A former principal of a Yokohama public junior high school who was arrested for allegedly taking pictures of sexual acts with teenage girls in Manila has received a suspended two-year prison term.
According to the Yokohama District Court ruling handed down Friday, Yuhei Takashima, 65, of Yokohama, took photos of such acts with two girls aged about 12 or 13 at a hotel in the Philippines around Dec. 21, 2013, and with another girl aged 13 or 14 at around Jan. 1, 2014. He saved the data and created child pornography.
He also possessed four bullets at his home on Feb. 13, 2014, said the court, which suspended Takashima's sentence for four years.
"He took advantage of the harsh economic conditions of the Philippines and was repeatedly involved in the criminal acts to satisfy his sexual desires. His self-centered behavior, which ignores the adverse influence on children, should be strongly denounced," said Judge Naoko Omori.
"As a teacher, you should have known that children are those who should be protected," she told Takashima. "You should never forget that the trust toward the Japanese people and teachers was damaged."
Takashima, who was arrested in April, reportedly told the Kanagawa Prefectural Police that he bought sex from more than 12,000 females in the Philippines and that about 10 percent of them were younger than 18.
Police found some 147,600 sexually explicit photos, contained in around 400 albums, which he kept in a study at his home. He told them he had wanted to keep records of the females he met.
Takashima reportedly began buying sex from local females when he spent three years in the Philippines on business starting in 1988. Since then, he has traveled there 65 times.