Photo/Illutration A building that houses the Tokyo District Court and the Tokyo High Court in the capital’s Chiyoda Ward (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The Tokyo District Court on Dec. 9 sentenced a former teacher at a junior high school in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward to nine years in prison for sexually assaulting and injuring a female student at the school.

The prosecution had sought 10 years in prison for Hisayoshi Kitamura, 57. 

In 2010, Kitamura was indicted for having sexual intercourse with a then student and inflicting minor injuries.

The prosecution argued that the victim was unable to resist because she was afraid that she “would be disadvantaged in school life if she disobeyed the defendant.”

Another former student consulted the Tokyo metropolitan board of education about past sexual assaults by Kitamura, which triggered the case.

In September 2023, an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department revealed that Kitamura possessed videos of the victim and others in the nude.

Thus, the 2010 case was also reopened. 

At the time of his arrest, Kitamura was the principal of a public junior high school.

Kitamura apologized at his trial, saying, “I am sorry for the pain that I caused her over the years.”

However, he claimed that he thought he was in a relationship with the student at the time and that she had consented to the sexual act.

He also said that it cannot be determined that he caused the injury to the girl since there is no medical certificate.

Even if his act constituted sexual assault, it is only a “quasi-rape” offense, he said.

He also claimed that the statute of limitations for prosecution is 10 years for the crime of quasi-rape, and that the statute of limitations had already expired for his indictment, which occurred in 2010.

The statute of limitations for quasi-rape resulting in injuries is 15 years. 

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