Will “Howl’s Arrest” for Lewd Behavior Against a Young Girl Change “Toyoko”?

Howl’s arrest? WOW (*”Maa” means for real)”.

On June 22, when the news broke that Masatomo Ogawa, 32, was arrested for indecent behavior with a 16-year-old girl, SNS was flooded with posts like this.

The suspect, Ogawa, claimed to be “Howl Kalashnikov,” head of the general meeting of the volunteer group “Kabukicho Manjikai,” and had been supplying “Toyoko Kids” with food and clothing. The arrest for lewd behavior of a man whose purpose was to “protect children” has attracted a lot of attention, but what was Howl’s reputation among the “Toyoko Kids” in reality?

It is said that Howl began his activities in Kabukicho last summer, around the time the “To-Yoko Kids” began to be featured in the media. He talked, drank, and sometimes consulted with the boys and girls. Ayumu (pseudonym, 19), an early member of the “Toyoko” group, recalls, “Howl would put his hands on girls.

There have always been rumors that Howl has been messing around with girls,” recalled Ayumu, 19, an early member of “Toyoko. I was grateful to him for doing the soup kitchen and such, but I’m sure he had a desire to be friends with the underage girls. Some of the kids would have slipped up on Howl.”

Initially, “Tor Yoko” was a place for boys and girls to hang out on their own. However, the arrival of “adults” like Howl gradually changed things.

I got the impression that the early members of Tohyoko were disliked by Howl and the other members of Manjikai. Howl would say things like, ‘He’s banned because he has a bad drinking habit,’ or ‘He’s reformed because he apologized. There were many members who wondered why they had to be subjected to rules set by an old man they didn’t understand, and some of them actually stopped showing up at Tor Yoko because they were fed up with the situation. Since “adults” like Howl started trying to rule, “Tou-Yoko” has gone crazy.

As “Tou-Yoko” became more and more popular, the number of “adults” who came and went increased. Mirai (pseudonym, 17), who used to gather at “Toyoko” until recently, says, “The security now is really bad.

The security is really bad now. Before, most of them were high school students and in their early 20s, but now the largest group is elementary school students and in their early teens. There are a lot of adults who want to do something with these kids, and it’s really a lawless zone.

The label of “poor minors who don’t have a place to stay” is now being used as a bargaining chip by an increasing number of children who think nothing of drinking, smoking, or committing minor crimes. Mirai continues.

All the “adults” who come to “Toyoko” say they want to protect children. But while it’s fun to play with them in a normal way, when you get deeper into a relationship with them, you often find out that they are dangerous people. This time, Howl happened to be arrested, but I think there are a lot of people who are doing lewd acts and prostitution who haven’t been caught yet.

There is already a dizzying amount of activity on social networking sites, including the release of statements by people who were members of the same volunteer organization as Howl, countless tip-offs by boys and girls who had been in and out of Tor Yoko, and the birth of new cleanup group accounts. There has been a dizzying amount of activity. This alone is a clear indication that the situation has become more complicated as “adults” have entered the picture.

Howl shouted at the time of his arrest, “I’ll cook you dinner when I get home! It is the presence of “adults” like them that has made “Toyoko” a lawless zone.

Sasaki Chihuahua
Born in Tokyo in 2000.
After attending an integrated school in Tokyo from elementary school to high school, he went on to Keio University.
He has been going to Kabukicho since he was 15 years old and has a wide range of personal connections.
At university, he is studying the sociology of downtown areas including Kabukicho.

His book, ” Pien” to shakai” (“The Disease of ‘Pien’: Consumption and Approval of the SNS Generation”), is now on sale.

From the July 15, 2022 issue of FRIDAY