20-07-2025
Ex-lab tech accused of flooding Tokyo hotel with 258 fake same-day bookings
TOKYO, July 20 — In what might be Japan's most baffling case of ghost guesting, Tokyo police have arrested a 28-year-old man accused of turning a local hotel's booking system into his own personal prank lab.
According to NHK World, the suspect — one Junki Sanuki from the quiet city of Izumo in Shimane Prefecture — allegedly reserved 258 hotel rooms for the same day, all under fake names, all entirely unattended.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police say the reservations, made for a hotel in Ota Ward in December, totalled roughly ¥7.7 million (about RM208,000).
But that was just the tip of the roomberg — authorities uncovered more than 580 bogus bookings across other dates too, clocking in at over ¥17 million in total.
Sanuki, a former clinical laboratory technician at Shimane University Hospital, reportedly pulled off this feat using an arsenal of fake names and email addresses — apparently going to more trouble than a real guest might. Whether he ever had any intention of actually checking in remains unclear.
Police told NHK World the hotel contacted them after noticing a suspicious pattern of vanishing guests and empty rooms that could've been filled by actual travellers with actual luggage.
What was Sanuki's motive? Revenge? Boredom? A deeply misguided social experiment? Nobody knows — because he's reportedly gone full mime during police questioning, staying tight-lipped about his reservation rampage.
For now, Sanuki faces charges of fraudulent obstruction of business.
