A 42-year-old company president who jumped bail after being indicted for paying a minor for indecent acts was recaptured after a Tokyo tax official recognized him during a shopping trip, it was learned Sunday.
According to sources familiar with the incident, the suspect, Akihiko Nakayama, was indicted and standing trial for engaging in obscene acts with minors in March and May last year, but went missing after being released on bail.
Nakayama's firm was being investigated by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, and he had also been running away from that probe.
In February, a tax official who was a member of the team handling the investigation into Nakayama's firm saw a man who resembled him while he was shopping in an electronics store in Tokyo's Yurakucho district, the sources said. The man was browsing the cellular phone section of the store with a girl who looked like a high school student, they added.
The official had seen a photograph of Nakayama in the course of the tax probe and immediately thought it was him.
He contacted some colleagues for assistance, and they confronted Nakayama, who then tried to flee. They caught him and turned him in to authorities, according to the sources, who added that at the time, Nakayama was carrying a bag that contained 50 million yen in cash.