<figure id="attachment_327802" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-327802" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a0118a48"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/08/d1a058d05a14935ebb53686bf070dc9e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-327802" class="wp-caption-text">Various desires roam in the nightlife district (photo is an image).</figcaption></figure>
 In July of this year, Tamaki Akai (25), an employee of a brothel, was arrested on suspicion of coma robbery and theft after he swindled a suicidal woman in her 40s whom he had met on SNS into committing group suicide.
 In <a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/327795">Part 1: Sex Workers in Their 20s &#8220;Cannot Expect High Income from Their Main Jobs,&#8221; the horrifying reality of working in the dark,</a> we introduced the graphic testimony of Ako, who had worked at the same store as Akai. In this article, we would like to follow up on that story and look at the crimes and business that the sex industry does to take advantage of people with suicidal thoughts.
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 According to Ako, the most common practice in the nightlife district is to find suicidal young women on social networking sites and drag them into the prostitution business.
 To corroborate her testimony, Ako introduced me to a male scout who works for a scouting company specializing in the sex industry. He makes women work at brothels and receives a portion of the sales as a margin.
 This scout man said, &#8220;Scouting nowadays is mainly for social networking services.
 He said, &#8220;Nowadays, scouting is mainly done through social networking services. The first is to contact girls who are already prostitutes and ask them if they want to work at a store we introduce.
 The second is to find girls who are poor, for example, those who have no house to live in, no money to eat, or are in debt, and solicit them in the same way. The third is to send DMs to girls who are tweeting suicidal thoughts or visiting suicide sites to solicit them.
 Some young women send out messages on social networking sites that they are in need of money or that they are sex workers in their profile sections. Scouts search for these girls on social networking sites every day and contact them by sending DMs or replies to every one of them.
<h2> If it&#8217;s good for you.&#8221;</h2>
<figure id="attachment_327806" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-327806" style="width: 3888px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ed30e4b3"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/08/b21bd5f3cd74bd556511786d1e306cc9.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-327806" class="wp-caption-text"> In some cases, the hearts of deeply troubled people are exploited (photo is for reference only).</figcaption></figure>
 The male scout continues as follows.
 I scout for prostitutes and poor girls by telling them directly that if they work at a place called O✕ they will be guaranteed O✕✕ million yen a month. If the girl is willing to take me up on the offer, she does so immediately; if not, she doesn&#8217;t reply. It&#8217;s very businesslike and clear. Suicidal girls are a bit different.
 We communicate with these girls to some extent and listen to their problems. After they trust us with that, I confide that I am a scout and ask them if they would like to work at a store we are involved with. Many times, the girl will say, &#8216;If it&#8217;s for your own good,&#8217; and give me the OK.
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 Women who are already working in the sex industry or who want cash now connect with scouts in a business-like manner and decide whether or not to work at the store, depending on the conditions. However, suicidal girls are different. These women often have a desire to live somewhere in their hearts. The scoutman skillfully takes advantage of this and suggests, &#8220;Then come work for me. Then the girl says, &#8220;For you,&#8221; and works. In other words, they use it as an excuse to live and work.
 It is a very cowardly and dirty method, but according to the scout man, it is &#8220;still not that bad. The man says, &#8220;It&#8217;s still better.
 There are a lot of people looking for suicidal girls on the Internet. They are worse than we are. They don&#8217;t care what they do to suicidal girls. They lure them out and rape them, or sell videos of it.
 The worst case is the Zama 9 murders in Kanagawa Prefecture. They thought that if they wanted to die, it would be okay to kill them, so they actually killed them and dismembered them. Suicidal kids are easy targets because they don&#8217;t have deep connections with family or friends, so they are less likely to be discovered.&#8221;
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" A shiver-inducing method of toying with people in deep distress"></div>
The author himself once covered Japan&#8217;s first suicide site serial murder case. The perpetrator, Hiroshi Maegami (executed), had the characteristic of taking unusual pleasure in suffocating people. So he summoned three men and women he had met on a suicide website one after another, deprived them of their physical freedom, and killed them after suffocating them and making them suffer for a long time.
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 Since this incident, incidents targeting suicidal people have taken different forms. The most recent of these is the Zama 9 murders, in which Takahiro Shiraishi, a scout for the sex industry, lured nine women to his home. This shows that many people take advantage of suicidal people in that way.
 One of the scouts said, &#8220;It&#8217;s not that they take advantage of people who are suicidal, it&#8217;s that they use them.
 It is not only men who take advantage of suicidal people. There are women, too. One form of this is Akai Kan. Men try to use them for sex or business, but women are more direct. In her case, in order to get quick money, she probably took advantage of suicidal women, who are the easiest to cheat and the least likely to discover the case.
 Even for the female victims, women are safer than men. In that sense, in addition to Akai, I&#8217;m sure there are many other women who lure similarly suicidal women and take their money and goods from them.&#8221;
 It is not certain how much of the damage done to suicidal women is public knowledge. However, it is not hard to understand why the male scouts might be tempted to say that they are &#8220;still not bad at all&#8221; when they hear stories like this.
<h2> I think they are comfortable.&#8221;</h2>
<figure id="attachment_327800" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-327800" style="width: 1243px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4406c0cc"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/08/87d5904976f6b86717f101561d523612.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-327800" class="wp-caption-text"> Some say that the sex industry is comfortable for those who have no place in society.</figcaption></figure>
 So what do the women themselves think?
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 I think the scout&#8217;s claim is true. I have never wanted to die, but there are many girls like that around me. I think that for those girls, the world of sex industry is comfortable because there are many similar girls and they accept them easily.
 To put it more bluntly, there are not a few girls who only have a place in the world of sex industry. So, when scouts talk to such girls and lure them into the world of sex industry, they are also helping them, and I don&#8217;t think we can say that all of them are wrong. At least it&#8217;s better than getting mugged or raped or murdered or something.&#8221;
 Suicidal women are characterized by their inability to take care of even themselves, or by the fact that there is no one around them whom they can trust. Therefore, they may perceive the sex industry, which accepts even those with difficulties, as a place where they belong. However, this may lead to other crimes.
 The Internet, which makes everything visible, also brings to light people&#8217;s suicidal thoughts. This creates a situation where people can be easily dragged into the underworld by the wrong people. How do we stop this? It is very difficult, but it is definitely a major challenge for the future.

 Born in Tokyo in 1977. Nonfiction writer. He has reported and written about culture, history, and medicine in Japan and abroad. His books include "Absolute Poverty," "The Body," "The House of 'Demons'," "43 Killing Intent," "Let's Talk about Real Poverty," "Social Map of Disparity and Division," and "Reporto: Who Kills Japanese Language Ability?

 Kota Ishii

 The black market for sex work by prostitutes has become increasingly malignant. Unable to earn a high income from their day jobs, they seek side jobs in search of higher pay. They take money from suicidal women and their relatives. ...... This is the second part of a horrifying report by nonfiction writer Kota Ishii.

Taking advantage of the desire to live… Sex Workers Reveal a Sordid Underworld Business that “Takes Advantage of Suicidal People

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