Shop manager in Tokyo’s Harajuku arrested over fake brand goods; 230 items found

TOKYO — The 52-year-old manager of a clothing store on the fashion-forward Takeshita Street in Tokyo’s Harajuku district has been arrested for allegedly stocking fake hoodies of the popular Stussy brand with intent to sell, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) announced on March 28.

The police arrested the Guinean national, who lives in Tokyo’s Kita Ward, at his store West Boy 71 on suspicion of having three fake Stussy hoodies on the premises in violation of the Trademark Act. He was quoted as telling police, “I don’t want to say anything until my lawyer comes.”

There has been a constant stream of cases where students on school trips are coerced into buying counterfeit brand goods on Takeshita Street, a hotspot for youth fashion. According to the MPD, a high school boy from Oita Prefecture reported that he had been forced to buy a hoodie at West Boy 71 from a foreign man who told him, “Clothes are cheap; we give a student discount.”

About 230 other items of clothing were also reportedly found in the store, including some that appeared to be counterfeits of popular brands such as Chrome Hearts and Nike.

(Japanese original by Shohei Kato, Tokyo City News Department)