TOKYO (TR) – The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education last week announced the dismissal of a vice-principal for a high school in Arakawa Ward after he was accused in the sexual assault of an intoxicated woman, reports TV Asahi (Nov. 30).
In the early morning hours of May 12, Minoru Okuzawa, then the vice-principal of the Arakawa Technical High School, took the woman, aged in her 40s, by car to a hotel in Saitama Prefecture after luring her into the vehicle from a road in the capital.
The suspect then allegedly probed his fingers inside her underwear in committing acts deemed obscene while she was passed out in a room.
Several days later, the suspect demanded to meet the woman again, saying that if she refused he would leak video footage taken from the room to a third party.
In August, police accused Okuzawa of quasi-indecent assault. “I couldn’t control my sexual desire,” the suspect told police upon his arrest. “I don’t have the self-control.” On November 30, the board dismissed him. He assumed the post in April of last year.
The board also announced the dismissal of two other staff members over other incidents. In June, Tetsuya Iwasaki, a 49-year-old clerk at Shinjuku High School, allegedly molested a woman after trespassing into her apartment in Machida City. In the second case, a 55-year-old high school teacher touched the crotch area of a male pupil at school.
