crime

Man arrested for molesting elementary school girl

27 Comments

Police have arrested a 44-year-old man on suspicion of sexually molesting an elementary school girl. Police said the suspect, Masakazu Kato, lives in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, where he works as a postman.

Police said Kato has admitted to the charge and quoted him as saying he has a sexual interest in young girls and can’t control his urges.

The alleged incident occurred on May 24 at around 6:30 p.m. in front of an elevator on the first floor of the girl's apartment building in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward. The girl told her parents she was suddenly hugged by Kato from behind and subjected to obscene acts against her will. She reportedly did not sustain any physical injuries. 

Police said Kato was riding his bicycle on the day of the incident and followed the girl for about 10 minutes before molesting her. 

Kato was identified through street surveillance camera footage. In addition, about 200 DVDs featuring child pornography were discovered at Kato’s residence.

© Japan Today

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27 Comments
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The girl told her parents she was suddenly hugged by Kato from behind 

It is offensive to victims of sexual assault me that you continue to use this mistranslation, despite complaints in the forum over many years.

Hugs are physical demonstrations of affection, comfort, and/or friendship. Perpetrators of sexual assault do not 'hug' their victims, they grab and forcibly restrain them.

21 ( +28 / -7 )

Life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

No. Maria I disagree. Hug means to wrap your arms around, to clasp tightly in the arms. Sure it is usually an affectionate action, but not always. Ask a pro wrestler if a bear hug is comfortable. It’s not a mistranslation, it describes well the action of the perp.

Grab is not hug, grab is a different motion, and clasp, headlock etc.

He restrained forcibly from behind in a bear hug, would that suffice?

Back to Kato, sicko. What do to with perverts like this? Jail time, but then what? He gets out, highly unlikely has lost his innate desires and once again he is out on the prowl.

Does Japan make registered sex offenders go door to door in the neighborhood and announce their shame and warn everyone like some countries?

Chemical castration? Use science to render him neutered and lacking sexual desire.

-3 ( +13 / -16 )

flammenwerfer surely you can agree that "grabbed" from behind is a much, much clearer description of what surely happened? Hug means a lot of things, but it tends to carry positive connotations. If I said a man hugged me and another man grabbed me you would be thinking two entirely different scenarios. In the first you would at least think the man meant well, even if I did not want to be hugged.

9 ( +17 / -8 )

Thats so scary!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Disgusting.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Norman GoodmanToday  02:34 pm JST

flammenwerfer surely you can agree that "grabbed" from behind is a much, much clearer description of what surely happened? Hug means a lot of things, but it tends to carry positive connotations

Well no, grab has many meanings, grab is typically done with your hands, he grabbed her from behind -how? by the arms? By the shoulders? By the neck.

He wrapped his arms around her to restrain her. It’s still a hugging motion.

I will concede bear hug would have been more appropriate terminology than plain hug,

Kiss has mostly positive connotations, too, But if the story included the pervert forcibly kissing the girl. Would people be upset at the use of this word?

This sicko in his warped mind, hugged her. Forcibly so, and if that image makes people feel uncomfortable, then perhaps there will be more backlash and stronger sentencing.

Society needs to wake up and address these Lolita perverts harder.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

This may have happen to this young girl and should not have happened, Hope she is not scared for life. But the big picture here is He was caught, He confessed and if the legal system in Japan does it's job this guy will spend many years in prison where pedophiles are beaten as a daily routine.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

That poor girl has been scarred for life.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

In addition, about 200 DVDs featuring child pornography were discovered at Kato’s residence.

Can the police find the producers of the DVDs and arrest them too?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Well, probably won't be teenage girls for him to molest in prison, where I hope he spends a really long time.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

"subjected to obscene acts against her will"

Such coddled termites wont be satisfied until they rot their country's foundation.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

But this being Japan,it will be just dismissed as another 'Loli-con.'

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Police said Kato has admitted to the charge and quoted him as saying he has a sexual interest in young girls and can’t control his urges.

