Former Japanese Table Tennis Player Commits Inappropriate Acts with Student’s Mother at Popular Coaching Class

“I learned about the incident from a newspaper article. Mr. Konishi used to come occasionally with his wife and daughter. It seems that when his daughter’s school was on break, they would come in the morning for practice and, in between, they would come to have lunch as a family.

I don’t really understand table tennis, but a customer who likes table tennis told me, ‘He is an amazing person.’ Recently, I also saw the three of them returning home by bicycle and thought, ‘What a close-knit family, and what a kind-looking father.’”

Suspect Kaii Konishi (43), who coaches at the table tennis school “WEILAI.” Employees of nearby restaurants were unable to hide their astonishment upon learning of the incident.

On August 20, the Saitama Prefectural Police Warabi Station arrested former Japanese representative and professional table tennis player Konishi on charges of non-consensual indecent behavior. He is suspected of touching the body of a woman in her 40s who is the mother of a student at the table tennis school.

“On August 7, suspect Konishi invited the victim to the table tennis school, asking, ‘Will you come for a visit?’ Then, while the child was running outside, he committed the offense when they were alone together. The incident came to light when, on the 9th, the woman reported to the police that she had been touched at the table tennis school where her child goes” (Reporter from a national newspaper’s social affairs department).