<figure id="attachment_476860" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-476860" style="width: 972px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3ac4bea9"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/08/ecbaac548e0164cd6ecfd3dd2084a212.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-476860" class="wp-caption-text">Defendant Oka, who was referred for prosecution by the Shinjuku Police Station in September ’25, was looking around with his eyes cast upward</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Until the very end, he maintained, “It was not for lewd purposes.”</h3>
 July 29—The deadline for defendant Yosuke Oka (46), who was charged with non-consensual indecent acts against three women, to file an appeal has passed, and his sentence of “four years in prison (prosecutors had sought five years and six months)” has become final.The sentence was handed down by Judge Tomofumi Ikeda at the sentencing hearing held at the Chiba District Court on July 14, ’26.
 During the trial, the despicable nature of Okada’s crimes—in which he rendered the women unable to resist through fear or sleeping pills before committing indecent acts—was revealed. However, the defendant consistently maintained that he “does not remember” and that his actions “were not for indecent purposes.” On what grounds did he make such claims? Let’s look back at the trial.
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 According to the indictment read aloud at the first hearing on February 16, on the morning of May ’25, Defendant Oka committed indecent acts—including reaching into the skirt of high school student A (then 16 years old)—on a train . During the crime , he threatened A from behind, saying, “I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you. If you make a fuss, I’ll kill you.I’ve got a knife,” thereby preventing her from resisting.
 Also in May of that same year, he committed indecent acts against Ms. B (then 23), whom he had met through a dating app, by slipping a sleeping pill into her drink to make her drowsy and then reaching inside her clothing.
 He stated that this was the first time he had met Ms. B. They met after he promised to pay her 10,000 yen, and they had dinner at a yakiniku restaurant. While Ms. B was in the restroom, he slipped the sleeping pills—which he had brought in a soy sauce dispenser—into her drink. They then moved to a private room at a bar, where he committed the assault.
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 Furthermore, on an evening in July of the same year, he committed indecent acts against Ms. C (then 20 years old) on a train, including putting his hand inside her clothing. On that occasion as well, he threatened Ms. C, saying things like, “I’ll kill you.”
 Defendant Oka admitted his guilt regarding each offense, stating, “There is no mistake.” However, he clarified that this admission meant he acknowledged that “the perpetrator seen in the security camera footage of each incident is himself,” while asserting that “due to the effects of the sleeping pills he had taken, he has no memory of the incidents or there are parts that are unclear.” Defendant Oka explained that he suffers from a sleep disorder and “has been taking sleeping pills for nearly 20 years.”
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The defendant’s stated “motive for the crimes”"></div>
<h3>He Used Sleeping Pills Because He “Wanted to Hear Her True Feelings”</h3>
 Why did Defendant Oka commit one despicable crime after another?
 The first thing Defendant Oka cited during the trial was the appalling working conditions at the restaurant where he was employed at the time.
 “In a workplace where my immediate supervisor was working over 200 hours of overtime a month, I myself had almost no days off. Furthermore, I suffered a fracture during work that took three months to heal, and even while living with a cast, I was unable to take time off. Because there was absolutely no consideration shown to me, I felt a strong sense of distrust toward the company and was mentally pushed to the brink.”
 Furthermore, he stated that his relationship with his mother, with whom he was living at the time, was strained, and that “I had nowhere to find peace of mind, so the amount of sleeping pills I was taking increased day by day, and I was often in a dazed state.”
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 As for why she couldn’t remember the crimes committed against Ms. A and Ms. C, she explained her state of mind at the time of the incidents as follows:
 “There were times when I’d wake up in the morning to find large quantities of food I didn’t remember buying, or I’d suddenly realize I was in a place I didn’t recognize at all. Also—though this is just a fragmentary memory—I recall getting into a fight on a train.”
 According to Defendant Oka, “Because I had taken a large dose of sleeping pills, there were times when I acted while completely unconscious.” He explained that because he committed the crimes against Ms. A and Ms. C while in that state, they were not committed for lewd purposes.
