Japan's latest crime menace, yamibaito, is nameless and faceless

More youth, like child star Wakayama, are hired to pull off scams, robberies and murders

- Walter Sim

As a child actor, Kirato Wakayama was one of Japan’s most recognisable faces, starring in historical epics, the Kamen Rider superhero series, and the 2014 live-action remake of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Now a young adult at 20, he is behind bars awaiting trial over his alleged role in the gruesome double murder of a Tokyo couple whose charred corpses were found in the woods of Nasu, 200km north of the capital, in April.

Wakayama, who is said to be in financial trouble, is suspected to be among a growing number of young people recruited for yamibaito (shady part-time work, in Japanese) with promises of a lofty payout for minimal work. Such work, however, is often illegal and runs the gamut from murder to armed robbery, scams and drug trafficking.

Much of the yamibaito is orchestrated by tokuryu (anonymous and fluid) quasi-gangster groups, which the traditional hierarchical yakuza syndicates have morphed into after stricter regulations against organised crime.

Dr Noboru Hirosue of Ryukoku University’s Criminology Research Centre told The Straits Times that a vast majority who tend to fall prey to yamibaito schemes are impressionable youth hailing from troubled backgrounds and aspiring to a glamorous lifestyle.

“But they are treated as disposable errand boys, and the masterminds do not care if they get arrested,” said the former probation officer in Japan’s Ministry of Justice.