Many online message boards promoting extreme sexual role play are, in reality, serving as hubs for actual crimes involving sexual violence, Tokyo police have warned.
In the early hours of June 2, a woman in her 20s was attacked in her apartment in Tokyo¡¯s Itabashi Ward by a man posing as a utility worker. Police arrested Raiya Yamamoto, 25, who was then indicted on charges including robbery and nonconsensual sexual intercourse.
Investigators later detained the victim¡¯s acquaintance, Retsu Matsuda, 27, for allegedly paying Yamamoto ?30,000 ($202) to carry out the assault. Matsuda was then indicted on charges including nonconsensual intercourse.
According to investigative sources, Matsuda had posted on an internet board seeking ¡°someone to commit sexual assault.¡± Yamamoto responded, and the two shifted communications to social media, through which Matsuda allegedly provided the woman¡¯s address, a break-in method and details of what he wanted done to the woman.
Matsuda was reportedly embroiled in a personal dispute with the victim. Yamamoto told investigators he was motivated by money, saying, ¡°I thought if I was going to do a part-time job, I wanted one that also satisfied my sexual desires.¡±
The board they used promoted itself as a meeting place for people who wished to consensually role-play rape scenarios. Though it has since been shut down, similar boards remain online.
Posts often blur the line between fantasy and solicitation, with some reading, ¡°I want to attack and enslave a certain woman. She doesn¡¯t know anything. If you can carry it out, I¡¯ll give you her personal information,¡± or ¡°I¡¯ll share my girlfriend¡¯s address, so feel free to sleep with her,¡± clearly inciting criminal activity.
The Internet Hotline Center, a government-commissioned body that monitors harmful online content, classifies explicit calls for ¡°rape¡± as ¡°information closely related to serious crimes¡± and requests that operators delete them. But users increasingly employ coded language to evade detection, moving specific details such as names and addresses onto private social networks to escape monitoring.
¡°Many boards are only used for recruiting potential rapists, but explicit descriptions that would trigger removal requests are often avoided,¡± said IT journalist Yo Mikami. He added that deletion requests have clear limits, but warned, ¡°By combining forums with social media, people can hide their identities and have third parties commit rape. It¡¯s a terrifying reality.¡±
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