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Shinichiro Wada was a successful entrepreneur. The perpetual sophomore at Waseda University ran one of the city's most popular university social clubs, called Super Free, whose parties attracted thousands of students. Women came to meet well-heeled young men from elite universities. Men came to meet young women. The money from ticket sales made Mr. Wada a wealthy man.
He was also, prosecutors allege, a rapist. Now standing trial with five other men, Mr. Wada may have masterminded more than a dozen gang rapes of young women who attended Super Free parties, police say. After one young woman came forward this summer claiming that she had been raped, others reported that they, too, had been gang raped at events affiliated with Super Free.
How such a calculated and vicious scheme could flourish is a question that Japanese academics, law-enforcement officials, and others are still trying to sort out. The scandal has tarnished Waseda, one of the country's top private universities, and raised questions about the ways in which students have used its prestige for personal gain. The scandal has also highlighted the central role that social clubs and drinking play in college here. In a country where most university students spend more time socializing than studying, groups such as Super Free can have an enormous influence on students' lives.
Last month, the six men on trial, all former members of the Super Free club, pleaded guilty to raping either one or both of two women whose cases are being heard. Because Japanese law does not allow convictions simply on the basis of confession, the trial is still under way. At the time of the alleged rapes, five of the six men, including Mr. Wada, were students at elite Tokyo universities. Mr. Wada gave a public apology of sorts but denied that the rapes were premeditated.
"There is no mistaking that we raped the women, and for that I'm very sorry," he said at the start of the trial, in Tokyo District Court. "But I never set out deliberately to commit these acts."
Sophisticated System
Prosecutors disagree. Super Free, they charge, had a sophisticated system for arranging gang rapes. The club's officers selected young women for small, secondary parties that began after the large parties ended....