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Two primary school teachers in Japan have been arrested for allegedly taking and sharing indecent pictures of girls.
Yuji Moriyama, 42, a teacher at the Kosaka Elementary School in Nagoya, and Fumiya Kosemura, 37, from the Hongodai Elementary School in Yokohama, have been accused of violating Japanese law regulating the creation and distribution of certain types of sexual images.
They were arrested on 24 June.
The Aichi prefectural police suspect the two men of being members of an online chat group of schoolteachers with a shared interest in voyeuristic photography and videography.
Mr Moriyama, the chat group’s administrator, allegedly possessed nearly 70 photos and videos of girls changing clothes as well as images taken from under skirts.
According to the police, Mr Moriyama took photos of a schoolgirl in her underwear in Aichi prefecture around September 2024 while Mr Kosemura did the same in Kanagawa prefecture around January 2025.
They then shared the images with other members of the group.
Mr Kosemura has admitted to the allegations. "I took pictures of female students in their underwear and sent them to people in the group,” the Tokyo Reporter quoted him as saying.
The investigation into the two men began in March 2025 after another elementary school teacher was arrested for allegedly putting body fluid on a girl's backpack at a train station in Nagoya.
A forensic review of his mobile phone led police to discover the existence of the group chat and evidence of shared content.
The police have confirmed that 10 people in the group shared indecent photos and videos. They are now investigating how the group was formed.
Japan has long faced criticism for the sexualisation of child models, many of whom are girls posed in lingerie or swimwear in ways designed to appear provocative.
In 2023, the East Asian country introduced its first national law against the nonconsensual capture of sexually exploitative images or videos. The legislation, aimed at curbing what is commonly referred to as “photo voyeurism”, outlawed actions like “upskirting” and covert recordings of sexual activity.
Previously, such offences could only be prosecuted under individual prefectural laws, which varied widely in terms of scope and enforcement. The legislation, part of wider reforms to the country’s sex crime statutes, including an expanded definition of rape, marked a significant shift.
The new provisions made it a criminal offence to take, share or possess images of another person’s genitals without their permission. They also prohibited photographing individuals who had been unknowingly manipulated into sexually suggestive positions. Notably, the law banned the filming of children in sexually suggestive contexts without a legitimate reason.
Those found guilty under the new law could face up to three years in prison or fines of up to £17,500.
In 2021, Japanese police recorded over 5,000 arrests for illicit photography, the highest ever and nearly triple the number reported in 2010, according to the BBC.
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