Doshisha, Keio, Kyoto University… Why are there so many cases of sexual assault in the football clubs of these prestigious universities?

Once again, a vile sexual assault has occurred at a well-known university.

On August 8, the Kyoto Prefectural Police arrested four fourth-year members of the Doshisha University football team, Yuki Katai, 21, Yugo Yamada, 21, Ken Hamada, 22, and Ryo Makino, 21, for sexually assaulting a female student who was intoxicated. The incident took place in May of this year.

The incident took place in May of this year, when the four forced a college student they had met at a bar to drink alcohol, got her drunk, and took her to Katai’s house where they sexually assaulted her for an hour. The football team “WILD ROVER,” to which the four men belonged, has 121 members and is a prestigious team that has won two championships in the Kansai First Division. However, in response to the arrests, the team has announced that it will withdraw from this season’s league games and suspend its activities indefinitely.

In October 2019, the Keio University football team announced that it would withdraw from the league and suspend its activities indefinitely (activities will resume in March 2020) due to “misconduct by a member” of the team. Some weekly magazines reported that this was due to voyeurism of a female manager by a member of the club.

Furthermore, in January 2006, three fourth-year students who had just retired from the football team at Kyoto University got two female university students drunk and sexually assaulted them for four hours. Moreover, although the two victims showed symptoms of what appeared to be acute alcohol intoxication, such as convulsions and vomiting, the three Kyoto University students did nothing more than search the Internet without calling an ambulance.

A Sense of Election and Intense Hierarchical Relationship Rooted in a Prestigious University

Why do students who have passed the university entrance exam, which is said to be a difficult entrance exam, commit such foolish criminal acts? It is believed that the reason for this is the “luxury of being elite. An expert on criminal psychology tells us.

In 2016, five students at the University of Tokyo got drunk and raped a female student at another university. An interrogation revealed that one of the perpetrators ranked the girls according to their university’s deviation score. It became clear that he thought he could do whatever he wanted to the victimized female university students as “story quota” since they did not have high deviation values. It is thought that the background to this string of incidents may be a “selective” mindset based on academic ability.

He also analyzes the background of the many scandals that have occurred in the football team as follows.

Among sports that are considered athletic, football is a sport that involves a lot of contact play. The size and strength of the players come into play. In this sense, it is an environment where a strong hierarchical relationship is more likely to emerge than in other athletic associations. Of course, this is not the only cause of crimes.

In the cases that have become incidents, including the Doshisha University case, it is possible that the perpetrators’ thinking and personalities have gradually deviated from the general sense as they have spent time in this intense vertical society. It would not be surprising if the perpetrator’s wrong thinking, such as “I will do anything to be popular with my seniors,” or, conversely, his reaction to being suppressed led him to commit a criminal act.

In addition, the university’s avoidance of disclosing the situation unless it is malicious has also contributed to the situation. In fact, in the case of a student at Keio University in 2019, the university did not disclose the details of the incident or the student in question.

The university did not disclose the details of the incident or the student in question, stating, “From an educational standpoint and to protect privacy, we are unable to disclose the details.

The university did not disclose the details of the incident or the students involved, stating, “We cannot disclose details from an educational perspective and to protect privacy. It is difficult to draw a line in the sand because of the sensitivity of the issue, but given the current situation where criminal acts continue to occur, the university must take a firm stand.

The most important thing is not to increase the number of victims. For this reason, a thorough investigation and measures to prevent recurrence are necessary.