Overview
- The Tokyo Metropolitan Police re-arrested manager Maoya Suzuki, 39, and employee Aya Tano, 21, on suspicion of violating the Labor Standards Act by forcing a woman to work, and both have admitted the allegations.
- Police say the woman, in her 20s, was subjected to repeated assaults from around October last year through July, including being struck on the head with an empty bottle, to render her unable to resist and keep her working at the bar.
- The suspects were first arrested in October on suspicion of managing prostitution after the woman was made to live at the bar, tracked by GPS, and directed to solicit near Okubo Park in Shinjuku.
- According to investigators, the victim reported being forced into prostitution from around April, seeing up to 13 clients on busy days and taking in about ¥1.9 million in a month, which police suspect largely went to the suspects.
- Authorities say Suzuki filmed the assaults and shared the videos with Tano, who kept other staff away, and the woman was compelled to work across four establishments, including sexual-contact cabaret clubs, with wages ordered to be handed to Suzuki.