A Japanese YouTuber was arrested Monday for allegedly slandering a woman by accusing her without evidence of being an illegal ticket reseller in an unblurred video he posted on the video-sharing site, police said.
Kazuaki Sugita, 40, who goes by Rengoku Koroaki online, has posted controversial videos in which he and others confront people in public locations with allegations of wrongdoing, calling such acts "citizen's arrests."
The police said they suspect the Tokyo resident has been producing and posting such videos to increase views for the sake of advertisement revenue.
The direct charge in the arrest was Sugita's posting of an unpixelated video of an 18-year-old woman near the Imperial Theater in Tokyo around Sept. 19, with on-screen text labeling her "a (ticket) reseller," they said.
While chasing the woman, he accused her of dating old men for money and said, "Pay me back ¥80,000 ($530)," according to the police.
No evidence has been seen that she was involved in illegal ticket resales, the police said, adding they made the arrest after she asked them for help.