So, will this confession result in jail time and counselling for his perverted fetish? Or, will he just get a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again? It's way passed the time Japan started taking child sex offenders seriously. The need to set up a child sex offender's list and introduce mandatory long jail terms for offenders. Only then will these cowardly creeps think twice about molesting young girls.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Poor girl.

Such horrible incidents are why we are always in direct supervision of our young children, or ensure that they are supervised by other trusted adults or teens.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

If the mental "sciences" really were sciences, they would be able to do something for this kind of person.

And for the victim.

They can't.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

If the mental "sciences" really were sciences, they would be able to do something for this kind of person.

I suppose medicine is not a science either, as there are lots of incurable health conditions? The behavioral sciences have plenty wrong, and there is more hocus-pocus than there is in medicine, but they are not useless.

The sorts of sexual compulsions are very difficult to treat. The girl, however, can get some help. Overcoming trauma is something that people can seek help for. I hope she gets plenty of support.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

A perv is a perv is a perv is a perv...

Separate and tag.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

To the use of "hug" debate - I agree it's usually an endearing term to describe a warm act.

And in this case it appears as flammenwerter pointed out, that the action was a "hugging" action.

Of course the act was a completely unwanted violation - an assault.

So a more descriptive term is necessary, perhaps using the word flammen... mentioned , "forcibly", as in -

"Kato forcibly hugged the girl from behind" or "Violently hugged the girl from behind" or "Agressively hugged the girl from behind" etc etc.

No matter what terms are used though, the actions of the man are truly despicable and the girl must have been horrified.

I have no idea if the number of such "loose cannons" with uncontollable predatory sexual urges is increasing, or the media reporting is more comprehensive these days, but it appears such acts are on the rise, esp those resulting in serious harm or death.

What society can do to deal with this problem is difficult, but mental health issues need to a serious focus by all forms of govt and attract more resources - ie funding, research, personnel etc - or it seems an escalation of disturbing cases will prevail.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If the mental "sciences" really were sciences, they would be able to do something for this kind of person.

Nonsense. There is a lot of perfectly good science on the subject, but the peasantry does not want to hear it. They much prefer to malign science than admit obvious truths about any of this. No says science or medicine are a sham when they can't cure cancer. But all it will take is some mass hysteria and moral panic and they will.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I see nothing wrong with saying she was suddenly hugged from behind against her will. It describes clearly what he did, while grabbing can be done in many different ways.

I'm glad they caught this postman. I hope he is punished harshly and undergoes therapy, after which he will be released only if they can demonstrate he no longer poses a threat (either cured or castrated).

No place for such sicko in society.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Try that with my daughter and ill be giving you much more than a hug, messed up little man child, makes my blood boil.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It is offensive to victims of sexual assault me that you continue to use this mistranslation

It is apparently what the the girl said, so I'm not sure how you can call it a mistranslation without referring to the original Japanese. The article also referred to "obscene acts" and "molesting". I think we get the idea. Not nice. However, I hope she has some friends to share the story with and who will tell her not to worry and that she'll get over it rather than people who will tell her she'll be scarred for life.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Maria

It is offensive to victims of sexual assault me that you continue to use this mistranslation, despite complaints in the forum over many years.

Interesting Freudian slip, "... offensive to victims of sexual assault me ...".

I disagree with you too, however.

Perpetrators of child sexual assaults do not always "grab" and forcibly restrain. They don't need to. Many ones use a softly-softly touch, confusing the child, which is how they get away with it for years.

Journalistic accuracy does matter, even about such utterly objectionable events. If it wasn't a grab and forcible restraint, you can't make it so.

Is it unusual to get such a quick and easy confession out of them?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Norman Goodman

No way, women suffer lots of creepy, often drunken, and equally unwanted hugging that is nowhere near grabbing.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

How do people interpret the term hugging? To me, it always meant that I can see the hugger. I might not welcome the hug (some people are way too huggy for my taste) but I know it is coming. Do you really call grabbing somebody from behind a "hug"?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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