“They Targeted People with Disabilities Who Live with Their Parents and Have Money”: The Shocking Truth Behind the Shibuya Rip-Off Gang’s Cunning “Tactics”

Using an app designed for people who are sympathetic to people with disabilities…

On September 17, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Security Division re-arrested Musashi Izawa (25), a former bar owner, on suspicion of fraud and violating the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Ordinance on the Prevention of Price Gouging. He is suspected of misusing a dating app to lure men with disabilities to a bar in Shibuya, Tokyo, and forcing them to pay exorbitant bills for food, drinks, and other services.

“Suspect Izawa was arrested on April 1 of this year on suspicion of fraud for luring two men in their 20s to a bar on Dogenzaka in Shibuya Ward and swindling them out of a large sum of cash under the pretense of covering food and drink charges and cancellation fees; he has been re-arrested multiple times since then.

The charges in this latest arrest allege that in February of ’25, a female accomplice, along with Izawa, lured a visually impaired man in his 20s and a man with a physical disability—both of whom they had met through a dating app—to a bar and charged them exorbitant amounts for food and drinks.The victims were defrauded of 684,000 yen and 2,427,600 yen, respectively, for a combined total of approximately 3.11 million yen.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department believes that Suspect Izawa is the leader of a group that repeatedly carried out rip-off schemes using dating apps, with this bar serving as their base of operations, and estimates that the total losses from this series of incidents amount to approximately 85 million yen.

It appears that some group members have made statements to the effect that “we targeted people with disabilities because they live with their parents and have money.” Suspect Izawa denies the charges, stating, “I don’t remember how I was involved,” among other things.” (Social Affairs Reporter, National Newspaper)

A crime reporter says:

“The male office worker who fell victim was born with low vision and used a white cane in his daily life. Seeking to meet someone, he began using a dating app targeted at people with disabilities or those who are understanding of disabilities, and he had also noted his own disability in his profile.

In early February of ’25, the male office worker met a woman one year his junior who went by the name ‘Risa’ through this dating app. Risa designated Shibuya as the meeting place and invited him to the bar—which became the scene of the incident—saying, ‘I want to go to a place I’ve been curious about.’

A bar employee explained that it was an “all-you-can-drink plan for 5,000 yen per person,” but Risa suggested a game where he had to guess a number on a playing card; if he got it wrong, he’d have to drink as a penalty. He reportedly had so much fun that he ended up drinking a bit too much.And then… about two hours later, the staff member told him the total came to 542,000 yen. The reason for the high bill was that “he had drunk beverages not included in the all-you-can-drink plan.”

Even the rip-off was carried out by a Tokuryu-style criminal organization.

Naturally, the office worker didn’t have that much money on him, so he was escorted by a bar employee to a convenience store ATM. He withdrew 200,000 yen twice, then another 140,000 yen to pay the bill, and just as he thought he could finally go home, the bar employee came running after him.

“‘There was a mistake in the calculation. Please pay another 142,000 yen,’ he was told, and the office worker went back to the ATM. In the end, he paid a total of 684,000 yen. The next day, his colleagues pointed out that it might have been a rip-off, so he consulted the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. He says he hasn’t heard from Risa since then.”

Since around September 2024, there has been a spate of incidents in Shibuya where men have been ripped off at restaurants where they were taken by women they met on dating apps, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had been investigating. Suspect Izawa is believed to be the ringleader of the scam group.

The crime reporter mentioned earlier points out that this incident was an “organized crime.”

“ In the past, the typical operation for rip-off bars involved touts waiting near the establishment to lure in unsuspecting passersby. Recently, however, they’ve started searching for targets on social media and dating apps, dividing roles among members—such as those who lure victims in, work as staff, and handle collections. Members gather via social media, and the ringleaders don’t even need to meet the rank-and-file members face-to-face.

Suspect Izawa’s group also operated under this division of labor and reportedly communicated via the highly secure messaging app ‘Telegram.’ In some cases, members didn’t even know each other’s real names, and it appears they competed with one another within the group to generate sales.

The Metropolitan Police Department had identified Izawa’s group as an anonymous, fluid criminal group—a so-called “Tokuryu”—from a very early stage. Rather than saying “Tokuryu was behind the rip-offs,” it would be closer to the truth to consider that the rip-offs themselves have become a form of Tokuryu-style organized crime.”

A distinctive feature of this case is that the group appears to have even used a dating app for people with disabilities to scout for victims. They target the “vulnerable,” lure them into establishments, and when their cash runs out, they collect the money by any means necessary—even by forcing them to borrow from consumer finance companies. With Tokuryu’s involvement, traditional “rip-offs” are evolving into even more malicious crimes.

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