Robbery at China Esthetic Salon: Victim’s Account of the Horrific Incident

Where is it?

A woman in a negligee, out of breath, resists in broken Japanese as the man asks her in a low voice where the money is. The woman tries to evacuate through the front door, but the man grabs her by the hair and drags her back to the back of the room. Afterwards, the man showed time to fold the banknotes that he had taken from the woman, and left the scene without a care in the world. The crime lasted just over a minute. The woman who was left behind said, “Give me back the money! Jiu Ming Ah! (Chinese for “Help me! (Chinese for “Help!”)”.

The image above is a security camera video showing the whole process of a robbery at a Chinese beauty salon in the Kanto area. It is circulating on the chat application “WeChat” to share damage information among Chinese people living in Japan, and it is believed that the crime was committed at a beauty salon in Saitama Prefecture. The shooting took place after 9:00 p.m. on November 23. The man’s calm demeanor from start to finish suggests that he is a habitual offender.

I’m sure it’s him!

A Chinese businessman in his 40s, who runs several esthetic salons mainly in Saitama Prefecture, expressed his anger upon seeing the video.

It was late at night on November 20,” he said. The man came in as a customer, paid the fee, got a massage as usual, and then threatened the female employees to give him money after he got dressed. When the female employee refused, she was punched in the face, grabbed by the hair and pulled down, and kicked in the lower abdomen.

She was the only one in the store at the time, and she thought, ‘If I don’t do something, I’ll be killed,’ so she handed over 110,000 yen, which included the store’s sales money and her daily allowance, and the man finally left the store. I also saw the man on the security camera, and his face, hairstyle, and height were exactly the same, as well as the fact that he was Japanese in his thirties and his hair was pulled in a similar manner. The woman was seriously injured for two months and had to quit her store.

There have been more than ten similar cases in the past six months. However, none of them have been reported to the police. The reason for this, says the owner in a hushed voice, is that “there are a lot of Chinese people, including us.

Many of the Chinese men’s esthetic salons, including ours, do not file a report under the Entertainment Establishments Control Law and provide services on the edge. That’s why we don’t want to do anything that would make us stand out to the police. Besides, our store operates in an ordinary apartment building, so if the management company finds out, we’ll be kicked out.

Robberies targeting “gray beauty salons” that cannot be reported have actually been occurring for a long time. Recently, however, the situation has been changing.

The number of Chinese men’s esthetic salons started to increase rapidly six or seven years ago, and at that time, there were many robberies. At that time, however, most of the robberies were committed by Chinese nationals, who were often hired by the Chinese mafia or rival stores. Recently, however, Japanese who became poor in Covid-19 started to rob. The proof of poverty is that they take money after getting a good service.

Two of my acquaintances’ stores were just robbed by another Japanese in October. However, since my acquaintance hired illegal employees, he couldn’t report it to the police. If you include the ones I’ve heard about from others, I’ve been robbed at least 20 stores in the Kanto area this year.

There seems to be a common denominator among stores that are targeted by robbers.

In the past, I’ve seen a lot of people who’ve been robbed, and I’ve seen a lot of people who’ve been robbed. The criminals know that if they target such stores, they will be reluctant to report the damage to the police.

This is a cunning crime targeting the esthetic salon with its own problems, but if the robbery is reported to the police, will it be detrimental to the salon? Attorney Hirotaro Kato of Kato & Asakawa, who is familiar with criminal cases, says

If you file a damage report, the police will definitely conduct an on-the-spot investigation and interview the victim. In Japan, where plea bargaining does not exist, the police will have no choice but to take action to expose the illegal business or illegal employment. However, if a lawyer negotiates with them and they resolve their own illegal status before filing a damage report, they may tolerate the gray business.

Of course it is wrong to operate illegally or to hire illegal workers. Of course, illegal business and hiring illegal workers are bad, but the violent robbers who target them should not be allowed to go unchecked.

From the December 31, 2021 issue of FRIDAY