| The story below is originally published on Mainichi Daily News by Mainichi Shinbun (http://mdn.mainichi.jp). |
| They admitted inventing its kinky features, or rather deliberately mistranslating them from the original gossip magazine. |
| In fact, this is far from the general Japanese' behavior or sense of worth. |
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Kansai conman had mistresses eating out of his hand while he ate out of their wallets 2008,02,29
Shukan Post 3/7 By Ryann Connell
A Kansai charlatan's arrest for ripping off a group of Osaka bar hostesses has revealed plenty about the "butterflies of the night," like the rate for becoming a lover and how easy they are to con despite their reputation for being able to wrap men around their fingers, according to Shukan Post (3/7).
Koji Kurata lured hostesses into his confidence by promising to pay them 1 million yen in cash a month if they made out a contract to become his mistress.
But before they ever signed on the dotted line, the flamboyant hustler -- whom Osaka's trendsetters called the "Nara Chairman" -- would present them with a "surefire money-winner that'll quadruple investments."
And cops say that after the women handed him considerable sums, the Nara Chairman would skedaddle off into the night, taking their investments with him.
Police say the scam netted Kurata about 20 million yen from at least eight hostesses.
"The Nara Chairman was really rich and flashed the cash around. He said if I gave him a deposit, he'd quadruple it for me, so I handed over all my savings," a 29-year-old bar hostess tells Shukan Post, adding she gave Kurata about 850,000 yen.
A mama-san from a club in the Kita Shinchi entertainment district said that Kurata's attempts to woo hostesses were hard to ignore because he was promising three times the market rates to anybody willing to become his mistress.
"A standard contract for a mistress is payment of 300,000 yen a month for meeting about once a week," the mama-san says.
With Kurata's reputation for big spending, hostesses apparently had little trouble believing his promises.
And he certainly seemed like a wealthy man on the surface, perennially decked out in a Burberry overcoat and 300,000-yen suits.
But the reality was that though Kurata was well-known in Kita Shinchi because of the restaurant he once ran there, he was out of work and effectively penniless.
"He always looked good and he really spent well, never failing to order a bottle of Dom Perignon. I'd heard all the stories about the Nara Chairman and fell for them hook, line and sinker," hostess Rinko says.
"Looking back now, he must have been using money he'd cheated someone else out of to pay all his bar bills."
Kurata apparently learned the mistress ploy from his wife, herself a former hostess who advised him on how to deal with the women.
"Every 'woman of the night,'" Shukan Post quotes the Nara Chairman telling the police, "dreams of becoming somebody's paid mistress." (By Ryann Connell)
