A 37-year-old man from Kobe has been indicted on suspicion of violating the Child Welfare Law by allegedly forcing his teenage daughter to work at adult entertainment establishments, it was learned Wednesday.
According to police, the man and his daughter, a high school student, had lived separately since she was a small child.
He threatened the girl by claiming that he was a gangster, forcing her to take days off from school to work at several shops that dispatch girls to their customers, police said.
The man used around 1 million yen earned by the girl to repay his debts and on entertainment expenses.
The girl and her older sister were living with the man's mother. The man first started visiting the house in an effort to get his hands on some of his mother's welfare benefits, police said.
He then forced his daughter to work at adult entertainment establishments from around June up to his arrest in December.
"It's just too much to think that her actual father would force her to do such a thing," a police official remarked.