a supermarket in Kurashiki, Okayama last Thursday as 32-year-old Shinji Kuroki went on a mass poking and squishing rage inside. Details of the total damage are sketchy but we received reports that packs of meat had holes poked in them with a finger and loaves of bread have been seen lying on the ground, smashed in cold blood.