Japanese Realtor ‘Kidnaps’ Junior High School Girls and Encourages Them to Study

Hiroaki Sakaue was arrested on Nov. 27 for keeping a Hyogo Prefecture junior high school student at his home in Honjo, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, according to Mainichi.

 

Sakaue became acquainted with the female student via Twitter and allegedly lured her into his apartment.

“Come to Saitama. If you study, I’ll take care of you,” the man said in his Twitter reply to the student, who tweeted saying she wanted to run away.

The student then stayed at his apartment from August to late October. She also sent a letter to her parents to let them know she was alive.

The Hyogo student is not the only girl Sakaue kept in his apartment. The man also kept another student from Saitama after he contacted her in September.

“I have another girl lodging at my place. I’ll pay for your living expenses, so you’ll have nothing to worry about,” Sakaue said.

“I wanted her to become an employee at my business in the future,” the man told the police.

In September, the Saitama student’s father filed a missing person report at the Urawa Police Station.

Police were able to track down Sakaue’s home through the Twitter exchange he had with the students. He was first arrested on Oct. 29 at his rental apartment, where police found the girls reportedly studying.

According to the police, the two high school girls were fed three times a day and stayed at a separate home. The girls were reportedly free to leave whenever they wanted and allowed to contact their parents through their phones, Japan Times reported.

Feature Image Screenshot via ANNnewsCH