When a stranger sends him a friend request, our reporter sees the opportunity to relieve his explosive, pent-up emotion.
scams
Sellers often claim to be deaf and ask for random Japanese people to “sponsor” their travel expenses.
Our resident scam investigator turns criminal to see how much information he can steal from a stranger’s smart phone.
Our reporter decides to answer one of those “Earn money from your photos!” comments on his Instagram page.
Japan’s first-ever crane game fraud investigation claims arcades used secret setting so prizes could only be won in employee demonstrations.
An epic tale of pornography, revenge, alcohol, and pumpkins.
Our reporter goes undercover to see what happens when you voluntarily give your information and credit card info to Facebook spammers.
What’s it like to dupe lonely Japanese guys and get paid to do it? We talk to someone who did just that.
When it comes to building a home, most prefer to leave to it to professionals, but that may not always be the best idea if these photos are any indication…
Japan is often perceived as a safe country. The nation of 127 million people boasts some of the lowest rates in the world for serious crimes such as murder, robbery, and rape. In addition, Japan continually ranks high on the Global Peace Index. And while it may sometimes seem like stalking and crime against children is rampant in Japan (the stalking rate hit a record high of 22,823 this year, up from 21,000 in 2013), this perception comes largely from widespread media exposure. In the U.S., for example, it is estimated that 6.6 million people are stalked per year.
While serious crime may not rank as high as in other developed countries, there are plenty of the other offenses that Japan excels at, and the country has its share of unscrupulous nationals. These are the things you probably haven’t heard so much about. Today we look at five crimes, some of them strangely Japan-specific.
‘The other day, I felt a tap on my back while at a Japanese-style shopping mall in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I turned around and there was a beautiful, wide-eyed woman smiling at me. She asked me a favor in broken English: “I don’t have any friends in this city, and I’d like to hear more about Japan. Won’t you get dinner with me?”
I was surprised at myself by my cold reaction–“Ah, not another one.” Despite my efforts to ignore her, she continued pestering me, this time asking how long I was planning to stay in Cambodia. When I responded, “I’ve lived here for over 15 years, she promptly disappeared with a creepy cackling noise.’
We may no longer have mustachioed merchants trying to sell us snake oil from atop wagons in front of the town saloon, but thanks to the internet there are plenty of miracle cures out there to be sucked in by, particularly when they play on our insecurities. And when that insecurity happens to relate the size of a man’s love muscle, you can bet that even more men than usual are willing to give possible wonder treatments a try.
We’re not usually bad people, but if we had an especially gullible friend who told us that they were looking for a way to increase their membership in the underwear department, this would probably be the joke we’d play on him…
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