Sex, drugs and violence often combine as the ingredients of a sensational crime, and voice-mail dating services can provide them all.
The system is now in the spotlight after two young Kanagawa Prefecture women, who had registered with such a service, were found dead of exposure after being persuaded by a date, allegedly bent on robbery, to take hypnosis-inducing drugs ostensibly as a beauty aid.
Although ads for such dating services, with photos of girls posing half-naked, are prevalent in men's magazines and sports newspapers, the contents are not commonly known to most of the public.