IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police have arrested a male researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology over the alleged molestation of a female colleague, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Jan. 29).
At around 10:30 a.m. on December on December 10, Takayuki Michishita, 41, allegedly fondled the chest and lower body of the part-time colleague, aged in her 20s, inside a laboratory of the institute in Tsukuba City.
Once the act was finished, Michishita pretended that it was done in the name of research.
“I did not carry out an obscene act,” Michishita was quoted by the Tsukuba Police Station in denying allegations of quasi-indecent assault.
At the time of the incident, Michishita was conducting an experiment in which the subject took a deep breath. The reaction of the brain was then analyzed via magnetic resonance imaging.
“We will respond strictly after confirming the facts [of the matter],” a representative of the institute was quoted.
