2 teens arrested after Osaka fall death in possible ‘badger game’: police

OSAKA — Two junior high school students were arrested here after a third-year university student fell to his death from a rooftop last month, police announced on March 7.

The Osaka Prefectural Police arrested a 15-year-old boy from the prefecture’s city of Sakai and a 14-year-old girl from the city of Osaka on suspicion of robbery causing death or injury. The suspects are in their third and second years of junior high school, respectively. In addition, a now 14-year-old boy who cannot be charged due to being under 14 at the time of the incident was reported to a child consultation center.

The suspects are specifically accused of causing Gaku Ota, a 22-year-old resident of the city of Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture, who was trying to escape from them, to fall from a rooftop in Osaka’s Chuo Ward on the afternoon of Feb. 12, after taking him there and threatening to rob him.

According to the police’s first investigation division, the three junior high school students know each other. Under voluntary questioning, the female suspect reportedly said, “I met up with the others at the building that day with the intention of robbing the university student. When we called out to him, he suddenly ran away.”

The girl reportedly met Ota through social media in February, and police believe she aimed to engage in a “badger game” accusing the victim of being in a relationship in order to extort money. She reportedly admits to the allegations, while the 15-year-old boy apparently denied a portion of the accusations, stating, “I can’t say I had nothing to do with it, but I don’t think I did anything that would get me arrested.”

Security camera footage from the vicinity reportedly includes the girl and Ota meeting at a convenience store and the two boys pursuing after them.

(Japanese original by Minhyang Hong and Mizuki Hayashi, Osaka City News Department)