TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police last week arrested a 40-year-old male nursery school teacher for sexually abusing an elementary school boy.
According to police, Masaaki Kimura is suspected of touching the lower half of the body of the boy who was participating in a school field trip at a lodging facility in Nagano Prefecture in January 2024.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of non-consensual indecent assault, Kimura, who lives in Shinjuku Ward, denied the charges. “I didn’t do it,” he said.
However, the site for weekly tabloid Josei Jishin (Feb. 6) says Kimura is believed to have repeatedly committed indecent acts against boys at the nursery school where he works and at affiliated after-school care centers for approximately four years.
“Dozens of boys have come forward to report being victimized,” a national newspaper reporter tells the site. “A smartphone seized from Kimura was found to contain approximately 1,200 obscene images, including approximately 360 pieces of child pornography.”
“Part of physical contact”
At the time of the aforementioned incident, Kimura was working as an instructor at an after-school club. In April 2025, he began working as a nursery school teacher.
A mother whose child attends the same licensed nursery school tells the site, “Since my child started using the facility, I’ve heard other parents say things like, ‘They touch them a lot at the facility.’ Honestly, I’m just like, ‘They’ve finally caught him.'”
Another parent adds, “My child is still young, and I just started, so I was shocked when I heard the news. To be honest, it’s really hard to even get into these kinds of facilities. There are vacancies at unlicensed facilities, but from our perspective, we’re grateful for this place. Child safety is very important, but the reality is that I wouldn’t be able to continue working if I didn’t use the facilities. On the other hand, now that he’s been caught, it will probably mean that things like this won’t happen again, so it’s a relief.”
In October 2025, a parent whose child attended the nursery school contacted Tokyo Metropolitan Police to report that their son had been sexually abused.
The aforementioned national newspaper reporter says, “When the parent of a child who had previously been victimized by Kimura contacted the nursery school, they were told that it was just ‘part of physical contact.’ Another parent also reported the abuse to the nursery school, only to be told that Kimura denies the allegations.”
