An online group chat that teachers allegedly used to share illicit images of elementary school girls sparked national outrage last month and has reignited a critical question: Is Japan facing a systemic failure to protect children from predatory educators?
The case involved male teachers in elementary and junior high schools in Nagoya and Yokohama secretly photographing the underwear of female students at their schools, generating sexual deepfakes — digitally manipulated content that appears real — and sharing those images and videos in the group chat.
But Hiroki Fukui, a forensic psychiatrist who heads the Sex Offenders Medical Center, one of the country’s few clinics focused on treating sex offenders and people with paraphilic disorders, said teachers sexually abusing their students is nothing new.
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