<figure id="attachment_460237" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460237" style="width: 4000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="31d4ec3e"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/c82b9b38331b0a9b8519d1e68467baaf.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-460237" class="wp-caption-text">What is the sentence imposed on a former instructor who repeatedly voyeuristically photographed more than 100 times at his place of work?</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Repeatedly took more than 100 voyeuristic photos at an all-girls school</span></h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I thought I could take better pictures inside the school because people were less cautious there than they were walking outside.</span></p>
<p> The former instructor, who repeatedly took more than 100 spy photos at the girls&#8217; school where she worked, stated her motive as follows: &#8220;The Katsushika Police Station of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has arrested me.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;By November 12, &#8217;25, the Katsushika Police Station of the Metropolitan Police Department arrested Atsuto Sato, 33, a full-time lecturer at the middle school of a private girls&#8217; school, on suspicion of providing sexual shadow records. He is suspected of providing five images of his skirt to another person on three occasions between June 29 and July 5, &#8217;25, at the girls&#8217; school where he worked.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In July &#8217;25, the Katsushika Police arrested another man who had taken voyeuristic pictures at a train station. After analyzing that man&#8217;s smartphone, it was discovered that the defendant Sato had provided him with the voyeuristic images. Sato admitted the charges and was subsequently dismissed from the girls&#8217; school where he worked on disciplinary grounds.</span></p>
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<p> On February 25, the second trial of Sato, who is charged with two counts of photographing and providing sexually explicit images, was held at the Tokyo District Court and concluded on the same day.</p>
<p> The indictment and opening statement read by the prosecution revealed the despicable acts of Sato, who has never stopped taking voyeuristic photographs.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> In November of the same year, it was discovered that he had taken voyeuristic photographs of a high school girl&#8217;s underwear in a train station, and he went to counseling. However, from the summer of &#8217;24 at the latest, he began taking video of the underwear inside the skirts of students at the girls&#8217; school where he worked, using a pen-type camera that he had purchased for taking voyeuristic pictures.</span></p>
<p> He believed that he <span class="strongInContent">could</span> take <span class="strongInContent">better voyeuristic pictures inside the school than in the train station because the students would not be alarmed by the voyeuristic pictures.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The act of voyeurism itself became an end in itself."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">A &#8220;like-minded person&#8221; he met on an Internet bulletin board</span></h3>
<p> Sato explained how he got started in voyeurism.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I started taking voyeuristic photos because I was watching those kinds of videos on the Internet and thought that I could do it too. When I got stressed out, I started taking voyeuristic photos.</span></p>
<p> However, as he repeated the act of voyeurism, his purpose seemed to change.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> The reason I started was to satisfy my sexual desires, of course,&#8221; he says. However, from the middle of the act, the voyeuristic photographing itself became my purpose, or rather, I began to do it for the thrill of it.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> As mentioned above, in this case, another man was caught red-handed taking voyeuristic photographs at the station, and the discovery of the voyeuristic images provided by Sato on the man&#8217;s smartphone led to his arrest. What was her relationship with this man? In response to a question from the prosecutor, Sato stated the following.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> In response to a question from the prosecutor, Sato said, &#8220;I met this man on an Internet message board. He called himself &#8216;Cobalt&#8217; and liked to take voyeuristic pictures of students at my workplace. As we continued our correspondence, we began sending each other images of our own voyeurism through social networking sites. I identified myself as &#8216;Hunter A.&#8217; I captured video images of my skirt taken on video inside the school and sent them to &#8216;Cobalt&#8217; without my face on them.&#8221;</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" What was the sentence sought against Sato?"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">I was out of control.&#8221;</span></h3>
<p> When asked by the prosecutor how he felt about interacting with Cobalt, who was obsessed with the students at the girls&#8217; school where he worked, he <span class="strongInContent">replied, &#8220;I had also been a voyeur, so there was a kind of warped camaraderie</span>.&#8221;</p>
<p> He then said that in the course of their contact, he revealed that he was indeed a teacher at the very girls&#8217; school to which Cobalt was obsessed. Naturally, Cobalt asked him for information, but he testified that he had told him <span class="strongInContent">the names of the female students who had been spied on, but as expected, he had not divulged their addresses</span>.</p>
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<p> Argumentative arguments were held on the day of the hearing.</p>
<p> The prosecutor stated that the <span class="strongInContent">crime was</span><span class="strongInContent">&#8220;</span><span class="strongInContent">an extremely malicious one in which he took advantage of the feelings of the students he trusted for his own sexual gratification,&#8221;</span> and that <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;there is no room for leniency because he provided personal information and videotaped images of the students he was supposed to protect out of a desire for self-expression to be recognized by his fellow voyeurs, which is extremely selfish.</span></p>
<p> On the other hand, the defense argued that <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;it is appropriate to suspend the execution&#8221;</span><span class="strongInContent">because</span> Sato, who is out on bail, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;has already started visiting a specialized clinic and can expect to be supervised by his relatives in the future.</span></p>
<p> When Sato was arrested, he recalled <span class="strongInContent">feeling &#8220;a sense of relief.</span> When asked by his defense counsel why, he replied, &#8220;I was already in a state where I couldn&#8217;t control myself.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> I couldn&#8217;t control myself anymore, so I felt that this time I had to stop.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> In his final statement, he said <span class="strongInContent">, &#8220;As a teacher and as a human being, I acted in an unbecoming manner. I will never repeat such an act in the future.</span></p>
<p> If Sato can use his arrest as an opportunity to stop taking voyeuristic photographs, it will help prevent new victims from becoming victims. However, the anxiety of the students at his former workplace that they might have been voyeuristically photographed, and their anger at the fact that an instructor was taking voyeuristic pictures of them in the school and providing the images to others, will not disappear so easily.</p>
<p> The verdict is scheduled to be handed down on March 13.</p>
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 Ryo Nakahira

 On February 25, the Tokyo District Court held the second trial of a former teacher who took voyeuristic photos of junior high school students' skirts at the girls' school where he worked. What was the motive of the man who repeatedly took voyeuristic photos more than 100 times, saying, "I lost control of myself.

A former teacher who used a pen-shaped camera to film junior high school girls&#8217; skirts more than 100 times at his workplace has an &#8220;unstoppable habit&#8221; of filming them.

A former teacher who used a pen-shaped camera to film junior high school girls’ skirts more than 100 times at his workplace has an “unstoppable habit” of filming them.

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