More than 100 women were allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted by a man during a fake "sleep study" in Japan, detectives and local media said Tuesday.
Hideyuki Noguchi, 54, posed as a doctor and advertised for women from across Japan to take part in a medical study over a two-year period, believed to have ended in November 2013, Agence France-Presse reported. The advertisements were seeking volunteers for "clinical research measuring blood pressure during sleep."
After receiving a strong positive response, the 54-year-old injected scores of women, aged between teens to mid-40s, with sedatives after luring them to hotels and hot spring resorts, according to police in Chiba, east of Tokyo.
Once the women were unconscious, he would sexually assault and rape them, filming each assault, police said, adding that footage of the attacks was either posted on the internet or sold to producers of porn films.
Through this business, Noguchi was reportedly able to earn more than 10 million yen ($85,000), TBS and other broadcasters said.
The 54-year-old, who doesn't have any medical training or expertise, was arrested after officers were able to confirm at least 39 victims in Tokyo, Chiba, Osaka, Tochigi and Shizuoka, a police spokesman said.
However, detectives believe they are just a fraction of the total number of women whom Noguchi attacked, thought to number more than100, according to UK MailOnline.
Meanwhile, it was revealed last month that Japan's female flight attendants are reportedly using prostitution to supplement their increasingly low wages.
Several cash-strapped air stewardesses are allegedly improving their financial situation by regularly sleeping with pilots for more money, unidentified female cabin crew members shockingly revealed to Japan's Shukan Post, adding that staff can charge between $450 and $650 to spend 90 minutes with a client.
"Stewardesses who are willing to do it with a pilot pass their number to a senior stewardess who is effectively a female pimp," one air hostess said. "Other stewardesses outsource their services through companies, some of which specialize in offering air hostesses."
