<figure id="attachment_479839" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-479839" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="98cbe66b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/09/b97f7682baf96059d49e2ed2dae23ab5.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-479839" class="wp-caption-text">There’s no end to incidents where minors get caught up in crimes on social media. It seems we can’t let our guard down just because we can track their location via their smartphones… (Image is for illustrative purposes only)</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Pretending to be “21 years old”…</h3>
 “What are you doing today?” “Visiting a high school.”
 “Did you have fun?” “Yeah.”
 If this were a conversation between middle school students, it might seem like an ordinary, everyday exchange. But wouldn’t it seem strange if this were an exchange between a 15-year-old girl and a 35-year-old man she’d only met online—someone she’d never actually met in person?
 Defendant Takatoshi Nango (35) was charged with indecent abduction and non-consensual sexual intercourse involving a middle school girl, Student A (15 at the time).
 On August 7, ’26, Presiding Judge Kenichi Emi of the Saitama District Court sentenced him to “three years in prison (prosecutors had sought six years),” but it has been revealed that he filed an appeal by the 21st, the deadline for doing so.
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 Nango was arrested in May of this year.
 “On May 28, ’26, the Kawaguchi Police Station of the Saitama Prefectural Police arrested defendant Takatoshi Nango, a delivery worker from Tokyo, on suspicion of kidnapping for lewd purposes and non-consensual sexual intercourse, among other charges. He is suspected of luring Ms. A—whom he had met on social media—to his home around 8:00 p.m. in mid-January with the intent of committing lewd acts and then having sexual intercourse with her.
 On the same day, Ms. A’s mother filed a missing person report at a police box, stating, ‘My daughter went out with a friend, and I haven’t been able to contact her since.’Around 11:00 a.m. the following day, police officers conducting a search found Ms. A in Tokyo. Immediately after his arrest, Nango reportedly stated, “I will not speak until I have met with my lawyer.” (Reporter, Social Affairs Section, national newspaper)
 Defendant Nango, who entered the courtroom wearing a black T-shirt and black shorts, was slender and about 170 cm tall. He had long brown hair with black roots and well-defined, handsome features.
 According to the indictment and opening statement read by the prosecutor, the two met via a chat app in December 2025. Defendant Nango had falsely claimed to be “21 years old.”
 Defendant Nango had just been fined in June of that year for violating the Child Pornography Prohibition Act.He allegedly brought a 17-year-old girl to his home, had sexual intercourse with her, and filmed the act. Despite having been arrested and detained, he began contacting an even younger girl approximately half a year after serving his sentence. The exchange cited at the beginning took place between defendant Nango and Ms. A.
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 In mid-January of this year, when the incident occurred, Ms. A was out with friends in Tokyo. After parting ways with her friends, Ms. A—who still wanted to go out—posted on social media , “Anyone up for hanging out?” It was Defendant Nango who messaged her, asking, “Can you come to Ikebukuro?” The two then met up in Ikebukuro. It was the first time they had ever met in person.
 When Defendant Nango asked , “Want to have a drink?” Ms. A replied , “I’m underage, so I can’t,” to which he reportedly suggested , “It’s a little cold out—why don’t we go to my place? ”
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" “I felt reluctant to go to the home of a man I’d just met.”"></div>
<h3>&#8220;My parents can see where I am through my location data.&#8221;</h3>
 In Ms. A’s written statement, which the prosecutor read aloud, her feelings at that time were described as follows:
 “I was reluctant to go to the home of a man I had met for the first time that day. However, since my smartphone had location tracking enabled, I thought my parents would be able to see where I was, and I figured it would be okay as long as I returned home that same day, so I said something like, ‘Okay, I understand.’”
 It appears that the defendant, Nango, was also concerned about the smartphone’s location tracking. According to Ms. A’s written statement, there was an exchange in which he asked, “Doesn’t it have location tracking or something?” and she replied, “Yes, it does—I’m 15, after all.” However, in court, the defendant Nango claimed , “I don’t remember [that such a conversation took place].”
 Later, at the defendant Nango’s home, A was told to “come to the bed.” She testified that she could not refuse because she thought, “I’m at a man’s house, and if I don’t do what he says, I don’t know what he might do to me.”
