Judge Condemns Defendant Who Denied Molesting 6-Year-Old

The verdict handed down to the defendant who continued to plead not guilty

“I only placed my hand on her (shoulder) to mean ‘Don’t follow me,’ and I never intended to do anything indecent. That is all.”

Defendant Hajime Tanaka (51), who is charged with non-consensual indecent assault for allegedly touching the breast of a 6-year-old girl at the time of the incident, made these statements in his final statement and claimed his innocence.

However, the judge did not accept his argument. On June 25, 2013, Judge Chikako Murata handed down a prison sentence of one year and six months (the prosecution had called for two years and six months).

“Defendant Tanaka was arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Kamata Police Station on October 6, 2012, on suspicion of indecent assault without consent. He is accused of touching the breast of A-chan (then 6 years old) in a housing complex in Ota Ward on July 28 of the same year. Defendant Tanaka had also committed indecent acts on an 8-year-old child multiple times in 2014, and was sentenced to three years in prison on February 26, 2015 for indecent assault. After his release, he committed this crime about six and a half years later.” (National newspaper social affairs reporter)

At the first hearing on April 18, A-chan’s father appeared in court and, during his testimony, described the shock he felt when he learned that his daughter had been sexually assaulted.

“On the day of the incident, my daughter had gone to a friend’s house to play. I got a call from the friend’s grandmother saying, ‘A-chan was treated badly,’ and from behind her I could hear my daughter saying, ‘Someone touched my breast.’ I immediately went to the apartment complex and asked my daughter, ‘What’s wrong? What happened?’ Using gestures, my daughter explained that ‘Someone touched my breast.’ I then went with her to the staircase between the 11th and 10th floors, confirmed the scene of the incident, and called 110.”

During police questioning, A-chan also stated that Tanaka told her to come to the stairs, where he touched her breasts. She also said that the man (Tanaka) had run away because his friend had come.

Both A-chan and her father, who spoke to her immediately after the incident, gave consistent statements.

On the other hand, immediately after his arrest, defendant Tanaka had said, “I wanted to see the pattern on the T-shirt the girl was wearing, so I grabbed her around the left side of her chest,” but he significantly changed his statement during the trial, saying, “Isn’t it like this? My memory was hazy immediately after my arrest, and I ended up saying things that were not true, just like the police asked me to say.”

“I want to see the view from the rooftop.”

On the day of the incident, the defendant Tanaka, who was driving by the apartment building, recalled watching beautiful fireworks from the roof of the building about 30 years ago. In response to a question from his lawyer, the defendant Tanaka stated:

“I thought the view from the rooftop would be beautiful, so I trespassed into the apartment building. The girl (A-chan) who got on the elevator with me pressed the button for the 11th floor, but I didn’t press any buttons. Since the rooftop is above the 11th floor, I thought if I stayed in the elevator, it would be obvious that I was going to the rooftop, so I decided to get off at the 11th floor and switch to another elevator. That’s

And then I called out to the girl, saying, ‘I’ll go to the stairs after I get off,’ and headed towards the stairs. As I was going down the stairs, I sensed someone behind me, so I turned around and saw the girl following me. I held her near her left shoulder with my right hand to indicate don’t follow me. At that moment, my hand might have touched her chest. After that, to calm the surprised girl, I shook hands with her, made a pinky.”

To avoid being caught for illegally entering the apartment, he talked to A-chan and touched her body, claiming, “It wasn’t for lewd purposes.”

However, Judge Murata, after delivering the verdict, stated, “The very content of the testimony that he spoke to A out of fear of being discovered for the unauthorized entry is unnatural and unreasonable. Moreover, the content of the testimony changed from the investigation stage, but the reasons for this change cannot be reasonably explained. I cannot trust the defendant’s testimony.”

Due to unforeseen circumstances and subsequent health issues, former announcer Nagisa Watanabe left Fuji TV and continued to suffer from PTSD. In her memoir addressing the issue of sexual violence (published in Weekly Post, June 20, 2025 issue), she refers to a passage from psychiatrist Herman’s book “Truth and Repair” (published by Misuzu Shobo) and states the following.

“The perpetrator lies as easily as breathing, distorting the facts to fit their own convenient interpretations.”

And the victim is said to suffer even more due to that selfish lie. Was the argument presented by the defendant Tanaka during the trial yet another convenient lie for himself, just like the previous lewd acts against children?