Japanese police are investigating a 57-year-old fortune teller who has effectively started a harem and is living with 10 women, media reports said on Wednesday.
The man has repeatedly married and divorced the women, all in their 20s or 30s, but they all live together in a house in Tokyo along with at least one child, the reports said.
“I had a dream in which I heard a voice. It said that as soon as I saw a magic word, I will attract women even if I’m not attractive now,” the man told Nippon Television, which blurred his identity.
“I stay at home and my women work for me,” he said. He met the women through fortune telling.
Police are reportedly probing whether the man coerced the women or broke laws against polygamy, as some of the women have his surname and nine of them jointly own the land of his house.
The investigation was launched when a woman complained that the man persistently asked her to join the harem and warned her to keep it a secret, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.
“Your life will be threatened if you tell others I asked you to join us,” the woman quoted him as saying, according to the daily.
Kyodo News said the bustling household keeps to itself and that the younger women go out every morning while the man stays at home.
Police declined to comment on the reports. — AFP