Jake Adelstein

July 1, 2000. British 21-year-old Lucie Blackman goes missing in Tokyo, sparking an international investigation — and an unyielding quest for justice.

Japan’s obsession with cutesy culture has taken a dark turn, with schoolgirls now offering themselves for “walking dates” with adult men. Last year the US State Department, in its annual report on human trafficking, flagged so-called joshi-kosei osanpo dates (Japanese for “high school walking”) as fronts for commercial sex run by sophisticated criminal networks.

Based on the exclusive testimonies of several of them, as well as insights and archive footage, this is a fascinating immersion into the ritualized world of the yakuza, legendary mobsters now in decline.