2 Japan primary school teachers convicted for sharing voyeuristic student images on social media

TOKYO – A Japanese court sentenced on March 19 two members of an alleged teachers’ voyeurism ring to three years in prison, suspended for five years, for taking indecent images of pupils and sharing them with other teachers on social media.

The Nagoya District Court handed down the rulings on Daiki Sawada, a 34-year-old teacher at a publicly run elementary school in Tokyo, and Keisuke Tsugeno, a former teacher at a public junior high school in Chitose, Hokkaido, ahead of decisions on the other members of the ring.

All seven members of the group, mostly active and former teachers from Tokyo and four prefectures, have been indicted.

In the first ruling for a ring member, Judge Megumi Murase said Sawada’s actions were an “obvious and malicious” crime, in which he took advantage of his position as a teacher who was supposed to protect students.

Judge Murase said Sawada’s term was suspended because he agreed to pay compensation to the parents of the victims and received therapy.

According to the ruling, Sawada habitually took underwear images of two female students between November 2022 and March 2023 at a Tokyo elementary school. He also left bodily fluid on the swimsuits of two girls, then nine years old, between July and September in 2023.

According to the indictment, Tsugeno, 41, secretly shot images of five female junior high school students who were changing with a pen-shaped camera between September 2023 and July 2025.

Tsugeno also broke into a girls’ restroom at the school in January 2025 to take images of the underwear of a girl, then 14 years old. KYODO NEWS