Ex-judge installed camera in women’s toilet at Ministry of Justice

TOKYO (TR) – A former judge from the Ministry of Justice is alleged to have installed a camera inside a women’s toilet inside a ministry building in Kasumigaseki, people with knowledge of the matter announced on Monday, reports Sports Nippon (Apr. 22).

Investigators plan to charge the former magistrate, a 50-year-old male who was not named, with violating a Tokyo public nuisance ordinance. Data from the camera, which was installed inside a toilet stall in March, is now being carefully examined by law enforcement.

The matter came to light after women using the stall noticed the camera.

“As a police report indicated, it is a fact that a case of voyeurism is alleged to have occurred in the ministry,” said a ministry spokesperson. “But without knowing details of the case, it is not possible to comment on the matter at this time.”

The alleged perpetrator, who has admitted to the allegations, worked as a presiding judge at district courts in Sendai, Yokohama and Tokyo. Since April of 2010, he has been employed as a cabinet secretary in charge of litigation.

This is not the first scandal of this nature to befall the ministry this year. At approximately 11:30 p.m. on January 29, a police officer with the ministry, 31-year-old Yuki Ide, was arrested for filming up the skirt of a woman in her 20s as she stood inside a car of the Yamanote Line train in Tokyo. He was suspended from office for one month starting on March 14 but instead chose to retire from his post.

“The matter is unthinkable,” said Masaru Wakasa, a lawyer and former chief of the public safety division of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office. “It is outrageous.”

The lawyer says the punishment should be severe. “A suspension from duty for at least six months,” he said.