Japan continues to crack down on host clubs – particularly, on hosts who connive to earn money by hook or by crook. In the latest example, police arrested a host in Kabukicho who knowingly took money from a woman charged with fraud. The case is reminiscent of another famous instance recently of a woman convicted for nine years for defrauding men to feed her host club habit.
From Top Dandy to common criminal
The story focuses on Kanai Yasutoshi, who went by the name Ibuki Reno and worked at the Top Dandy Tokyo host club in Kabukicho. The 35-year-old claims he’s “eternally 16 years old” (a claim he barely pulls off via the heavy use of Instagram filters).
Things fell apart for Kanai when Tokyo police arrested one of his regular customers, a woman in her 20s. The woman had gotten into debt with the host club’s credit system, racking up millions of yen (tens of thousands of US dollars) on expensive champagne and other goods with the promise of paying them back later.
According to FNN Prime Online, police say that the woman took 20 million yen ($132,000) fraudulently from a man in his 30s via a sugar baby relationship to pay off her host debts. Kanai allegedly took 1.5 million yen towards champagne the woman had bought on credit. Police say Kanai knew how the customer had obtained the money, which made him complicit in the crime. As a result, they arrested him under the country’s organized crime laws.
He bragged he wouldn’t get caught
The case is similar to that of Watanabe Mai, a.k.a. Sugar Baby Riri. Watanabe made big money not only defrauding men, but telling other women how to create fake romantic relationships and get money for fictitious “emergencies” via a manual she sold online. Watanabe’s host, Tanaka Hiroshi, was arrested on similar charges.
According to reports, Kanai knew about the Sugar Baby Riri case. He reportedly bragged to a female friend that he wouldn’t get arrested like Riri’s host because “I’m not leaving any evidence.”
Ladies and gentlemen, he did, in fact, leave evidence. First, because bragging about your crimes is itself evidence. And second, because the woman has testified about their LINE exchanges in which she promised to buy the champagne “if my customer [victim] isn’t tapped dry.”
Ibuki was apparently one of Top Dandy Tokyo’s earners. As seen in the billboard above, the store lauded him for bringing in 110 million yen ($730K) a year. Kanai’s arrest brings into question what other techniques “Ibuki Reno” might have used to haul in yen.
The urikakekin (売掛金) credit system used by host clubs has trapped many young women in crushing debt. Some resort to legal sex work or illegal street prostitution to pay it off. As a result, politicians in Japan are looking at placing restrictions on host clubs that would include banning credit systems as well as fake romances.
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