The Full Picture of Dark Apps Used by Illegal Scout Natural from Police Officers’ Photos to Arrest Manuals

Strict internal control is more than that of a yakuza

Executive officers, managing directors, department heads. Titles that resemble those of major corporations are listed, with detailed descriptions regarding salaries and promotions. Additionally, strict rules such as hefty fines for information leaks, measures for dealing with the police, and methods for handling street-level troubles are carefully outlined.

This is a classified internal document created by the scout group “Natural,” which is referred to as the largest and most powerful (or most dangerous) in Japan. The information is typically exchanged between the headquarters, which refers to the executive members, and the field members called players through a highly secure, secretive app.

The investigative team has obtained a large volume of data—close to 1,000 pages when printed on A4 paper—and, with the cooperation of key individuals, began analyzing it. What emerged was a picture of an operation where “business” is carried out by treating women like commodities to generate enormous profits. Additionally, the organization’s tight control over its members and its strategies to evade law enforcement were also revealed.

Natural has nearly 2,000 members and maintains routes for introducing women to adult entertainment venues in nearly all major urban districts across Japan, from Hokkaido to Kyushu. With its solid organizational structure and occasional violent tendencies, it has set itself apart from other groups. In the past, horrific incidents of members being brutally lynched have come to light.

The police have categorized the group as an anonymous, fluid criminal organization—known as Tokuryu—and have stepped up efforts to collect information and carry out arrests. However, while other scout groups like “Access” had their leaders arrested (with the top member detained in November 2024 and the second-in-command in February of the current year), arrests within Natural mostly target field scouts. The details of the leadership structure and organizational operations remain largely unclear. A person well-versed in the scout industry explains:

“Given the number of members and the revenue generated, there’s no doubt that Natural is the most powerful scout organization. Typically, investigations into scout groups are handled by the Life Safety Division of the Metropolitan Police, but in Natural’s case, the Organized Crime Control Division’s Anti-Gang Unit leads the investigation. This shows just how heavily involved they are in ‘antisocial’ activities. In the past, they even reconciled with rival gangs, and now it is believed that some of their money flows to those gangs. The internal control is said to be even stricter than that of the yakuza, and they are obsessively thorough when it comes to countermeasures against investigations and information management.”

The job of a scout is to gather women by approaching them on the street or enticing them through social media, then sending them mainly to adult entertainment venues. Recently, they have also been involved in facilitating overseas labor, which involves prostitution, as well as mediating appearances in adult films.

Scouts receive a commission, known as a scout-back, from the venues they introduce women to. The commission is approximately 15% of the woman’s earnings, continuing as long as the woman works there. Skilled scouts can earn several million yen a month, with some even making over 50 million yen annually. However, if it’s prohibited to approach women in public places such as streets, or if introducing women to such establishments violates the Employment Security Act (unlawful job referrals), it becomes a target for legal action. In severe cases, women are coerced into working at these venues to pay off debts to hosts, prompting police nationwide to strengthen enforcement.

What’s in the Sophisticated App

Natural’s communication app is equipped with functions like chat, file sharing, and calls, and it is comparable to business communication tools such as Microsoft’s Teams, which is widely used in the corporate world. Of course, only members can access it, and they download it through a special method instructed by the headquarters.

What is surprising is the high level of secrecy. The app’s icon displayed on smartphones looks like any typical app. Even when the app is opened, it initially shows a screen resembling general web ads, making it impossible to view the contents. However, after entering a passcode through a specific procedure, the display completely changes.

At that point, an overwhelming number of contact boards and chat groups appear, allowing real-time access to the frequent exchanges between scouts on the ground across the country and the headquarters. These exchanges, though differing in content, resembled internal communications within a large corporation.

A former member of Natural who responded to an interview stated:

“Even if a member is arrested and the police seize their smartphone to open the app, they can’t immediately view the contents due to the system in place. We are strictly trained not to disclose passcodes, and if we talk during interrogation, we’re thoroughly punished with ‘retribution’ once we’re released from detention.”

There are even more surprising features.

“If a member cannot be reached or hasn’t logged in for a certain period, it’s suspected that they might have been caught by the police or have left the organization. The headquarters can remotely erase the app data on the device they were using,” the former member explained.

When checking the app’s functions, there was also a screen where attendance and salaries could be viewed.

“It’s used to track the work status of field scouts, allowing them to clock in and out via the app. There’s no actual office; instead, we’re called to streets or parks where there are no security cameras, and we’re handed our pay in cash. This app connects the entire organization and completes all tasks, but the field members don’t even know the real names of the executives, let alone where they are,” the interviewee continued.

According to sources, several members with strong IT skills developed the app, which reportedly cost over 10 million yen. When the police previously learned about the app, the organization changed the specifications and rebuilt it, showing how thorough they are. An investigative source shared:

“This is not just a simple violent organization; it’s troublesome. Like a foreign mafia or secret society, they go to extreme lengths to prevent information leaks, and it’s hard to reach the upper echelons. Unlike the typical scout organizations that have rowdy members, there are also individuals who were recruited while attending prestigious universities, and some of them have become executives. The fact that they’ve developed a high-functioning app within the organization shows that Natural is composed of many members who are knowledgeable in IT, digital fields, and law. We need to crack down on all of them, including those who act as the brains behind the operation.”

Our investigation also confirmed that many current students and graduates from top universities like the Tokyo Six Universities and MARCH were members of the organization.

 

[Part 2] Police treat them like viruses. The illegal scout group ‘Natural’ and its meticulously organized structure that rivals large corporations.

Nihonbashi Group.
A new type of reporting and information team consisting of people from the media, bureaucracy, politics, IT, etc. The Nihonbashi Group works with domestic and international organizations to produce mainly investigative reports and documentaries.

 

From the April 4/11, 2025 issue of “FRIDAY”