Police probe attempt to blackmail thousands of Japanese teachers
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 17 March, 2015, 11:35am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 17 March, 2015, 11:35am
Julian Ryall in Tokyo
More than 2,500 teachers in Japan have received the extortion letters that threaten to expose them for supposedly abusing children. Photo: Reuters
Police in Japan have launched an investigation into extortion letters sent to at least 2,529 teachers at elementary and junior high schools across the country.
The neatly printed letters, shown by national broadcaster NHK, purport to be in retaliation for abuse of a child in the teacher’s care and damage to their reputations.
The letter demands that Y3 million (HK$192,024) be sent in cash in a envelope marked “business papers” or “documents” to an address in Bangkok.
An expert on crime in Japan said the nation’s crooks are having to be more inventive in their scams after authorities here launched a crackdown on traditional extortion schemes that targeted shops and small companies.
“This is a very clever scheme,” said Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter On The Police Beat In Japan.
“Teachers are relatively easy to target because their names are likely to appear in documents that are readily available to the public and they’re in a position of trust,” he said.
“The criminals will send out thousands of these letters and they only need a couple of teachers with something to hide to pay up and they’ve made a profit.
“They have worked out that most teachers will have something they want to keep quiet.
“There will be some teachers who have been late to turn up to work or were quick to use corporal punishment, as well as those who have had relationships with students, but never got found out.
“These are the ones who will suddenly fear they have everything to lose and could pay up.
“It’s clever because the criminals have worked out that most teachers will have something they want to keep quiet, probably from reading the news headlines.”
A number of teachers have been arrested in connection with serious incidents in recent years, ranging from planting cameras in students’ bathrooms to forcing pupils to drink diluted hydrochloric acid and corporal punishment so severe that it caused students to commit suicide.
Given that not all the teachers who have received the letters will have informed the authorities, the real scale of the illegal operation may be far more extensive.
Police have declined to comment on the investigation on the grounds that it is ongoing.
