A New Tactic: Faked Disbandment
On January 15, 2025, the Public Safety Division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested three leaders of an illegal scouting group on suspicion of violating the Employment Security Act. The group had faked a "group disbandment" to escape enforcement while in reality continuing to operate.
"Faked disbandment" is a tactic in which, to evade police investigation, a group pretends on the surface to have disbanded while continuing to operate by re-registering its members individually as separate, independent persons. In many cases, all of the group's social media accounts are deleted and operations resume under new accounts.
Key Points of the Investigation
In this bust, analysis of digital evidence (metadata and communication records) was key to identifying members who were operating under new accounts after the "disbandment." Whereas arrests had previously tended to be limited to individuals, in this case the leaders were arrested after authorities established "the continuity of the reorganized group."
This article was compiled based on publicly available information.