“Sugar Baby Riri” — and Her Host — Face Jail Time for Fraud

A woman who made millions as a sugar baby in Japan is on trial for fraud — and so is the host club worker to whom she handed every last penny.

By Jay Allen

Usually, when you commit fraud, it’s not a good idea to brag about it on social media. It’s also probably not the smartest idea to create and sell a manual about it.

That’s only one of the many missteps that’s landed 25-year-old Watanabe Mai — a.k.a. “Sugar Baby Riri” — in a court of law this week. And the man to whom she gave all her money, a host in Tokyo’s Kabukicho nightlife district, is also facing his own legal troubles.

Riri-chan: From YouTube to courtroom

Promoting herself online as 頂き女子りりちゃん (itadaki joshi Riri-chan), or “Sugar Baby Riri”, Watanabe made a series of YouTube videos talking about her life. She also maintained a Twitter account, which is still active.

(As an aside, “Itadaki Joshi” is a phrase of Watanabe’s invention. In Japanese, sugar babying is more commonly referred to as パパ活, papa-katsu. The word ended up on U-CAN’s annual list of neologisms and buzzwords — which makes Watanabe maybe the only person to land on the list…