News On Japan

High school students punished for videoing bathing classmates

TOKYO - An undisclosed number of male high school students from Kumamoto Prefecture have been punished for using their smartphones to take video footage of female classmates in an outdoor bath on a school field trip last summer.

Punishments handed down to the schoolboys included suspensions, with at least one student leaving the prefectural government-operated school of their own violation.

About 30 girls are believed to have been filmed while they used an outdoor bath.

The school involved, which TV Kumamoto did not disclose in its report on the case, filed a report on the incident, which occurred on a school field trip conducted in summer 2022.

The school filed a report on the case with the Kumamoto Prefecture Board of Education on June 29. The report noted that an undisclosed number of male students had used their smartphones to video the bathing schoolgirls, and spied on them.

The school said it had punished the offenders with punishments including suspension. The school said it was unable to confirm whether footage taken during the incident had been spread online. Footage of the incident has not been found online as yet.

The school continues to provide counseling to those affected by the case.

The prefectural board of education refused to comment on the case, citing privacy concerns for those involved.

Source: TKUofficial

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has drawn criticism over a social media post describing five hours of sleep as a rare luxury, as the extended Diet session prepares to begin Upper House debate on a controversial bill to establish secondary capitals outside Tokyo.

Japan began applying a new numerical alcohol threshold for dangerous driving offenses on July 21, introducing a clearer standard for cases involving impaired driving that could lead to fatal accidents.

Breathtaking 4K footage filmed from a helicopter offers a sweeping aerial view of Mount Fuji and its majestic surrounding landscape.

A covert network of shuttle tankers is carrying crude through the increasingly dangerous Strait of Hormuz as renewed fighting between the United States and Iran disrupts shipping and raises concerns over how Japan will secure the oil it needs.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko has criticized moves by Japanese and Ukrainian companies to cooperate on drone technology, warning that such ties would be regarded by Moscow as a "clear hostile act."

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Education NEWS

Hokkaido saw a marked shift toward private high schools among students entering in fiscal 2026 after tuition at private institutions became effectively free from April, according to an analysis by the Hokkaido Board of Education.

The Japanese government is considering new rules to protect children from the risks of social media and plans to compile concrete measures by the end of 2026, but officials and experts remain cautious about introducing a blanket age restriction like those pursued in Australia and the European Union.

Japanese elementary and junior high school students continue to struggle with written-response questions in Japanese, while average accuracy rates in arithmetic and mathematics remained in the 50% range, according to nationwide academic test results released by the education ministry on July 16.

Japan’s relationship with intimate goods is far older than the modern online adult shop. Long before discreet packaging, digital payments, and private home delivery, Japanese artists, writers, merchants, and townspeople were already exploring the boundaries between desire, humor, privacy, and everyday life.

A growing number of young doctors in Japan are moving directly into cosmetic medicine after obtaining a medical license and completing their initial clinical training, raising concern that the trend may be worsening staff shortages in insurance-covered medical care.

Foreign drivers seeking to convert overseas licenses into Japanese ones are increasingly turning to driving schools after tougher rules introduced last October sharply reduced pass rates for both written and practical checks.

Foreign-born sumo wrestlers are often praised for speaking remarkably natural Japanese, a sharp contrast to many overseas athletes in other professional sports.

Police in Isehara, Kanagawa Prefecture, presented letters of appreciation to two first-year junior high school students on July 10 after they chased a suspected shoplifter for about 250 meters and helped detain the person.