The former representative of a volunteer group that worked in the capital's Kabukicho entertainment district has been arrested for committing indecent acts against a 17-year-old girl, Tokyo police said Thursday.
“There is a possibility it is not true,” Masayuki Makino, 43, said.
Makino, who resides in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, was a representative for volunteer group Owlxyz.
The girl was apparently a frequent visitor of an area in Kabukicho dubbed Toyoko — an abbreviation meaning “next to the Shinjuku Toho Building” — where marginalized young people gather.
Owlxyz began helping out with clean-up duties around the Toyoko area in the summer of 2022. It also ran a kodomo shokudō, or a “children’s cafeteria.”
The group apparently stopped its activities around December 2023.
Makino is suspected of committing indecent acts against the girl, who is believed to live in the Kanto area, at a hotel in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, on Oct. 15, 2023.
Police believe Makino first came across the girl in early July 2022 after she had run away from home and come to the Toyoko area.
They exchanged social media information around March 2023, and the girl began engaging in volunteer work with the group.
Makino reportedly began to regularly meet the girl, taking her out to dinner and giving her money to cover transportation costs.
In around October 2023, the girl said she didn’t want to see him anymore. However, Makino started showing up unannounced at her place of part-time employment, among other acts.
In December 2024, police received a third-party report about the alleged indecent acts committed by Makino, which brought the case to light.
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