University student arrested after trying to blackmail two 11-year-old girls in Tokyo

Saturday 05th September, 06:45 AM JST

TOKYO —

A 20-year-old man was arrested for attempted extortion earlier this week after he allegedly tried to make two elementary school girls pay him 50,000 yen each, police said Friday.

Police said Ryunosuke Arima, a second-year student at Bunkyo University, approached the two 11-year-old girls on Aug 26 outside a Taito Ward bookstore, after he put a 1,000 yen bill on top of some books in the store. One of the girls had picked the bill up and told Arima that they were going to hand it in at a police station. Arima told them the money was his, and that if they didn’t want to get in trouble with the police, they should pay him 50,000 yen each.

Arima then tried to persuade the girls to give him some money over the next hour, but fled without success after the girls started crying. He was arrested on Sept 2, based on descriptions of his appearance. He has admitted to the allegations, saying he wanted to pull a prank on some girls.

Police are investigating if Arima was involved in two other incidents in the bookstore last month, in which two young girls were groped.

mindovermatter at 09:59 AM JST - 5th September

I think anybody in the states, except maybe a three year old, would have said, "go ahead call the cops."

You certainly can't blame the girls here, but add this college punk into the equation, and it's just more proof of a country in total lack of common-sense...

From 105 lbs socking wet geeks, who choose to walk right behind a group of drunken construct workers at 3am in the morning, to people challenging other people with baseball bats to hit them.... (Yes... these did happen... one died and the other will probably have permanent brain damage)

I'm not even sure if this would be considered a crime in most "Civilized" western countries... Probably not blackmail, because there are certain statues which must be met, probably harassment or something along the lines as a menace.