Ex-teacher in Japan gets 2 years’ jail for sharing indecent student images

TOKYO – A Japanese court sentenced a former teacher on April 14 to two years in prison for taking indecent images of students and sharing them on social media, making him the first to get a jail verdict among members of an alleged teachers’ voyeurism ring in a high-profile case that came to light in 2025.

The Nagoya District Court handed down its sentence to Katsuya Ishikawa, 28, who was a teacher at a junior high school in Hayama, Kanagawa prefecture, when he was arrested in September.

Judge Kyoko Irie said the defendant had also shared photos of the victims’ faces within the group and “exposed them to the risk of the images being widely circulated and causing further harm”.

According to the ruling, between July and December 2024, Ishikawa secretly took photos and videos of three girls at an elementary school in Kanagawa, where he was working at the time.

He captured images in his smartphone that included the girls’ underwear, and shared those via a social media group chat.

In August 2025, he also shot upskirt images of a then 14-year-old girl on an escalator at a station in Kamakura, also in Kanagawa prefecture.

Considering that the defendant had compensated only one of the four victims and that the victims’ parents strongly sought punishment, the court concluded that a prison sentence was appropriate, Judge Irie said.

The victims’ families also took part in the trial during closing arguments on March 26, saying none of them had been able to tell the victims they had been subjected to voyeurism.

The mother of one victim told the court: “We will carry the fear of their photos being widely circulated for the rest of our lives.”

Ishikawa was among seven members indicted in the case, comprising then-active and former teachers from Tokyo and four prefectures.

Two were earlier sentenced at the Nagoya District Court to three years in prison, suspended for five years. KYODO NEWS.