[Judo School Sexual Assault Trial – Part 1] Inside the Mind of the Accused: The Chilling Fetishes Revealed in Court

The defendant was charged with 10 crimes for assaulting nine students.

“The defendant, Yuta Ishino, was charged with 10 crimes, including sexual assault of his daughter, who is still in elementary school.

Moreover, as a parent, I am truly unforgiving when I learned that the sexual abuse was not limited to a single incident, but that she had been victimized many times, that the defendant filmed each incident, and that several others had been victimized.”

The former head of a judo school assaulted a male student and also sexually assaulted multiple female students. During the third hearing on September 10, although she was hidden from view behind a partition in the courtroom, one of the victims’ mothers gave a statement, sobbing as she expressed her anger toward the defendant.

“On November 7, 2024, the Ichihara Police Station in Chiba Prefecture arrested former judo school head Yuta Ishino (33) on suspicion of assault, after he allegedly forcibly poured soy sauce into the mouth of 10-year-old boy A during a training camp in May 2023. Ishino was re-arrested on December 26 on suspicion of another assault against the same boy.

During the course of the investigation, a large amount of child pornography that was believed to have been taken by Ishino was found on a smartphone owned by the defendant. After analyzing the images and videos, the Ichihara Police Department re-arrested Ishino on January 7, 2025 on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse for sexually assaulting Ms. B (who was under 13 at the time of the incident).

Further arrests were repeated in the course of the investigation, and on June 10, Ishino was arrested again on suspicion of violating the Child Welfare Law against Ms. I (who was under 18 years old at the time of the incident), making this his seventh arrest.

On March 27, the All Japan Judo Federation decided to expel Ishino, the most serious punishment.”

Ishino was charged with assaulting Mr. A and sexually assaulting Ms. B-F (in the order of indictment). He also assaulted two girls, Ms. G and Ms. H (who were under 13 at the time of the incident), by touching them and pressing his penis against them while they were sleeping, and he was also charged with filming these acts on his phone. He was also indicted for filming these acts on his cell phone. Later, he was charged with violating the Child Welfare Law in connection with the assault on Ms. I., bringing the total number of victims to nine, and Ishino was charged with a total of ten crimes.

“I want to see the sexual parts of girls I know.”

During the second hearing on August 14, it became clear from the indictment and opening statements that the offense against I was a despicable act committed by exploiting his position as an instructor.

“The defendant took advantage of his position as a judo instructor to engage in oral sex and sexual intercourse with Ms. I on eight occasions in 2019, knowing that Ms. I, who was receiving judo instruction from the defendant, was a child under the age of 18.”

In a statement read by the prosecutor, Ms. I described her anger toward defendant Ishino as follows.

“I felt that my body was being mishandled by Ishino, but when I tried to refuse sexual acts, he would become irritable, ignore me, or deliberately give me harsh training, so I couldn’t say no.

I struggled over whether to report it to the police, but upon learning that there were many other victims, I felt truly unforgivable. I want the defendant to understand that his actions are socially unacceptable, and I hope for a strict punishment.”

Most of the crimes against the seven girls, B to H, former students of the school, were committed during the judo training camp from 2019 to 2024, and all of them were sexually assaulted while the victim children were sleeping, so they were not even aware that they had been victimized.

Most of the offenses against former students B through H, seven girls in total, took place during judo training camps from 2019 to 2024. Because all assaults occurred while the victims were asleep, many of the children were unaware they had been abused.

Ishino also mixed sleeping pills into the girls’ drinks to facilitate the assaults. A note saying, “Sleep-inducing drug at camp – give sleeping pills at bedtime”, was discovered on his smartphone.

“I could not control my desire to see and touch the sexual parts of girls I knew. I committed these acts because I had a sexual fetish that aroused me by engaging in sexual acts without being caught, looking at sexual parts, and secretly filming them.”

To satisfy his distorted desires, he used harsh training

Furthermore, during the third hearing, one of the victims’ mothers revealed that Ishino apparently specified pickup and drop-off times for parents, possibly to facilitate sexual assaults on the girls during the training camps.

“We were told that many children would relax and cry out of affection if they saw their parents’ faces, so parents were instructed to leave immediately after dropping off their children and not to come for pickup until the specified time.”

Additionally, in her statement that day, after expressing her anger toward the defendant as mentioned earlier, the mother continued further.

“I found out that the defendant had the children practice hard from early in the morning to late at night at the training camp, out of sight of their parents, in order to satisfy his twisted desires. I can only think that the camp was prepared as a device to satisfy the defendant’s sexual desires, and I cannot repent enough for having sent my daughter to this device as instructed by the defendant.”

She stated that her anger was fueled not only by her daughter being sexually abused, but also by Ishino’s words and behavior during the trial.

In Part 2, we will introduce the details of Ishino’s words and actions that infuriated the victim’s family.

Part 2: “Sex offenders are bullied.” Defendant’s comments upset the victims’ families.

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