Japan's new professional seducers
This woman leads a double life. Her boyfriend thinks she’s a secretary. In fact she is one of Japan’s new breed of professional seducers, hired by embittered spouses to entrap their straying partners. And she’ll stop at nothing to get the desired results.
By Lesley Downer
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article4619389.ece
Case 1: Mr A and Kyoko
3.30pm. Mr A is outside a bank in a busy part of Ikebukuro, a faintly seedy area of Tokyo, waiting for his date. He beams as she teeters across the road on high heels. Kyoko, 20, is half his age. She has a mane of black hair, sloe eyes, a fetching smile and a cute giggle. Her blouse is open to reveal her cleavage and she has on a short skirt and sheer black tights. Mr A is a bald 40-year-old salesman in a crumpled grey suit and glasses.
Mr A met Kyoko by chance in the street; the first time she asked him for directions, then they bumped into each other again, and since then they have been exchanging flirtatious texts.
They stop off at a cigarette machine, then go to a cheap basement restaurant for spaghetti. He has bought her moisturiser and cleanser. She giggles coyly: “Next time, why don’t you give me a ring?” At 4.30 they’re outside a pawnbroker’s, looking at rings. Their shoulders touch, then they reach for each other’s hands.
They head for north Ikebukuro, an area of love hotels with velvet-covered walls, mirrored ceilings and sexy videos that rent rooms for two-hour periods. At 4.45 they go into one. They take a picture of the two of them on her mobile. At 6.07 they leave. At the station Mr A gives Kyoko a furtive goodbye kiss. Next time, he says, he’ll take her somewhere nice – a hot-spring resort maybe, or Tokyo Disneyland. Then he goes back to the office and, later, home to his wife.
Mr A doesn’t know that a team of private investigators is recording his every move. The boss, the ebullient Mr Tomiya, lurks behind a lamppost on the other side of the road and takes photographs as Kyoko meets Mr A. Tomiya’s equipment includes a packet of cigarettes and a pen, both of which are actually cameras. Shimizu, a heavy-set man with a bullet head and cropped hair, carries a black bag. It contains a camera with which he films continuously through a tiny hole in the bag. A third man acts as a lookout. They follow the couple down the street, dodging the crowds and sprinting across red lights, keeping far enough behind so as not to arouse suspicion but close enough so that Shimizu can film.
Mr A, who has been married for 20 years and has a son of 19 at university, is prone to violence and beats his wife. She confided in a male friend, whom she then fell for, but when she suggested divorce to Mr A, he simply hit her. In desperation she turned to the internet, where she found Tomiya and his company, GNC.
Kyoko, of course, is not the girl’s real name. She did not meet Mr A by chance and does not work for a design company, as he thinks. She is an agent paid to seduce him. She regularly texts the team from her mobile and has a couple of GPS devices in case they lose her. Shimizu is her bodyguard and will move in if there are problems. And the whole operation is paid for by Mr A’s wife, who gets an amply illustrated report every time an encounter takes place. The aim is to have Mr A fall so completely for Kyoko that he wants to marry her and asks for a divorce. Failing that, his wife will have a sizable dossier with evidence of infidelity to confront him with.
In Japan, if you have the money you can sort out virtually any problem in your love life. If you want to get rid of an unwanted spouse, retrieve a straying one, get back with an ex or even get together with someone you’ve seen but don’t yet know, there are companies that will help you, using all the technology and expertise in human psychology at their disposal. Not so long ago Japanese wives put up with any amount of infidelity and abuse. A divorced woman was shunned and unlikely to marry again. But these days “people want to be happy”, says Tomiya. The result has been an enormous increase in divorces and in companies such as GNC.
Tomiya founded GNC 16 years ago. It has branches across Japan. His staff perform all sorts of services, from trailing a straying spouse or looking into the background of a marriage or job candidate, to dealing with stalkers, domestic violence, sexual harassment, even hackers. But his main job is sorting relationship problems. In the past year alone he has dealt with 2,000 cases.
Jobs such as separating Mr A from his wife take an average of two to four months. For this the client pays £2,500 a month, plus expenses.
