Subway Creep’s Desperate Plea to Cops Sets Off Wild Vigilante Saga

TOKYO, Japan—Recently, three suspects were arrested in Tokyo’s Toshima ward for running an extortion ring—and targeting some unusual victims according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. (TMPD). The arrests were announced on August 1st.

The cops might have expected the Japanese public to herald the arrests as a victory for law and order, but this time around the alleged criminals are being hailed as heroes. That’s because in this case, the suspects are accused of targeting men they suspect of taking non-consensual photos of women around Ikebukuro Station in northern Tokyo.

Tousatsu is the Japanese word for non-consensual photography—literally, “stolen photography.” In less veiled terms, it’s the crime of taking photos or videos of women and girls, usually under their skirts or down their blouses. Even before camera-phones (there was a time)—it was a thing for Japan’s peeping Taros, referred to more formally as tousatsuhan.

Read more at The Daily Beast.