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 Around the same time, A’s mother, worried after losing contact with her following a final message stating , “I’m going to the house of someone I met online,” filed a missing person report at a police box. Although police officers used location data to reach the vicinity of Defendant Nango’s residence, they were unable to locate A because it was a large 12-story apartment building.
 Despite reaching the entrance of the apartment building, they were unable to prevent the incident from occurring. Ms. A’s hope that “they’d know where I was because my smartphone has location tracking” was shattered. Ms. A was rescued around 11:00 a.m. the following day.This was because the location of the karaoke booth where she had been alone—thinking, “If I go home like this, I’ll definitely get in trouble”— was pinpointed using her location data.
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 In the statement read aloud by the prosecutor, Ms. A’s mother expressed intense anger toward the defendant, Nango.
 “My daughter is still a 15-year-old girl. She is emotionally immature and cannot make sound judgments. I absolutely cannot forgive the fact that a grown man kidnapped my daughter, took her to his home, and had sexual intercourse with her. When I think about how my daughter was toyed with, I still feel intense anger welling up toward the perpetrator.”
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" I did think, “She’s so young.”"></div>
<h3>Reason for Having Sexual Intercourse While Knowing She Was a Minor</h3>
 During cross-examination, Defendant Nango stated that he remembers thinking “she’s young” when he first met Ms. A. However, when asked “How did you persuade her to have sex?” he replied, “It was more than half a year ago, so I don’t remember, but I think it was just as Ms. A said.”
 However, when asked why he had brought her home despite thinking she was young at the time of the incident, he replied as follows:
 “I was thinking it would be nice to have a good time drinking at home. I also had the feeling that it would be nice to do something a little naughty. I knew it would be trouble to be with someone under 16, but I didn’t really realize it would lead to police involvement; my desire to have fun in the moment overpowered that concern.”
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 Defendant Nango did not use a condom during sexual intercourse. Regarding the reason for this, he reflected as follows:
 “If she asked me to ‘put it on,’ I would, but if she didn’t specifically say so, I wouldn’t. I’d never gotten anyone pregnant before when having sex without protection, and when I checked myself with a home test kit, I found I had almost no sperm, so I’d come to feel like I didn’t really need to use one.”
 However, he later changed his mind, realizing, “There were probably plenty of factors that made Ms. A anxious, such as the risk of pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.”
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 When Judge Emi asked defendant Nango—who had stated that his reason for committing the crime was “a generally low sense of morality or awareness regarding the law”—“Why did you have sexual intercourse with someone under 16 even though you knew you’d get arrested?” Nango replied, “May I take a moment to think about that?” After remaining silent for a while, he began to speak, choking back tears:
 “Over the past few years, since I quit my job and broke up with the girlfriend I was living with at the time, I’ve lost all my acquaintances, and just drifting through life has become my daily routine. Looking back on myself, I realize there was a part of me that felt, ‘It doesn’t matter what happens to my life,’ and I think that’s what came out.”
 He then promised that by “attending counseling to learn how to control my emotions” and “rebuilding new relationships as a working adult to change my environment,” he would “lead a life where I don’t use chat apps from now on.”
 In court, the prosecutor asked defendant Nango—who repeatedly said he “felt lonely” —the following:
 “Just because you were lonely doesn’t mean you had to have sexual intercourse with a girl under 16, does it? You’ve truly reflected on this and learned your lesson, haven’t you?”
 In response to those words, Defendant Nango replied, “That’s right, yes.”
 Having appealed the three-year prison sentence, what arguments will he present in the High Court?

 Ryo Nakahira

 A 15-year-old girl was invited to the home of a 35-year-old man she had just met through a chat app. Although she hesitated, she accepted the invitation, thinking, “My parents know where I am because of my phone’s location tracking,” but…

&#8220;Even though the police had arrived right outside the scene&#8230;&#8221; A case of non-consensual sex with a minor that could not be prevented&#8230; The verdict handed down to the male defendant

“Even though the police had arrived right outside the scene…” A case of non-consensual sex with a minor that could not be prevented… The verdict handed down to the male defendant

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