“頂き女子” was arrested on suspicion of fraud. Do you think women involved in papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan) could also be arrested on fraud charges?

Thank you for your question. I’ll answer as Maezawa as well. I’m not a legal expert, so I can’t say for certain whether this is correct, but as for whether receiving money as part of papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan) constitutes fraud: 【Key points in determining whether fraud has been committed】 For fraud to be established, the following are required: 1. The person makes a false statement to the other party or otherwise deceives them (deception); 2. As a result, the other party is misled (mistake); 3. The other party gives them money or something else of value (transfer); 4. The other party suffers financial loss. In the case of papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan), the arrangement would generally be something like: A) “I’d like an allowance.” B) “If you’ll go on a date with me, I’ll give you an allowance of ¥〇〇,000.” Since there is normally no lie involved, I don’t think it would constitute fraud. However, when someone says, “I’d like an allowance,” the man may ask things like, “Why do you need it?” or “Why are you doing this?” Sometimes, she may even volunteer a reason before being asked. Suppose, for example, that she says, “I’m struggling financially,” even though she isn’t actually having money problems. That statement is so abstract, though, that it would probably be more difficult to prove that “struggling financially” was a lie. Even if a woman had ¥10 million in savings, if she says she’s doing papa-katsu because she genuinely feels she’s struggling, there may be circumstances in which it could still be considered true that she is having financial difficulties. Even if she had ¥100 million, she could say that it still wouldn’t be enough to live on without working for the rest of her life, and that she is therefore struggling financially. In that case, it might be difficult to definitively call it a lie. Even if a woman lies when making the statement, proving that it was a lie seems difficult. If so, it may ultimately come down to whether the woman herself goes to the police, admits that she lied, and says she committed fraud. In reality, though, I don’t think that is likely to happen. Let’s consider a different example: suppose she lies and asks, “Could you give me ¥1 million for my study-abroad expenses?” In this case, it is clear that: 3. The other party gave the questioner ¥1 million; and 4. The other party suffered a loss of the same amount. So the issue would be whether point 1—making a false statement—applies. The question is whether she can be said to have lied to the other party. Generally, in cases involving fraud, the “lie” at issue is considered to be a false statement about an important matter that formed the basis of the other party’s decision to hand over the money. In other words, it only qualifies if she lied about something that was decisive in the other party’s decision to pay. In a papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan) context, an example would be accepting money in advance while having absolutely no intention of actually going on the date, falsely claiming that she would, and then not showing up at the meeting place and disappearing. In such a case, the man paid the money believing that he would be able to go on a date if he paid. If he had known from the outset that she had no intention of meeting him, he would not have paid. Therefore, it could be considered a lie about something decisive to his decision to pay. Now, suppose a man tells a woman who says she is “struggling financially,” “I’ll help if there’s anything I can do.” In response, she tells him that she needs money because she cannot afford to study abroad, and he gives her money. If that is what happened, then the woman was genuinely having financial difficulties, told him about them, and simply received financial assistance from him. In that case, she cannot be said to have falsely claimed that she was struggling because she lacked money for studying abroad when making the statement that was decisive in his decision to give her money. Therefore, my conclusion is that fraud would not be established. That said, depending on the content of the lie, it could be determined that she falsely stated something decisive to the other party’s decision to pay. So whether it constitutes fraud would depend on what exactly was said. Generally speaking, however, I don’t think there is much chance of a papa-katsu girl being arrested on suspicion of fraud. Phew… that was long… The questioner only wrote one line, so why did my answer somehow turn into an essay?

Women involved in papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan) can of course be arrested if they commit fraud. And it’s not just women doing papa-katsu—whether they’re job-hunting, preparing for the end of life, or anything else, anyone can potentially be arrested, regardless of their circumstances. “Potentially” sounds so positive that repeating it starts to feel kind of strange. I almost found myself saying, “You have potential too, so keep trying!” I did say it, but this is definitely not the kind of thing I mean（笑） Good girls, absolutely do not try to imitate this. Taro

Since it was reported that she lied by saying things like, “I borrowed money from an acquaintance to start an apparel company. If I don’t repay the debt, I’ll have to sell my body at a brothel,” and then swindled approximately ¥27 million in cash from a man this past May, for example, if your parents are paying your tuition but you lie and say, “I can’t afford my tuition,” to get money from someone, that would presumably be fraud.

If you do something that could be considered fraud, you may be arrested if the victim reports it. Can’t you think of that for yourself?