Girl, 12, forced into sex work in Tokyo, owner who made her ‘practise’ on him jailed 5 years
A Tokyo massage parlour owner has been jailed for five years for forcing a 12-year-old Thai girl to provide sexual services after she was brought to Japan by her own mother.
Masayuki Hosono, 52, was also fined 1 million yen (S$8,200) by the Tokyo District Court on Sept 15 after being found guilty of violating Japan’s Child Welfare Law, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
Prosecutors had sought a six-year jail term and a 2-million-yen fine.
According to the ruling, Hosono conspired with a Thai female manager to make the girl perform sexual acts on multiple male customers in June 2025 without verifying her age.
In August that year, Hosono also made the girl perform sexual acts on him.
Judge Hiroshi Ikegami said the psychological harm suffered by the girl was “beyond imagination”, adding that Hosono bore heavy responsibility for employing her without properly checking her age or residency status.
Mother told girl to say she was 20
The girl had travelled to Japan with her 30-year-old mother in June 2025 on a tourist visa.
The Japan Times reported that her mother brought her to the massage parlour before leaving Japan shortly afterwards, leaving the girl behind.
The mother had instructed her daughter to claim she was 20 years old and also lied to Hosono about the girl’s age, according to The Asahi Shimbun.
Hosono denied knowingly employing a minor, arguing that the parlour’s Thai manager, Punsiripanya Phakhaphon, was responsible for recruitment and checking workers’ identification documents.
He also claimed that the girl appeared mature for her age and “did not look like a minor at all”.
But the court rejected his argument, finding that Hosono had failed to take sufficient steps to verify her age, such as checking her passport.
The court also cited Line messages showing that he had been involved in the recruitment process.
Girl reportedly served about 60 customers
The case came to light after the girl escaped from the parlour and sought help from the Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau in September 2025.
The Japan Times reported that she had been forced to provide sexual services to around 60 customers while working at the parlour and, unable to speak Japanese, had slept near its kitchen.
She was later taken into protective custody and returned to Thailand in December 2025.
Punsiripanya, 39, who had worked as a manager at the parlour, is also on trial over the case.
According to The Japan Times, she had allegedly recruited between 30 and 40 Thai women to work at the parlour, although she has denied knowing the girl’s age and denied acting as a human-trafficking broker.
Mother jailed 7½ years in Thailand
The girl’s mother was later detained in Taiwan and returned to Thailand.
The woman, only identified as Laksana, admitted to the charges.
In June 2026, a Bangkok court sentenced her to seven years and six months in prison for trafficking her daughter into the sex trade.
Thai police said the mother had agreed with the massage parlour’s former operator to have her daughter work there.
Judge Ikegami said that while the mother deserved the strongest condemnation for pressuring her daughter into sex work, Hosono had also caused the girl immense emotional distress by forcing her to serve customers in a foreign country and making her practise sexual acts on him, according to South China Morning Post.
Hosono had pleaded not guilty.
*This article was produced with AI assistance.
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