HIROSHIMA (TR) – A court here last month sentenced a 40-year-old former elementary school teacher to nine years in prison for committing indecent acts and secretly filming dozens of female students inside his classroom, reports RCC Broadcasting (Sep. 14)
Takeo Nakajima, a former teacher at a municipal elementary school in Hiroshima, was handed the prison term by presiding judge Tomohiko Sato. Prosecutors had originally sought a 13-year sentence for the disgraced educator.
According to the ruling handed down at the Hiroshima District Court on August 19, Nakajima engaged in a highly premeditated and habitual campaign of abuse against 34 schoolgirls over an extended period starting in January 2023.
The court heard that Nakajima planted tablet computers inside classrooms to take tosatsu (voyeur) footage of the girls while they were changing clothes. In other instances, he slipped the devices directly under the victims’ skirts.
The defendant also exploited his position of authority by isolating victims under the guise of conducting “health checks.” Once alone with a student, he would pull up her clothing to expose her chest. The judge noted that a portion of the charges also included acts involving heavy and inappropriate physical contact.
“This was a despicable crime that took advantage of the victims’ immaturity and the trust placed in the defendant as a teacher,” judge Sato said in his ruling, expressing grave concern over the negative impact the abuse will have on the children’s healthy development.
During the trial, Nakajima attempted to justify his actions by claiming he had lost his self-control after being mentally cornered by superiors at his workplace. However, the judge flatly rejected this, stating the excuse was completely unworthy of consideration as a mitigating factor.
While the court acknowledged that the defendant had paid 100,000 yen in compensation to three of the victims and had deposited between 50,000 and 100,000 yen for the others, judge Sato concluded that the malicious and habitual nature of the crimes made a lengthy prison sentence unavoidable.
