The operator and six employees of an Osaka-based arcade chain were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of defrauding four customers of ¥470,000 ($4,150) by encouraging them to play rigged crane game machines.
The four victims, all women in their 20s, paid between ¥500 and ¥10,000 each time they attempted to win prizes, but the claws of the cranes were set up to make success impossible.
The women were attempting to win prizes ranging from stuffed animals to expensive items such as tablet computers.