 However, he said he has fragmentary memories of the crime against Ms. B. Reflecting on it, he explained that he had a specific purpose in spiking her drink with sleeping pills.
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 “It’s interesting because when you make someone take sleeping pills, they can’t lie anymore, and you can see their true feelings. In the past, I’ve secretly given them to male colleagues at work—it sounds bad, but I was just messing around.”
 When her defense attorney asked, “Why did you want to know Ms. B’s true feelings?” she replied as follows:
 “It’s the same for me, but on dating apps, profile information like job and hometown is often just made up. I was curious to see how the conversation would change and what their true feelings would be once they took the drug.”
 She explained that the crime was triggered when B, after taking the sleeping pill, revealed her “true feelings ”—that she was “interested in men’s bodies.” She argued that she did not give him the sleeping pill for lewd purposes.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The prosecutor pressed her fiercely on this point."></div>
<h3>&#8220;He also harbored hatred toward women,&#8221;</h3>
 Upon hearing this, the prosecutor—perhaps out of anger—took off his glasses and placed them on the desk, then pressed him in a stern tone.
 Prosecutor: “You said you wanted to hear his true feelings, so you decided to get him drunk, right? Do you really think anyone would believe that?”
 Defendant Oka: “Well, that’s actually how I feel, so I can’t say anything else.”
 Prosecutor: “What I want to know is, do you think there’s anyone who would hear that story and think, ‘Oh, I see,’ and believe it?”
 Defendant Oka: “I suppose generally speaking, there probably aren’t many.”
 Prosecutor: “Few? Do you think there are even a few?”
 Defendant Oka: “I suppose there are.”
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 Furthermore, Defendant Oka stated that one of his motives for committing indecent acts against Ms. A and Ms. C on the train was that “I had been sexually assaulted by a high school girl in the past, and because of that trauma, I harbored hatred toward high school girls.”
 According to the defendant, Ms. C, who was 20 years old at the time, looked young, so he may have unconsciously mistaken her for a high school girl. He claimed that he wandered around in a daze and sexually assaulted women who appeared to be high school girls for the purpose of “revenge.”
 Thus, throughout the trial, Defendant Oka steadfastly denied that he had committed the crimes for lewd purposes. During the closing arguments, partly because a settlement had been reached with Ms. A, the defense attorney argued that “a prison term of three years and six months would be appropriate.” However, Defendant Oka accepted the verdict without filing an appeal.
 In his final statement, Defendant Oka offered words of apology to the victim. He also stated, “I want to use this as an opportunity to live an honest life from now on,” noting that during his detention, he had broken his habit of taking sleeping pills and that his relationship with his mother had improved. Will he, true to his words, be able to lead a daily life free of crime this time around when he completes his sentence and reintegrates into society?

<figure id="attachment_476864" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-476864" style="width: 815px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="867c6a5e"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/08/ffd9009af636ee5accb8bea065ffe7c7.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-476864" class="wp-caption-text"> As he passed by the press corps, he turned his head to the side to avoid having his face photographed (September ’25)</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_476861" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-476861" style="width: 1337px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5f46bb8d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/08/242529ecdbdf4d8b3d05a4b47e4ec373.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-476861" class="wp-caption-text"> As he got into the car, he stared intently at the cameras (September ’25)</figcaption></figure>

 Ryo Nakahira

 Shinji Hasuo

 The sentence of four years in prison handed down to Defendant Oka for the crime of non-consensual indecent acts against three women has become final. Although the defendant admitted to the crimes during the trial, he continued to assert that “the acts were not committed for lewd purposes.” What exactly was the substance of that claim?

[Court Ruling] The “Substance” of the Defendant’s Claim That Threatening a High School Girl with “I’ll Kill You, I’ll Kill You, I’ll Kill You” Was “Not for Obscene Purposes”

[Court Ruling] The “Substance” of the Defendant’s Claim That Threatening a High School Girl with “I’ll Kill You, I’ll Kill You, I’ll Kill You” Was “Not for Obscene Purposes”

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