Teachers sharing indecent photos of girls in a group chat elicits outrage in Japan

Japan Times

27-06-2025

Parents of schoolchildren were outraged by the latest news that school teachers were allegedly taking indecent images of young girls at their schools and sharing them in an online group chat involving about 10 teachers.
There have been isolated cases reported in the past of one teacher or a cram school teacher engaging in such acts, but a case of teachers doing so in a group is being seen as particularly shocking, undermining people's confidence in those in the role.
More details have been revealed in the case . Investigators say the group chat members were using pseudonyms to hide their identities, suggesting they were largely unaware of each other's true backgrounds, NHK reported Friday. Aichi Prefectural Police are analyzing seized devices and data in an effort to uncover the full extent of the group's activities.
Yuji Moriyama, 42, from Nagoya, and Fumiya Kosemura, 37, from Yokohama, are accused of secretly filming and taking photographs of the underwear of young girls at various facilities in Aichi and Kanagawa prefectures from late last year to this year. Police say both men admitted to the charges.
Moriyama, an elementary school teacher who is suspected to have been the group's administrator, was in charge of making the school newsletter, and police suspect he may have been abusing his position to take photos, according to the broadcaster.
The group consisted of around 10 members — mostly teachers at elementary and junior high schools, the Chunichi Shimbun reported Friday. Investigators say they used a high-security messaging app to share voyeuristic images, many of which were taken during school activities or field trips.
Some of the images shared in the group were manipulated using artificial intelligence to produce sexual deepfakes. Chat records showed members praising each other's posts, with comments such as 'This one's really good,' according to Chunichi Shimbun, citing police sources.
Moriyama was a senior teacher — effectively third in command at his school — and had responsibilities that included photographing students during school events, the report said.
The school briefed parents in a closed-door meeting on Thursday evening following Moriyama's arrest, with many of them expressing anger. The school said some students who had interacted with Moriyama were visibly distressed and that counselors had been sent to provide emotional support.
Before the meeting, the mother of a fifth-grade girl told the Chunichi Shimbun that her daughter said she didn't want to go to school the next day.
'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,' she said.
The education ministry announced Friday that it plans to issue written notices to boards of education across the country urging them to strictly enforce conduct rules for teachers. It also intends to hold online meetings with prefectural education officials to provide guidance to prevent a recurrence of similar cases.
'When I think of the children who have been harmed and the many teachers who work hard every day, I feel a deep sense of anger,' said education minister Toshiko Abe in a news conference Friday. 'It's absolutely unforgivable. Sexual violence by teachers against students is not something to be tolerated.'
Yukiko Imai, an associate professor well-versed in criminal psychology at Nara University, said that it can be incredibly shocking when the perpetrator is someone the victim trusted — such as a teacher. The full scope of the psychological damage it had on the victims is still unclear, she added, due to the fact that the crime took place online, which entails risks such as data leaking outside the group chats.
'This case is especially concerning because it involves a group. These kinds of things happen in various places across the country, and we still don't know the full extent of the crime. It makes you wonder where else this might have been happening and whether other locations are safe,' she said.
'Regardless of what exactly was captured, the realization that a teacher — someone who was supposed to protect and guide us — may have been looking at (them) with inappropriate intentions is profoundly unsettling.'
Sumire Nagamori, who heads the nonprofit organization Hiiragi Net that monitors child sexual abuse material online, said that the case may just be the tip of the iceberg, since cracking down on such insider communities is difficult.
'In Japan, we're still in a situation where (deepfake pornography) acts are virtually unregulated,' she said. 'This is something we adults need to take seriously and begin addressing.'
Nagamori added that the lack of familiarity with digital platforms among older teachers also presents a challenge in checking for inappropriate content.
'If the content is on platforms like Discord or Telegram — apps they don't typically use — some (teachers) say they don't know how to access it. In other cases, school security systems prevent access to certain types of social media, which delays the verification process,' she said.
'Because digital sexual abuse content tends to spread extremely widely in a very short time, the speed of response is critical. I think some schools still face challenges in responding quickly enough.'
Dr. Hiroki Fukui, a forensic psychiatrist and representative director of the Sex Offenders Medical Center (SOMEC), one of the few clinics in the country dedicated to providing therapy and support for individuals with harmful sexual impulses, said indecent conduct by teachers has been reported many times in the past.
'What was different this time was that it wasn't an individual — it was a group of teachers acting together,' Fukui said. 'That makes it much more serious — both in terms of intent and the degree to which it undermines the ethical standards expected of teachers. It's deeply disturbing.
'While the government has revised laws and introduced systems aimed at preventing teachers with a history of abuse from returning to the classroom, these measures remain far from sufficient,' he added. 'We need organizational systems to prevent abuse — not just individual monitoring.'
But in Japan, treatment avenues for potential perpetrators remain limited.
'In Japan, treatment for paraphilic disorders isn't covered by public health insurance,' Fukui said. 'If these individuals had sought treatment early, we could have intervened and prevented it from escalating.'