A Japanese court on Thursday imposed three-year prison sentences, suspended for five years, on two members of an alleged teachers’ voyeurism ring caught filming and sharing indecent images of students via social media.
Nagoya District Court ruled against Daiki Sawada, 34, a teacher at a Tokyo public elementary school, and Keisuke Tsugeno, 41, a former teacher at a Chitose, Hokkaido, public junior high—marking the first verdicts in a case indicting all seven group members, mostly current or ex-teachers from Tokyo and four other prefectures.
Judge Megumi Murase branded Sawada’s crimes “obvious and malicious,” exploiting his role as a student protector. His suspension stemmed from agreeing to compensate victims’ parents and undergoing therapy.
Court details revealed Sawada repeatedly photographed two female students’ underwear at the Tokyo school from November 2022 to March 2023. He also ejaculated on swimsuits belonging to two 9-year-old girls between July and September 2023.
Tsugeno’s charges included secretly filming five female junior high students changing clothes with a pen camera from September 2023 to July 2024. In January 2025, he broke into a girls’ restroom to photograph a 14-year-old’s underwear.