HYOGO (TR) – Hyogo Prefectural Police have disciplined a male and female officer for repeatedly engaging in sexual acts while on duty, adding to a staggering list of recent scandals within the force, reports Shueisha Online (Sep. 15).
On September 11, police announced that a 29-year-old married male senior officer and a 21-year-old female officer, both assigned to a major police station in western Hyogo, were each slapped with a 10 percent pay cut for three months.
According to the police inspector’s office, the illicit trysts took place over an eight-month period ending in July. The pair sneaked away during late-night shifts to have sex in a station conference room and inside the man’s vehicle parked in the station lot.
The officers, who were in the same department and on the same night-shift team, also exchanged an average of 160 private Line messages per day while on the clock.
The affair was particularly brazen given that the male officer’s wife was pregnant at the time. In June, the man reported to his superior that his wife had discovered the infidelity. He was subsequently removed from the night-shift team and promised to cut ties with the younger officer, yet the relationship continued for another month.
“I deeply regret the massive trouble I have caused,” the male officer reportedly said. However, a local reporter noted that because the affair occurred during his wife’s pregnancy, he is facing “icy stares” from his colleagues.
A history of koban trysts
The incident is far from an isolated event for the scandal-plagued Hyogo Prefectural Police, which recorded a nationwide high of 50 disciplinary actions last year. Since 2017, at least five similar cases of on-duty sex in police facilities have been exposed.
In April, a 35-year-old male sergeant and a 27-year-old female officer were disciplined for having sex inside a police box (koban) while on patrol in August 2023. The pair, both married to other people, initially denied the double-infidelity but confessed after superiors confronted them with GPS data showing they had lingered inside the police box for four hours.
In May 2021, a married 29-year-old female sergeant was caught having affairs with two different male officers. She summoned an off-duty colleague to her police box via LINE for sex while working alone. After breaking up with him, she began a relationship with a detective, with the pair frequently kissing in the station’s reference room.
Prior to that, in March 2020, a married 32-year-old male sergeant and a 21-year-old female officer were caught having sex on three separate occasions inside a police box under the jurisdiction of the Amagasaki Higashi Police Station.
“This wasn’t uncommon even when I was on the force,” a former Hyogo police officer said. “I’m not saying adultery is fine, but doing it on duty inside a police box is another matter entirely. I’ve even heard rumors of things happening inside unmarked patrol cars.”
Rotten from the top down
The misconduct extends well beyond rank-and-file officers.
Former Hyogo Police Chief Noriyuki Murai, a career bureaucrat who took the top post in March 2023, was forced to resign from the National Police Agency after receiving an official reprimand. Murai had accepted inappropriate hospitality, including alcohol, from a Kobe business owner who operated a yakiniku restaurant, a security firm, and the police headquarters’ own cafeteria.
Because of the cafeteria contract, the businessman was classified as an “interested party,” making it a direct violation of the National Public Service Ethics Code for the police chief to accept his gifts.
As scandals continue to erupt regardless of rank, public trust is rapidly eroding.
“I am absolutely speechless,” a female resident of Hyogo Prefecture said of the rampant misconduct. “Crime is evolving, yet the police officers are deteriorating. What are we citizens supposed to do?”
Following the latest disciplinary action against the two officers, the inspector’s office issued a standard apology: “We have dealt with this strictly as behavior unbecoming of police personnel. We will strive to prevent a recurrence.”
