On March 26, the Tokyo District Court issued a verdict in the case involving a former male member of ‘Natural’, one of Japan’s largest illegal sex shop scout groups, who was confined and assaulted by other members. Kazuki Momoya, the defendant accused of confinement, was sentenced to two years in prison.
Five individuals, including the defendant, assaulted a former male member in his thirties who had allegedly embezzled money from the group. They beat him with a frying pan, resulting in injuries that persisted for six months. In an effort to prevent the man from reporting the incident to the police, they confined him to an apartment in Shinjuku for a week until his bruises and other injuries had healed.
The five individuals fled the scene but surrendered themselves to the Itabashi Police Station on January 17th.
Momoya admitted the charges in his first trial on March 21, but when questioned about the group, he didn’t testify, saying “I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you about the company.” As he described the group as a “company”, Natural has a pyramid-shaped organizational structure with executives at the top.
Headquartered in Kabukicho, Tokyo, the group currently conducts operations in urban centers throughout the nation. With a membership exceeding 1,500 individuals, it includes scouts who earn upwards of 10 million yen. Annual sales reach into the billions of yen, with suspicions arising that a portion of these profits funnels into the Yakuza. The Tokyo Police Department is actively investigating to ascertain the precise nature of these financial transactions.
To deter such incidents, the group employs violence and carefully regulates information. Members use nicknames instead of their real names and communicate solely through the group’s custom app to prevent any information from leaking to outside parties.
Individuals who violate the group’s rules and regulations face not only hefty fines but also severe punishment.
The victim in this case was stripped naked and had a sex toy placed in his anus, causing it to bleed. The fear and humiliation on him pushes his mind until he can no longer rebel.
The fear and humiliation he experiences overwhelm his psyche to the point where he can no longer resist. It’s probable that Momoya refrained from testifying due to the fear of facing these penalties.
Tokyo Metropolitan Police has labeled them as an anti-social organization and aims to eliminate their presence.
