Shannon Danielle Wong, a Canadian national, has been arrested in Japan for entering into a fake marriage for visa reasons.
Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested the 29-year-old Wong, who admits the charges, as well as her “husband” Narimichi Sasaki, a construction worker. The pair met at a cosplay event in Kabukicho while Wong was technically a student and then entered an arrangement to marry on paper in June 2016.
Wong paid Sasaki an initial ¥700,000 and then was monthly payments of ¥30,000 each. The total fee for Sasaki’s participation in the scam was to be ¥1 million yen.
It is reported that that Wong, a cosplay enthusiast with dyed blond hair, was involved with a fuzoku business as some kind of sex worker.
The police first arrested the pair in July on immigration violations related to an inaccurate submission and then rearrested them on document forgery later in the month.
The case has received widespread media attention both in English and in Japanese.
Behind the headlines, though, a number of questions occur to us.
Exactly what kind of fuzoku was Wong working for? Certainly it must have paid well, giving the reimbursement she could offer her “husband.”
Secondly, where did this anonymous tip come from? A rival in the business? A disgruntled colleague or customer? We find it strange that the immigration bureau and police could even find out about their arrangement.
Alas for the perpetrators, they did indeed and now Wong is paraded in front of the media cameras (but not, it seems, Sasaki).
