[Full Text Published] Child Pornography Viewing… Coach of Tokyo Youth Select “U16” Team Arrested and Detained While on Away Trip

A Series of “Inappropriate Acts”

“Ah, yes, I’ve been briefed on that. Make it public? Not making it public is just part of how we do things, isn’t it?”

Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (49), President of the Japan Football Association (JFA), said this to a FRIDAY reporter before walking away with a sullen expression—.

The “report” Chairman Miyamoto referred to pertains to an incident that occurred during the “Tokyo FA Youth Select U16 (hereinafter, Tokyo Youth) Overseas Tour Project” organized by the Tokyo Football Association (hereinafter, the Tokyo FA) this past March.

“From March 20 to 28, 20 Tokyo Youth players traveled to Germany and Belgium to play friendly matches against local youth teams, but by the 24th, Coach A, in his 20s, had been arrested by German police.According to sources, he was arrested on suspicion of committing indecent acts against a German youth player without consent, and it was discovered during the investigation that A had been viewing child pornography… With conflicting reports circulating, the situation on the ground descended into chaos, and A remained in custody there for over three months,” said a source from the Tokyo FA.

A served as a coach for the Tokyo Youth team while also coaching the junior youth team for J1 club Machida Zelvia.

In response to this shocking scandal, the Tokyo Football Association announced on its website on April 1 that “inappropriate conduct was confirmed, and the individual in question was relieved of his duties on March 24” (the post has since been deleted).

Meanwhile, Machida—A’s club—had not made any public announcement or imposed any disciplinary action (as of September 14).

“Given the nature of the incident, it seems the front office was at a loss as to how to respond and was completely at a loss,” said the source mentioned earlier.

“Child Pornography” Found on a Flight During a Business Trip

The JFA oversees soccer associations in all 47 prefectures (regional associations) and has provided them with annual subsidies.

“According to FY’25 figures, the JFA distributed a total of approximately 1.7 billion yen to regional associations. While the average annual amount per association is 36 million yen, the Tokyo Association—which is larger in scale—receives over 100 million yen annually. The incident occurred during a training camp organized by that association.Managers and coaches are not only responsible for teaching soccer skills but also for supervising and guiding the underage players in their care. The Tokyo Association and the JFA bear a heavy responsibility,” said a former JFA official.

In recent years, there has been a string of sexual misconduct scandals in Japanese soccer. It is still fresh in our memory that last October, Masahisa Kageyama (59), former chairman of the JFA Technical Committee, was arrested by local police in France after being witnessed viewing “child pornography” on a flight during an overseas business trip.Mr. Kageyama was tried in a summary proceeding at a court near Paris and received a guilty verdict of 18 months’ imprisonment (suspended for three years), a fine of 5,000 euros (approximately 900,000 yen), and a 10-year ban on entering France.

The JFA imposed a sanction on Mr. Kageyama consisting of a “permanent ban on soccer-related activities involving minors,” after which Chairman Miyamoto stated,

“This is unacceptable within the soccer community. We are determined to thoroughly review, strengthen, and improve the governance and compliance systems of the soccer community.”

However… this past August, a youth academy staff member at J3 club Roasso Kumamoto was arrested on suspicion of non-consensual indecent acts against a teenage student. And now, this latest scandal has emerged.

On September 11, when I confronted Chairman Miyamoto directly, he maintained—as stated at the beginning—that it was up to the JFA to decide whether to keep the matter “unpublicized.”After pointing out that allegations of non-consensual indecent acts against a youth player had surfaced, I asked, “Even so, was keeping the matter confidential the appropriate response?” He replied only, “It’s not so much a response as that we have received the report,” and remained silent in response to all other questions. The Machida Zelvia administrative office responded to this magazine’s inquiry as follows:

“We were in a situation where we could not obtain accurate information from local investigative authorities (omitted), and we recognized that we needed to consider the matter carefully.(…) Out of consideration for the privacy of the player and those involved, we judged it appropriate to refrain from making any public announcements as much as possible, and we asked the Tokyo Football Association to exercise similar discretion. Subsequently, we received a report from local law enforcement authorities that he had been convicted, and since the club confirmed this fact, we decided to terminate his contract.”

Meanwhile, the Tokyo Football Association asserted that “no ‘indecent acts without consent’ were committed against the German player,” and stated:

“Regarding the subsequent response [following his dismissal as coach effective April 1], since there is no employment relationship between this association and the individual in question, we recognize that we were not in a position to take proactive action on our own.”

When we again sought the views of Machida and the JFA—the Tokyo Football Association’s parent organization—we received the following comment:

“This matter occurred within the scope of the Tokyo Metropolitan Football Association’s operations, and the Japan Football Association is not in a position to comment beyond what the Tokyo Metropolitan Football Association disclosed on its website as of April 1 of this year.Furthermore, the Japan Football Association is committed to ensuring that not only this association but also the 47 prefectural soccer associations, affiliated organizations, member teams, players, and coaches conduct their activities in strict compliance with regulations.”

Judging by their response to this incident, however, it certainly did not appear that they had “thoroughly strengthened and improved their governance and compliance systems”—

From the October 2 & 9, 2026, combined issue of *FRIDAY*