The mother of a 12-year-old Thai girl forced into sexual services at a Tokyo massage parlor has been detained in Taiwan for overstaying her visa. Japanese police arrested a Japanese man on suspicion of human trafficking. The girl told police her mother instructed her to hand over all earnings from the services to the parlor.
The 12-year-old Thai girl arrived in Japan with her mother on June 27, 2025. The next day, June 28, the mother took her to a massage parlor in Tokyo, taught her how to provide sexual services to customers, and then disappeared. The girl slept in a corner of the parlor's kitchen and served around 60 male customers over 33 days, earning about ¥630,000, all of which went to the parlor, with half transferred to an account linked to her mother, according to Metropolitan Police Department sources.
The girl told police that her mother instructed her to hand over all money from the sexual services to the parlor. The parlor apparently split the profits with the mother. A Japanese man has been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking for putting the girl to work at the shop.
Meanwhile, the mother arrived in Taiwan in September and overstayed her permitted stay. Taiwan's local police detained her in a separate case and handed her over to immigration authorities. The authorities plan to deport her but have not decided whether to send her to Thailand or Japan, where the girl's case is under investigation.
The incident highlights concerns over child abuse and sex crimes in Thailand-Japan relations.