The authorities have two aims behind the “arrest over two years” of Z Li, an influencer who has been exposed to the public.

Payback for having his motorcycle stolen: ……

An influencer with a large number of “followers” was finally caught.

By November 14, the Anti-gang Division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested five men, including Masaki Taki (43), Takayuki Sawaguchi (38), and Koji Shukuwa (33), a martial artist who has participated in RIZIN, on suspicion of breaking into a residence. Taki is believed to be one of the members of the “Z Lee (Jet Li)” account on X (formerly Twitter), which has over 900,000 followers.

In November 2010, Taki and others broke into a room of an apartment building in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, where a man in his 40s lived. They stayed there for over an hour. The reason for this was that a motorcycle owned by a Z Lee member had been stolen, and they had collected information on it at their own expense with a bounty of 3 million yen. The process of recovering the bike was posted on X, and that seems to have been one of the pieces of evidence,” said an investigator.

On November 15, Taki, who was to be sent to the police station for prosecution, did not show up for the group bus inspection. He was placed alone in the back of the convoy and crouched down to hide from the press.

Arrests after “two years of blank period

The members of Z Li have long been popular for their radical activities on social networking sites, such as accusing famous business owners of alleged criminal activities and pursuing the nuisance activities of their hosts. He has also been active in charitable activities, regularly organizing soup kitchens and running a cat café with a collection of shelter cats. In some circles, they were “dark heroes” with ardent supporters.

For this reason, their arrest has attracted a great deal of attention, mainly on social networking sites. Z Li has been uploading photos of himself chasing down the motorcycle thieves on his X-phone, and such evidence would seem to indicate that the barriers to arrest are not high. The reason for going to the trouble of making an arrest at this time is two-fold,” said the aforementioned investigator.

Of course, the main reason is that the evidence leading to the arrest has been solidified, but there are other reasons as well. The first is the connection with Tokuryu (an anonymous and fluid crime group), which has seen a sharp increase in the number of victims in various parts of Japan. Tokuryu is said to be in charge of a rapidly growing black market centered on SNS, and Z Li members are suspected of having ties with them. We don’t know if the Z Li members are really connected to Tokuryu, but I think they are trying to get some kind of a lead.

Another reason is to check the “SNS revelations” that are heating up.

In May of this year, the X-account “Takizawa Galeso” posted a rumor about the divorce of a famous celebrity couple. Despite the fact that the information was unsubstantiated, the post caused a huge reaction, leading to a slanderous ruckus against the couple themselves. Due to the nature of social networking sites, which are highly anonymous, it is often a case of ‘what was said is said. The arrest of the well-known exposé-type influencer may have been aimed at checking such a wrong trend.

The arrest of Z Li is a whirlwind of speculation. The investigation will continue in the future to uncover the full extent of the crime.