Severe cases in the Seoul metropolitan area surge... Citizens looking for 'private security'

[Anchor]
In the wake of a series of robberies in the Japanese metropolitan area, anxious citizens are looking for security companies.

In recent years, crimes are often committed through part-time jobs as a crime agency on SNS, and anxiety is growing as they become bold and ferocious.

Correspondent Kim Se-ho's report from Tokyo.

[Reporter]
There are calls from customers who request counseling from a large Japanese security company.

Over the past week, the number of new contract inquiries has reached eight times the usual period.

This is because the number of people who feel anxious has increased due to a series of robberies in the Seoul metropolitan area recently.

[Security company counselor: I'm getting frequent calls today as well. Everyone is quite anxious, and they urgently need data.]

Since the end of August, there have been 14 robberies in the Japanese metropolitan area.

There are about 30 suspects caught alone.

Most of them participated in the crime after seeing a post recruiting for a crime agency on social media that guaranteed high profits for a short period of time.

In the course of the crime, there are cases in which the victim is killed, seriously injured, or kidnapped.

[The parents of the robbery and kidnapping victims : He threatened to give me money, I'll kill you, but when he said he didn't have money, he tied it tightly with tape.]

The suspects, who handed over their personal information to the main culprits who ordered the crime through messenger, were unable to step out of fear of retaliation against their families.

[Suspect family in their 70s: I'd rather have my family be harmed by refusing to participate in the crime.]

Among the suspects caught just before the crime is a 14-year-old middle school student.

Even teenagers are being targeted by crime agencies.

The whereabouts of the main offenders who ordered the crime are still unknown, and security in Japan is growing as it can spread to copycat crimes.

I'm Kim Se-ho from YTN in Tokyo.