The first step is investigation: finding out as much as possible about the target’s daily habits, likes and dislikes. The spouse reveals what sort of person the target is likely to be attracted to – in Mr A’s case, young girls. The second step is to engineer a succession of meetings between the agent and the target. The third step is seduction.
Tomiya has women on his books to fit all tastes, from unintimidating secretaries and housewives to full-blown sirens like Kyoko, “a top-class agent”. “But,” he adds, “the most important thing is not looks but skill at talking.”
Kyoko finished school three years ago. She had seen TV programmes about girls who worked as temptresses and thought that might be a job for her. She found GNC on the internet. In the past three years she has taken on 50 or 60 cases. She works on four or five at a time, which means she could be having sex with all of them.
“It’s fun. I like seeing the underside of life,” she says, “and the money’s very good. I meet different targets every day. I’m not so keen on the old ones and I sometimes get to like the young ones. I sleep with all of them.” As for Mr A, “He’s not so bad. He’s bald, that’s all.”
Kyoko’s work, Tomiya emphasises, is not prostitution, as no money is handed over. She earns a basic salary of £2,000-2,500 a month, plus bonuses when a case is successful, which they usually are. She can earn up to £5,000 a month, has her own apartment and a boyfriend who thinks she’s a secretary. She’s never been threatened by clients. In any case, “I know the bodyguard is nearby.” As to whether she feels sorry for her victims or guilty at deceiving them, “It’s my job. I keep my feelings separate.”
Once the case is over, the young woman quietly disappears from the target’s life. He never discovers that she was an agent. If he is persistent, she says she’s moving to a far-off city. They text for a while, then he forgets her. If that doesn’t work, Tomiya arranges for a man who sounds like a gangster to phone or pay him a visit and tell him to take his hands off his girl. That always does the trick. Or – more cruelly – her mobile, the lifeline of their relationship, is simply cut off.
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The full article gives a couple more examples. Case # 3 is an interesting approach:
Case 2: Mrs B and Takashi
9pm. In a very different part of Tokyo, Mrs B is waiting for her date. She works in the glitzy Ginza district, near the new Gucci building, where they’ve arranged to meet. She’s 29 and wears a blue short-sleeved jumper over a sparkly low-cut blouse and pretty skirt. Her husband is away on business. The marriage isn’t going well; in fact, he asked for a divorce, but she refused. Even so, she’s nervous to be seeing someone else....
Case 3: Miss X and Mr C
9.30pm. As the sun sets over Tokyo, another case is about to reach its climax on a bridge across a spaghetti of railway lines. Mr C, a tall 30-year-old in a baseball cap, is waiting with a man in a suit. Mr C always used to wear suits; but the girl who dumped him likes the sporty look, so he’s had a makeover. He has also lost weight.
The pair haven’t seen each other for a year, after having been together for three years. The girl wanted to get married, but Mr C was a little reluctant, which turned her parents against him. She broke off with him, moved house, changed mobile number and disappeared from his life. Now he desperately wants to get back with her.
The second man, an agent from ACYours, texts his colleagues, two women agents who joined the ex-girlfriend’s gym some months ago, at the beginning of the operation, and befriended her. They often go shopping together or out for drinks or dinner. Tonight they are having dinner. In a few minutes they will walk across this bridge to the station to get the train home.
After much consulting of mobiles, the two men start to walk. Coming towards them are three young women. Only one of them – a pretty girl with hair dyed brown, in a dress and leggings – is unaware that a fateful encounter is about to take place. Nobody knows what the result will be. Will she turn away and walk off?
They are about to pass when he approaches her. “Aren’t you…? Isn’t it…?” She stops, laughs, expresses amazement. The two chat for a while. The man in the suit strolls away, as does one of the women. Then the client and the target exchange mobile numbers. The first contact has been made.
Bringing separated people back together is altogether more complicated – and more expensive. It also takes longer. ACYours charges £7,500 for three months for breaking up, but £12,500 for bringing together. In some ways the procedure is the same, explains Mishima....
