Three male high school students have been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a man in his 30s in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, and extorting cash from him, police said. The boys are believed to have carried out repeated extortion and other offenses as a group.
The three, one of them 16, are suspected of accosting the man, an office worker in his 30s, on a street in Dogenzaka and demanding cash with words to the effect of "we're from Tokuryukai" and "how much do you have on you." They took a wallet containing about 3,000 yen, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
The boys suddenly surrounded the man on the street, demanded money and punched him in the face, the police said. Multiple other victims have been confirmed in the surrounding area, where they are believed to have used the same method repeatedly.
In questioning, they admitted to the allegations, saying there was no mistake the three of them did it together. "Tokuryukai" — a name that echoes the Japanese word for anonymous, tokumei — is not a single organization but a label used by loosely connected groups that recruit through social media and carry out crimes without members knowing one another's names.