Lookout for Dark Side Job Robbery: The Pitiful State After Arrest

Another Applicant for Dark Part-Time Job Robbery Arrested

On October 4, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s first investigation division arrested Ritsuyuki Kawasaki, a 29-year-old company employee from Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, on suspicion of robbery causing injury and breaking and entering. He is believed to be the lookout for a robbery that occurred in Nerima Ward, Tokyo. This brings the total number of arrests in this case to four.

“The incident under arrest occurred just before 3 a.m. on September 28. The criminal group broke into a residence in Nerima by smashing the living room window on the first floor with tools. They assaulted a man in his 50s and his son in his 20s, injuring them, and threatened them by saying, ‘Give us your valuables!’ They are said to have stolen two luxury watches, including a Rolex, and other items worth about 1.2 million yen before fleeing.

The members of the criminal group, including Kawasaki, totaled five, and reportedly did not know each other’s faces or names until they met up. One of the arrested suspects stated, ‘I don’t know anyone else, but they are my partners.’ They allegedly met at a family restaurant in Tokyo before heading to the scene of the crime in a truck. They are believed to have responded to social media posts advertising ‘same-day pay part-time jobs,’ which linked them to the incident,” said a reporter from a national newspaper’s social affairs department.

Our magazine’s photographer captured Kawasaki’s pitiful figure immediately after his arrest. Emerging from the police station, he slumped with his shoulders drooping, keeping his head down the entire time. His demeanor conveyed a sense of regret and shame.

Just for transportation, a daily wage of 100,000 yen. 

“Their superiors seem to have been using multiple accounts to communicate. The lookout roles and the perpetrators were contacted via the highly secure messaging app Signal. When the perpetrators were arrested, the app had already been deleted,” (same source).

In the recruitment for robbery through dark web jobs, phrases like white job and just for transporting goods, a daily wage of 100,000 yen often emphasize high rewards with no risk involved. However,

“When applying, you’re asked to send a photo ID with your face and to disclose your family structure. When the unknown perpetrators meet, the orders from the superiors change dramatically. They demand that the residents of the target be beaten as if to kill them and to rough them up and steal from them. If anyone hesitates or refuses, they are threatened with phrases like, ‘You’ll suffer greatly’ or ‘Are you okay with harm coming to your family?’

Some perpetrators have even been told, ‘There are (anti-social) organizations backing this up. Be prepared.’ The superiors use fear to control them, pushing the perpetrators into a psychological state where escape is impossible. There are cases where the promised rewards are never paid at all. The perpetrators and lookouts are just expendable pawns. No matter how many are arrested, the superiors, who are at the core of the criminal group, feel no pain or discomfort,” (same source).

The superiors often issue commands from abroad, such as the Philippines or Cambodia, which makes investigations challenging. According to the National Police Agency, from September 2021 to this September, there have been at least 93 incidents of robbery and theft involving anonymous and fluid-type criminal groups across 22 prefectures.