This woman leads a double life. Her boyfriend thinks she’s a secretary. In fact she is one of Japan’s new breed of professional seducers, hired by embittered spouses to entrap their straying partners. And she’ll stop at nothing to get the desired results.
By Lesley Downer
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article4619389.ece
Case 1: Mr A and Kyoko
3.30pm. Mr A is outside a bank in a busy part of Ikebukuro, a faintly seedy area of Tokyo, waiting for his date. He beams as she teeters across the road on high heels. Kyoko, 20, is half his age. She has a mane of black hair, sloe eyes, a fetching smile and a cute giggle. Her blouse is open to reveal her cleavage and she has on a short skirt and sheer black tights. Mr A is a bald 40-year-old salesman in a crumpled grey suit and glasses.
Mr A met Kyoko by chance in the street; the first time she asked him for directions, then they bumped into each other again, and since then they have been exchanging flirtatious texts.
They stop off at a cigarette machine, then go to a cheap basement restaurant for spaghetti. He has bought her moisturiser and cleanser. She giggles coyly: “Next time, why don’t you give me a ring?” At 4.30 they’re outside a pawnbroker’s, looking at rings. Their shoulders touch, then they reach for each other’s hands.
They head for north Ikebukuro, an area of love hotels with velvet-covered walls, mirrored ceilings and sexy videos that rent rooms for two-hour periods. At 4.45 they go into one. They take a picture of the two of them on her mobile. At 6.07 they leave. At the station Mr A gives Kyoko a furtive goodbye kiss. Next time, he says, he’ll take her somewhere nice – a hot-spring resort maybe, or Tokyo Disneyland. Then he goes back to the office and, later, home to his wife.
Mr A doesn’t know that a team of private investigators is recording his every move. The boss, the ebullient Mr Tomiya, lurks behind a lamppost on the other side of the road and takes photographs as Kyoko meets Mr A. Tomiya’s equipment includes a packet of cigarettes and a pen, both of which are actually cameras. Shimizu, a heavy-set man with a bullet head and cropped hair, carries a black bag. It contains a camera with which he films continuously through a tiny hole in the bag. A third man acts as a lookout. They follow the couple down the street, dodging the crowds and sprinting across red lights, keeping far enough behind so as not to arouse suspicion but close enough so that Shimizu can film.
Mr A, who has been married for 20 years and has a son of 19 at university, is prone to violence and beats his wife. She confided in a male friend, whom she then fell for, but when she suggested divorce to Mr A, he simply hit her. In desperation she turned to the internet, where she found Tomiya and his company, GNC.
Kyoko, of course, is not the girl’s real name. She did not meet Mr A by chance and does not work for a design company, as he thinks. She is an agent paid to seduce him. She regularly texts the team from her mobile and has a couple of GPS devices in case they lose her. Shimizu is her bodyguard and will move in if there are problems. And the whole operation is paid for by Mr A’s wife, who gets an amply illustrated report every time an encounter takes place. The aim is to have Mr A fall so completely for Kyoko that he wants to marry her and asks for a divorce. Failing that, his wife will have a sizable dossier with evidence of infidelity to confront him with.
In Japan, if you have the money you can sort out virtually any problem in your love life. If you want to get rid of an unwanted spouse, retrieve a straying one, get back with an ex or even get together with someone you’ve seen but don’t yet know, there are companies that will help you, using all the technology and expertise in human psychology at their disposal. Not so long ago Japanese wives put up with any amount of infidelity and abuse. A divorced woman was shunned and unlikely to marry again. But these days “people want to be happy”, says Tomiya. The result has been an enormous increase in divorces and in companies such as GNC.
Tomiya founded GNC 16 years ago. It has branches across Japan. His staff perform all sorts of services, from trailing a straying spouse or looking into the background of a marriage or job candidate, to dealing with stalkers, domestic violence, sexual harassment, even hackers. But his main job is sorting relationship problems. In the past year alone he has dealt with 2,000 cases.
Jobs such as separating Mr A from his wife take an average of two to four months. For this the client pays £2,500 a month, plus expenses.
