Looks like this social studies teacher needs a refresher on basic laws.

A teacher at a public junior high school in Osaka who was arrested after allegedly trying to shoot illicit video of his female students in a school restroom with his smartphone is offering up a less than believable excuse for his actions.

According to a report by Nikkan Gendai, on March 17 between 2:45 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., the suspect, a 32-year-old Osaka City junior high social studies teacher named Hiroto Imai, snuck into a girls’ restroom located in the second floor of the school gymnasium where he taught and hid his smartphone there.

An anonymous source related to the school explains that a female student found the phone hidden among cleaning rags on the floor in a toilet stall. The student then took the phone to another teacher and speculated that it was Imai’s. After looking into the matter school officials determined that it was indeed Imai’s. This along with a school employee’s report that Imai had been paying a suspicious amount of attention to the girls’ restroom that day resulted in police being contacted.

Imai was arrested on March 19 under suspicion of trespassing.

Although Imai has admitted to entering the girls’ restroom, he has not admitted to trying to shoot illicit video (tosatsu) of his students.

In response to police questing Imai has been quoted as saying “It [the smartphone] was for recording audio of the students in order to see if they were talking bad about me.”

Whether students were actually “talking bad” about Imai behind his back is unknown. However, according to Nikkan Gendai, it appears that some students from Imai’s school have been talking about him on an online message board.

One comment left by someone appearing to be a student at the school suggested that this was not the first time Imai had tried something like this, stating that police had come to the school before after a smartphone had been found in a restroom.

Source: Nikkan Gendai

Image: Japankyo