Two elementary school teachers in Japan have been arrested for allegedly taking indecent photographs of their female students and sharing them in a private group chat with nearly 10 other educators.
The suspects, Yuji Moriyama, 42, from Nagoya, and Fumiya Kosemura, 37, from Yokohama, both worked as elementary school teachers when they committed the alleged offences.
The two men allegedly took upskirt photos of girls under 13, in Kanagawa and Aichi prefectures respectively.
Teachers Exploited School Positions to Target Young Students
Police found over 70 disturbing images circulating within the private group chat, including upskirt shots and covert photos of students changing clothes. “Deepfakes” were also created from the girls’ headshots, BBCÂ reported.
The images were allegedly captured in classrooms, during school activities, and on field trips. Some photographs appeared to have been taken at school or during extracurricular activities, according to police reports from AFP.
Chat members used pseudonyms to share sexually explicit images of their young female students. Some members used AI to doctor images before complimenting one another with remarks such as “this one’s really good”.
Police believe Moriyama served as the group chat’s administrator.
Moriyama held the position of third-in-command at his school and had official responsibilities involving school photography. Police said he exploited this role to commit the offences.
Both suspects have reportedly confessed to the allegations.
Discovery Sparked by Separate Teacher’s Arrest in March
Authorities began investigating the group after another member was arrested in March for allegedly putting bodily fluids on a girl’s backpack at a train station in Nagoya.
Data from that case led authorities to discover a group chat in which multiple individuals, believed to be educators, shared illegal content.
The ministry plans to hold a meeting with the heads of local education boards following these incidents.
Japan’s education minister Toshiko Abe told media on 27 Jun: “I feel really angry. This can never be tolerated.”
School authorities held a closed-door meeting with parents after the arrests. Many expressed outrage and concern for their children’s safety, with some even wanting to withhold their children from attending school.
A fifth grader’s mother said: “Until I know it’s safe, I honestly don’t want to send her. She’s at an age when a wound like this leaves deep scars.”
The school reported that several students who had interacted with the accused have shown signs of emotional distress, and it is now offering counselling support.
A forensic psychiatrist commented on the case’s severity: “What was different this time was that it wasn’t an individual — it was a group of teachers acting together. That makes it much more serious — both in terms of intent and the degree to which it undermines the ethical standards expected of teachers.”
Japan banned upskirting as part of its wider overhaul on sex crime laws in 2023, BBC reported. The same bill criminalised the filming of children “in a sexual manner without a justifiable reason”.
Other reforms expanded the definition of rape and raised the age of consent from 13 to 16.
Japan plans to introduce its first national background check system for sex offences in 2026, targeting those seeking or holding jobs involving contact with children, The Japan Times reported.
Would you be jailed for being half-naked in public? Well, the answer will shock you. Seriously. Watch this to the end and you'll understand:
