Two Arrested Within Minutes Over Alleged Voyeurism at Yotsukaido Station in Chiba

Two incidents just five minutes apart

On September 10, an unusual situation occurred at JR Yotsukaido Station in Yotsukaido, Chiba Prefecture, when two men suspected of secretly filming women were detained within a span of just five minutes.

Arrested by Yotsukaido Police Station on the 10th on suspicion of violating the Act on Punishment of Acts of Photographing Sexual or Other Intimate Parts (photography) was Takuya Takahashi (32), a teacher at Funabashi Municipal Ninomiya Junior High School who lives in Inage Ward, Chiba City. At around 3:37 p.m., he allegedly approached a female high school student from behind on the stairs at the north exit of Yotsukaido Station, slipped a smartphone under her skirt, and recorded a video.

“A railway police officer who was on patrol witnessed Takahashi committing the offense and arrested him on the spot. Takahashi admitted to the allegations, explaining his motive by saying, ‘I can’t resist the thrill of secretly filming women’s panties, which are normally hidden.’

Several videos believed to have been secretly filmed in a similar manner were also found on Takahashi’s smartphone, and police are investigating on the assumption that he had been doing this habitually.” (Reporter in the social affairs department of a national newspaper)

Just a few minutes earlier, another suspect in a separate secret-filming incident had also been arrested at the same station.

“At around 3:32 p.m., company employee Kosuke Ono (34), from Wakaba Ward, Chiba City, was suspected of recording a video under a female high school student’s skirt with his smartphone on an escalator at the same north exit of JR Yotsukaido Station. The incident came to light when a railway police officer who was also on patrol questioned him, and he was arrested that same day on suspicion of violating the Act on Punishment of Acts of Photographing Sexual or Other Intimate Parts (photography).

Ono admitted to the allegations, telling investigators, ‘I thought that if I recorded a video on my own smartphone, I would be able to enjoy watching it repeatedly later.’” (Same source)

The two men were sent from Yotsukaido Police Station to the public prosecutors’ office at around 9:30 a.m. on the 12th. The first to emerge was Ono, who had long hair with the sides closely shaved. He turned his face away from the cameras and quickly got into a vehicle. About a minute later, Takahashi appeared. When he noticed the cameras, he furrowed his brow. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked exhausted.

At Yotsukaido Station, where the incidents occurred, at least seven cases of secret filming or attempted secret filming have occurred since 2021, based on incidents that can be confirmed. When asked about the latest arrests, the Chiba Prefectural Police Railway Police Squad said, “We were not specifically focusing our patrols on Yotsukaido Station.”

“We conduct patrols broadly, focusing not only on secret filming but also on groping and other nuisance behavior, particularly at stations with a high number of reported incidents, such as Chiba Station and Nishi-Funabashi Station, as well as stations frequently used by female high school students. It just happened that there were two incidents on this particular day.”

At specific places during specific time periods

According to statistics from JR East, the average number of daily passengers boarding trains in fiscal 2024 was 129,904 at Nishi-Funabashi Station and 104,225 at Chiba Station. By comparison, Yotsukaido Station had 20,324.

Simply looking at the scale of station usage, Yotsukaido Station is considerably smaller than the two stations cited by the Railway Police Squad as having a high number of reported incidents. However, “The incidents that have occurred at Yotsukaido Station have certain characteristics,” says a writer familiar with sex crime cases.

“According to publicly available information, the victims in the seven secret-filming incidents at Yotsukaido Station were described as women and women in their 20s, while the remaining five cases all involved female high school students. Of the seven incidents, five occurred on stairs or escalators at the north exit. The exact time of the offense is unknown in one case, but all of the others were concentrated between 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.”

Indeed, there is a noticeable pattern in the victims’ profiles, locations, and times of the offenses.

“There are four high schools on the north-exit side of Yotsukaido Station. According to the most recently published figures, they have a combined enrollment of approximately 3,000 students. About 1,900 of them are girls, accounting for more than 60 percent of the students at the four schools. The period when the incidents are concentrated, from around 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., overlaps with the time when high school students are leaving school. This means that many female high school students are passing through the north-exit area.

Some habitual perpetrators of secret filming create closed communities on platforms such as X, LINE, and Discord, where they buy and sell images and exchange information. In previous reporting, there have even been cases where people shared information on message boards about recommended spots for secret filming. Could information about the times and locations when and where many female high school students are present at Yotsukaido Station’s north exit also have been shared? That is something that concerns me.” (Same source)

Could the reason arrests for secret filming have repeatedly occurred at the north exit of Yotsukaido Station be that it had become recognized as a secret-filming spot among habitual offenders?

At present, no evidence has been found to support that theory. However, the fact remains that incidents in which female high school students were victimized have repeatedly occurred at the same location and during the same time period. That fact is significant.