Former Judo Dojo Head on Trial for Abuse of Nine Children, Remorse Questioned
The year 2025: Violent and Serious Cases
Defendant Yuta Ishino (from the judo school’s website; now deleted)From the many incident reports covered by FRIDAY Digital in 2025, this installment of the specially curated 2025 Heinous & Major Crimes Wide focuses on the Former Judo School Head Sexual Assault Trial, in which a man who ran a judo school committed crimes against nine of his students.
FRIDAY Digital reported on this case in four articles, from the first hearing on June 27, 2025, through the sentencing hearing on October 22 of the same year. This article revisits those reports with newly added details.
A large amount of child pornography discovered on his smartphone
The case began on November 7, 2024, when Chiba Prefectural Police arrested defendant Yuta Ishino on suspicion of assault in connection with a May 2023 incident in which, during a training camp, he forcibly poured soy sauce into the mouth of a male child, A. As police investigated the assault, they discovered a large amount of child pornography on Ishino’s smartphone, which led to the exposure of his sexual offenses.
Investigators analyzed the child pornography and identified each victim one by one. Starting with his arrest on January 7, 2025, for sexually assaulting B, who was under 13 at the time of the incident, and culminating in his arrest on June 10 for violations of the Child Welfare Act involving victim I, the number of victims ultimately reached nine. Ishino was arrested and indicted on ten charges, including assault of minors, violations of the Child Welfare Act, non-consensual sexual intercourse, filming sexual acts, and violations of the Child Pornography Prohibition Act.
At the first hearing on June 27, 2025, the prosecutor spent 30 minutes reading six indictments aloud, laying bare the horrifying details of Ishino’s crimes.
《“Between 2022 and 2024, the sexual assaults committed against five former female students, B through F, all of whom were under the age of 13 at the time of the incidents, were carried out while the victims were asleep, and in fact they were not even aware that they had been victimized. Notes were discovered on Ishino’s smartphone containing entries such as sleeping-pill camp — give sleeping medication when they go to bed.”
“The defendant planned to engage in sexual acts with B, who was participating in the training camp, and gave her juice containing a sleep-inducing drug. He then sexually assaulted B while she was asleep.”
“Inside a car parked at a service area, the defendant lifted the clothing of D while she was sleeping, touched her body, and sexually assaulted her. During the training camp, he also sexually assaulted D while she was asleep. On another day, again inside a car, he ejaculated on D’s face while she was sleeping and committed an obscene act by placing semen in her mouth.”》
Bullied by inmates
The indictment for the case involving I, who was the last to be arrested, was read aloud at the second trial on August 14, 2025. It contained the reprehensible claim that the defendant, abusing his position as an instructor, sexually assaulted I, who was under 18 at the time, eight times in 2021. In the statements read by the prosecutor, I expressed anger toward Ishino as follows:
《“I felt that (defendant Ishino) was toying with my body, but when I refused (to engage in sexual acts), he would become moody, ignore me, or deliberately make the training harsh, so I couldn’t say I didn’t want it.
I hesitated about whether to file a police report, but after hearing that there were many victims, I truly could not forgive him. I want the defendant to understand that his actions are socially unacceptable, so I hope for a severe punishment.”》
During police questioning, Ishino admitted to the crimes, stating: “I could not restrain my desire to see or touch the sexual parts of girls I knew. I have a sexual fetish that excites me when I engage in sexual acts secretly, look at sexual parts, or take illicit photos, which led me to commit these acts.”
In court, he admitted to all the charges, and even at the second trial, he acknowledged his crimes and offered words of apology, though some of his statements provoked the feelings of the victims’ parents.
《“One statement that provoked the emotions of the victims’ parents was when the victims’ representative lawyer asked, ‘What do you plan to do after your release?’ and he replied, ‘I intend to return to my parents’ home.’ He cited the need to care for his grandmother and father as the reason, but returning home would mean reappearing in the area where many of the victims live.
Additionally, when Judge Miyamoto asked, ‘In prison, there is a treatment program for sexual offenders. Do you feel like you want to participate in it?’ he suddenly answered loudly, exhaling repeatedly:
‘My crime is a sexual crime. I read in a book that sexual offenders are bullied by other inmates. In fact, during my detention, someone who knew me from the media came later, and there was trouble. So I want to take the program, but I am also scared.’
The mother of one of the victims touched on this in her statement, saying:
‘If he truly reflects and intends not to reoffend, there is no answer other than to participate in the program.’”》
How genuine are the words of remorse
In addition, this mother pointed out that defendant Ishino strictly enforced pick-up and drop-off times for the children and tried to keep parents away from the camp, and, sobbing, expressed her anger toward the defendant.
《“I realized that the defendant, in order to satisfy his twisted desires, arranged the camp so that parents could not see, and made the children train rigorously from early morning until night. I can only think of the camp as a device set up to satisfy the defendant’s sexual desires, and I cannot begin to express how much I regret sending my daughter into this device under the defendant’s instructions.”》
In his closing arguments, the prosecutor emphasized the seriousness of the case, stating, “This case involved a judo instructor targeting his students in a series of repeated crimes, shocking not only the children and parents but society as a whole.” He further pointed out, “The defendant’s personality deviations and tendency to commit sexual crimes against young girls are extremely conspicuous and serious, and the likelihood of reoffending is very high,” and demanded a sentence of 25 years in prison.
On the other hand, the defense attorney argued that, because the crimes were mainly committed while the victims were asleep, they did not suffer direct pain, and that Ishino’s expulsion from the All Japan Judo Federation constituted a social sanction, stating, “We ask for the most lenient sentence possible.”
At the sentencing hearing held at Chiba District Court on October 22, 2025, defendant Ishino was handed a 22-year prison sentence.
Presiding Judge Satoshi Miyamoto explained the sentence, saying, “These were despicable crimes in which the victims, being asleep and defenseless, with no memory of the incidents, were exploited to satisfy the defendant’s sexual desires. Considering the number of victims and the frequency of the crimes, even compared with similar cases, the severity of the offenses is extremely high, and a long prison term is unavoidable.”
Ryo Nakahira, a writer who covered the trial, commented on Ishino’s future:
“In court, defendant Ishino was asked by the victims’ representative lawyer, ‘How do you feel about betraying the trust of the children and committing these acts?’ He replied, ‘I feel deeply sorry toward the victimized children.’ He expressed regret that the children, including those victimized in this case, had continued attending his judo school daily despite rigorous training, calling him ‘Sensei Ishino,’ and had been fond of him, yet he had committed these acts.
On the other hand, Ishino, a man skilled enough to run a judo school, said, ‘I am afraid to take the sex offender treatment program in prison because people will know I am a sex offender and bully me,’ which shows he is a timid person.
He has not written apology letters to the victims. Doing so would require him to confront each act individually, which he likely found frightening. Even if he wrote tens of thousands of words, the parents would not forgive him, and he was probably scared of facing their raw hatred.
In the end, he likely had neither the resolve nor the genuine remorse to continue apologizing no matter how much verbal abuse he received from the victims’ parents.”
Although he said, “Until now, judo has been all I had,” Ishino also declared that he will no longer be involved in judo in order to atone for his crimes. How sincere is this intention to reform?
Afterwards, defendant Ishino did not appeal, and the sentence became final.