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In Reply to: Re: First-person Account of Family in Tokyo, ca. 2002 posted by reader on February 02, 2007 at 15:48:26:
Hey there, I wrote that post on my blog. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Let me clarify a few things for you:
1. Touching a woman in Japan is not assault unless the woman can prove the touching was unwelcome. And in order to do that you need no less than 2 male witnesses. The party planners I brought with me left when the music started, Princeton Boy and I stuck around a bit longer to meet that hot lead singer...until I realized that the door was locked. These people aren't stupid- they knew I didn't have a case and I think if my other friends had stuck around this wouldn't have happened and they might not have been as aggressive. Fom what I've been able to assess, people are usually lured to the compound, 50km outside of the nearest town, and leaving is difficult. "The Family" says you're free to leave but won't give you a ride. 50km is a long way to walk in the Japanese countryside with no major highways or directions.
2. The whole experience was much more concerted and much freakier than I described on the blog post. These guys are EVERYWHERE- I encountered glasses man no less than 10 times between that incident and my relocation to Hong Kong in Dec 2003. They told people that I know and work with that I was lonely, desperate for attention, delusional, etc. And because they present themselves as Christian Missionaries devoted to good works rather than cult members, they hold a bit of sway.
3. Later that year 2 secretaries at Bulge Bracket financial firms disappeared. They didn't quit their jobs, they didn't say good bye to their families- they just left. The banks launched independent investigations into the disappearances, friends said that the girls went to a barbeque on a Christian compound outside the city although they did not know the exact location. They identified the hot lead singer as the missing girls' 'boyfriend'. Under Japanese law, the girls could not (or did not) prove that they didn't want to be there, and they were adults at the time, so no charges were filed. No one ever saw the girls again, as far as I know. And yes, I've asked.
4. Though beer was served, no one was drunk. These people were lucid and knew exactly what they were doing.
Any more questions feel free to post them as comments on my blog page and I am more than happy to answer them. Princeton Boy wants to be left alone though, he was harassed a bit by these people as well. I can tell you though I asked him to read my blog and he verified every word.
