Tokyo Metropolitan Police Arrest Three Bar Employees Who Used ‘Dating App’ to Lure Man with Disabilities to Pay 1.1 Million Yen

By Barrier Free Japan, extract from NHK

May 15 2025

TOKYO – Three employees were arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police for luring a man they met through a matching app to a restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo, and forcing him to pay 1.1 million yen in cash and other charges in a scam.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police are currently investigating the group’s activities and the full extent of their illegal operations.

The people arrested are three employees of a bar in Shibuya, Tokyo: Souta Sako (22), Kotaro Shibata (21), and Rina Sugawara (24).

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, in January of this year, they allegedly lured a man in his 20s—whom they had met through a matching app—into their restaurant, and made him pay 1.1 million yen in cash under the pretense of charges and compensation fees, as well as purchase items like a necklace worth around 750,000 yen using a credit card. They are suspected of violating Tokyo’s anti-gouging ordinance.

Sugawara is said to have concealed that she was an employee and used a method in which she would say, “There’s a place I want to go,” in order to lure the man. So far, damages are believed to total about 80 million yen across 54 male victims.

Some cases involved the misuse of a dating app designed for people with disabilities. Victims—including individuals with mobility impairments—were lured to the establishment and charged exorbitant fees. When they were unable to pay, they were reportedly detained overnight at a sauna facility and then coerced into borrowing money from consumer lenders the following day.

Authorities have not yet disclosed whether the three suspects have admitted to the charges.