The first step is investigation: finding out as much as possible about the target’s daily habits, likes and dislikes. The spouse reveals what sort of person the target is likely to be attracted to – in Mr A’s case, young girls. The second step is to engineer a succession of meetings between the agent and the target. The third step is seduction.
Tomiya has women on his books to fit all tastes, from unintimidating secretaries and housewives to full-blown sirens like Kyoko, “a top-class agent”. “But,” he adds, “the most important thing is not looks but skill at talking.”
Kyoko finished school three years ago. She had seen TV programmes about girls who worked as temptresses and thought that might be a job for her. She found GNC on the internet. In the past three years she has taken on 50 or 60 cases. She works on four or five at a time, which means she could be having sex with all of them.
“It’s fun. I like seeing the underside of life,” she says, “and the money’s very good. I meet different targets every day. I’m not so keen on the old ones and I sometimes get to like the young ones. I sleep with all of them.” As for Mr A, “He’s not so bad. He’s bald, that’s all.”
Kyoko’s work, Tomiya emphasises, is not prostitution, as no money is handed over. She earns a basic salary of £2,000-2,500 a month, plus bonuses when a case is successful, which they usually are. She can earn up to £5,000 a month, has her own apartment and a boyfriend who thinks she’s a secretary. She’s never been threatened by clients. In any case, “I know the bodyguard is nearby.” As to whether she feels sorry for her victims or guilty at deceiving them, “It’s my job. I keep my feelings separate.”
Once the case is over, the young woman quietly disappears from the target’s life. He never discovers that she was an agent. If he is persistent, she says she’s moving to a far-off city. They text for a while, then he forgets her. If that doesn’t work, Tomiya arranges for a man who sounds like a gangster to phone or pay him a visit and tell him to take his hands off his girl. That always does the trick. Or – more cruelly – her mobile, the lifeline of their relationship, is simply cut off.
--------------------------------
The full article gives a couple more examples. Case # 3 is an interesting approach:
Case 2: Mrs B and Takashi
9pm. In a very different part of Tokyo, Mrs B is waiting for her date. She works in the glitzy Ginza district, near the new Gucci building, where they’ve arranged to meet. She’s 29 and wears a blue short-sleeved jumper over a sparkly low-cut blouse and pretty skirt. Her husband is away on business. The marriage isn’t going well; in fact, he asked for a divorce, but she refused. Even so, she’s nervous to be seeing someone else....
Case 3: Miss X and Mr C
9.30pm. As the sun sets over Tokyo, another case is about to reach its climax on a bridge across a spaghetti of railway lines. Mr C, a tall 30-year-old in a baseball cap, is waiting with a man in a suit. Mr C always used to wear suits; but the girl who dumped him likes the sporty look, so he’s had a makeover. He has also lost weight.
The pair haven’t seen each other for a year, after having been together for three years. The girl wanted to get married, but Mr C was a little reluctant, which turned her parents against him. She broke off with him, moved house, changed mobile number and disappeared from his life. Now he desperately wants to get back with her.
The second man, an agent from ACYours, texts his colleagues, two women agents who joined the ex-girlfriend’s gym some months ago, at the beginning of the operation, and befriended her. They often go shopping together or out for drinks or dinner. Tonight they are having dinner. In a few minutes they will walk across this bridge to the station to get the train home.
After much consulting of mobiles, the two men start to walk. Coming towards them are three young women. Only one of them – a pretty girl with hair dyed brown, in a dress and leggings – is unaware that a fateful encounter is about to take place. Nobody knows what the result will be. Will she turn away and walk off?
They are about to pass when he approaches her. “Aren’t you…? Isn’t it…?” She stops, laughs, expresses amazement. The two chat for a while. The man in the suit strolls away, as does one of the women. Then the client and the target exchange mobile numbers. The first contact has been made.
Bringing separated people back together is altogether more complicated – and more expensive. It also takes longer. ACYours charges £7,500 for three months for breaking up, but £12,500 for bringing together. In some ways the procedure is the same, explains Mishima....
