A series of violent incidents in the Japanese metropolitan area that appear to be related to Yamibato, a combination of “Yami,” which means “darkness,” and “Baito,” which means “part-time job,” have raised concerns.
According to the Asahi Shimbun on the 17th, a 75-year-old man died the previous day at a house in Yokohama City, bleeding with his hands tied. On the same day, a robber broke into a house where a mother and daughter in their 70s and 40s lived in Shiroishi, Chiba Prefecture, tied the mother and daughter together and stole cash and ran away.
The two incidents are similar to the recent string of robberies in the capital Kanto region. Seven robberies have occurred in Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa since August, with attackers smashing windows, tying victims to beat them, stealing cash or precious metals.
The series of incidents is noteworthy in that they are believed to be Yamibaito, who temporarily gathers through social networking services (SNS) to commit crimes. The role of an executive who commits a crime was not previously known, and the “director role” is a form of being directed by a highly anonymous application. Asahi said, “All seven cases involved Yamibaito, who has collected executive roles on social networking sites, and more than 20 suspects have been arrested to date.”
According to the “Deletion Status of Internet Posts” (February 2023-January 2024), 2,411 of 3,379 harmful posts that asked major site administrators to delete were deleted during the period. Among them, Yamibato posts accounted for the largest number of 2,136.
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
