Inside the Manipulative Tactics Used to Exploit Minors Online

Bringing a junior high school girl to his home

On a day in late June, reporters visited the home of a 27-year-old man accused of taking a junior high school girl to his residence and sexually assaulting her. The apartment was a three-story, single-room building located in a quiet residential neighborhood about a five-minute walk from the nearest train station. Neighbors said they had little interaction with him.

Once again, a minor had become the victim of a crime that originated through social media.

“On June 3, 2026, officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Takaido Police Station rearrested Kodai Higuchi (27), an office worker from Suginami Ward, Tokyo, on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse and violations of the Child Pornography Prohibition Act. Higuchi is suspected of sexually assaulting a female student who was in her first year of junior high school on February 8 while knowing that she was under the age of 16, and of recording and storing the assault on his smartphone. He has reportedly remained silent during questioning,” a reporter from a national newspaper explained.

This was the second time Higuchi had been arrested.

The same reporter continued:

“Higuchi was first arrested in May on charges of non-consensual sexual intercourse involving the same girl and has already been indicted. He is said to have met the victim through Instagram in January of this year.

The crime came to light after the girl’s parents contacted the police. Following his arrest, investigators discovered videos of the victim on a computer seized from his home, leading to the second arrest. The Metropolitan Police Department believes there may be additional victims and is continuing to analyze the contents of the computer.”

Higuchi was transferred to the prosecutor’s office shortly after 8 a.m. on June 5. When he appeared at the Takaido Police Station transfer entrance, he seemed determined to avoid being photographed. He twisted his neck sharply to the right and boarded the transport vehicle without ever facing forward.

His bangs were so long that they completely concealed his eyes, making it impossible to see his expression.

In recent years, there has been a growing number of cases in which minors have become victims of crimes after making contact through social media.

Victims and perpetrators do not simply encounter one another by chance. Perpetrators actively search for the accounts of minors and use every possible method to establish contact with them.

Bonding over anime and manga conversations

A man who was arrested by the Saitama Prefectural Police in January 2026 on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse involving a 15-year-old junior high school girl (as he was then 47 years old) also searched for the social media accounts of minors and continuously sent them messages while concealing his age.

When questioned about his motives, he stated:

“I get along better with people who are about twenty years younger than me.”

Once he received a reply, he would listen to the girls’ concerns and strike up conversations about anime and manga. After exchanging messages for some time, he would suggest, “Let’s meet up sometime,” before inviting the girls to his home and committing the crimes.

He also instructed the victim to regularly delete their messages on social media.

The crime came to light after the victim told a teacher at her junior high school that she had been forced into sexual acts. The subsequent investigation revealed that the man had previously been arrested for violating youth protection ordinances.

After reaching a settlement with the victim, he received a sentence of three years’ imprisonment, suspended for five years.

There have also been cases in which victims fell prey to increasingly sophisticated methods and ultimately met tragic ends.

A man arrested by the Saitama Prefectural Police in June 2025 on suspicion of indecent assault and the filming of sexually explicit images had persuaded as many as 20 junior and senior high school girls to send him obscene photographs and videos.

After finding the social media accounts of teenage girls, he would send messages such as:

“This job is limited to girls of junior high school and high school age.”

and

“Compensation will be provided as a token of appreciation.”

By doing so, he created the impression that the activity was legitimate work. If a girl responded, he would send sample images along with instructions such as:

“Please take the photographs like this.”

He had previously been fined 500,000 yen in 2019 for a similar offense involving obscene images sent by minors. Investigators believe that, following that arrest, his methods became even more sophisticated.

One of the victims, a junior high school girl, apparently regretted sending the explicit images. She reportedly tried several times to talk to her mother about what had happened.

Before she could do so, however, the man was arrested, and her family learned of the situation through the police investigation.

Unable to bear the distress, the girl took her own life on the very day the police contacted her family.

The man was subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison.

Even as men who approach minors through social media to satisfy their own sexual desires continue to appear one after another, Kodai Higuchi, who has now been arrested and indicted, remains at the center of public attention.

The question now is what he will say when his trial begins.