The Wakayama Prefectural Police revealed on May 8, 2024 that Your Name. movie producer Koichiro Itou has been referred to prosecutors for additional violation of Child Prostitution & Pornography law in Japan, after it came to light that he had paid an underage girl for sexual intercourse.
The latest case involved a 17-year-old high school girl from Yokohama. Investigators believe Itou knew the girl was a minor when he paid her 30,000 yen for having sexual intercourse at his residence in December 2023.
He is also suspected of taking and saving photographs of the act.
30,000 Yen is only about $300 in USD (using the “move the decimal point” method). That’s a pretty cheap price…but it’s probably going to cost him a lot more, especially if they find any photos
Current conversion puts it at $192. But yeesh…
Here’s the kicker though… Japan JUST raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 LAST YEAR(!)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/japan-raises-the-age-of-sexual-consent-to-16-from-13-which-was-among-the-worlds-lowest
Yes, but none of the local governments had it at 13, so this is purely symbolic
If you compare that to the average cost of living in Japan it’s a bit closer to $300 in terms of spending power.
Either way it’s a lot cheaper than I’d expect to have to pay anyone for sex work, much less something that blatantly illegal.
Oh, as for the age of consent thing that change just made it a national crime. Every prefecture in Japan had already raised the age of consent to 16 (or higher) well before last year. The only places it didn’t apply were some remote military bases and IIRC the portion of Antarctica that Japan claims. Still a good move but it’s not like Japanese pedos were just having sex with 13-year-olds without consequence before then.
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You know 16 is the age of consent for well over half the US states as well right? Not defending people that abuse that fact, but that is a very common age to use as the cutoff point.
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For what age? Other 16 year olds is fine, no?
There are Romeo and Juliette laws for things like that, essentially a reasonable age gap.
Yes. However, for everyone that doesn’t understand why the word “reasonable” is important here: When it comes to age differences and sexual relationships, what a “reasonable person thinks” isn’t nearly as important as how a reasonable person might react when laying down a sentence. Sexual misconduct involving the word “Minor”, which immediately brings with it terms like “Coercion”, “Authority”, and the “inability to give consent” tend to receive strong reactions, and strong responses.
Basically, if you’re 18 and your partner is 17, be extremely cautious to the point of not becoming sexually active together. This includes videos and photos. People’s lives have been ruined for less. I am not in any way advocating for and validating (or dismissing) large age gaps, only providing information for our younger users who may not realize this.
Thank you for the additional details. I figured a 17 and 18 year old would be fine but beyond that it gets questionable IMO.
As I understand it this is in place to prevent having to prosecute teenagers for having consensual sex. Which they’re going to do, illegal or not. But if they were one or both below the age of consent they would legally not be able to consent and this would be considered a rape, easily prosecutable by angry parents.
It is genuinely good that it is this way.
Makes sense, but does it also make it that, say, 30 year olds can marry a 16 year old? When I hear age of consent, that’s what I hear.
that was the national age, just about everywhere had local laws with a higher age already on the books, I think tokyo was 17 or something like that
But that makes it…legal, though, if the girl consented to the sex, right? Or is the prostitution part what makes it illegal?
Prostitution is illegal in japan but individual provinces have a higher age of consent than the country so it’s a mute point anyways. He was being illegal.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moot_point
Oh shit thanks. Never knew I was using it wrong.
Certain services, I guess is the word, are not illegal. Penis-in-vagina sex definitely is, but a lot of other stuff seems not to be due to the way the laws are written. So, depending upon what he did, some may violate laws about age of consent, some prostitution, some both. What a piece of shit.
Ahh, I see. Not defending the guy, obviously, just wondering about the technicalities.
I certainly hope so. Japan is notoriously light on punishment for pedophilia. They usually just give small fines for people found with child pornography, no matter the amount.
Well, it’s like 90% of their entertainment industry.
Divide by 150. It’s more like $200 these days due to a weakened Yen.
I like moving the decimal place for its simplicity. I’ll just keep the change! Lol
You’re right, she should have asked for at least 40k yen.
$300 isn’t much hush money, nor does it sound life-changing enough to want to sell one’s body for at such an age.
Do you think that makes it better just because the payoff was cheap? Or that the low monetary value degrades the victims such that you shouldn’t care? Either way, I’d argue that makes it all the more fucking disgusting and horrible.
If your whole argument is, “oh, but he got a bargain deal on all the corruption and prostitution!” Then you belong in jail right next to this scumbag.
I’m not sure how you misinterpreted that comment so completely
If you don’t understand how someone misinterpreted what you said, start with what you said.
Because maybe you were unclear.
Okay. I said “I don’t understand how you misinterpreted that comment”. It seems everyone else understood what OP meant (OP is not me by the way) except for you. Instead of admitting your mistake, you’re doubling down on your arrogance, and now you’re attacking me because, once again, you’re confused.
Maybe you should think before you comment.
I think their point was that if you don’t know the conversion rate, you might think he was paying a lot, but he wasn’t. The implication as to why that point was made, I speculate, is because cheap abuse is more despicable than better-paid abuse?
I think it was moreso shock that child prostitution is so cheap. We all know that if you have enough money you can buy anything, no matter how evil, but $300 for child sex? Yeeesh, it surprised me how cheap that is
preface: I am not in any way condoning or promoting sex with minors, nor am I blaming the minor. The assailant is a criminal, deserves punishment, and the victim is just that: a victim
With regards to the discussion specifically about cost and availability there are a few important things to note:
The victims were not trafficked, pimped, or otherwise “sold” by a third party. The transactions were all 1-to-1 between the victim and assailant
The victims ranged from age 15 to 17, and had a comparatively high degree of self determination and autonomy, including typical societal pressures and desires for money, popularity, etc
Japan has a long history of acceptable prostitution. Brothels are still much more common than in the West and you will find lots of references to “compensated dating” including among teens.
Sex and sexuality is not as stigmatized in Japan the way it is in the West. From idol culture to advertisement, women (and to a lesser extent men) are comparatively more frequently compensated for their sexuality, even if not for sex outright.
Combined with the fame and access to industry contacts that the perpetrator had in this case, these factors all serve to create a much different environment than westerners are used to and drives the prices for these kinds of interactions down.
Again, I do not condone or support sexual relationships with minors, nor do I place any blame on the victims. I seek only to inform about factors that may have impacted the amount of money exchanged
Methinks you doth protest too much
Or I just want to be super fucking clear that this guy is a piece of shit criminal and children being exploited is never, ever okay, despite my recognition of the factual context?
But whatever, chief, you assume what you want 👍
What the fuck are you even on about. You just invented that argument and attributed it to otp, just to argue against it and be mad.
Complaining about the size of the money shot?
Trump was the one who was complaining.
Trump’s followers like to blame others for things he did.
What does that have to do with this?