Society

Police make first arrest over mask resale ban

Jun 03 (NHK) - Police in Japan say they've made the first arrest for the violation of a ban on reselling masks, which was introduced to stop them from being resold at inflated prices amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Fujii Junki was arrested on suspicion of reselling 16,000 masks he had bought from an importer in April. Fujii runs a cleaning company in the western city of Takamatsu.

He allegedly sold them to two self-employed men at a premium of about 5 cents per mask.

Police say the masks were a portion of 70,000 masks he had purchased for about 3 million yen, or 28,000 dollars.

Investigators say Fujii sold the remaining masks by soliciting buyers on social media.

The ban was introduced in March after severe supply shortages prompted some people to resell masks at marked-up prices for financial gain.

Police say Fujii is also believed to have bought another 90,000 masks and resold them to earn thousands of dollars.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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