A man who was arrested on Sept 10 for filming up the skirt of a cabin attendant on a Japan Airlines flight will not be charged due to a jurisdiction loophole, police said Saturday.
The 34-year-old man, from Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, allegedly used a hidden camera shaped like a pen to film up the skirt of the 27-year-old cabin attendant on a JAL flight from Takamatsu to Haneda, TBS reported.
According to police, the case is rare in Japanese legal history because each prefectural division of Japan has its own laws on such crimes, making prosecution difficult.
Eventually, it was decided to use the estimated time of the incident to calculate that the man was over Hyogo airspace when the act occurred, making him subject to prosecution in Hyogo Prefecture.
However, prosecutors in Hyogo said Friday they were unable to conclusively pinpoint the exact time that the man filmed up the woman's skirt and said that it could have been over any one of three prefectures, TBS reported.
During police questioning, the supect was quoted as saying that he got turned on by female flight attendants' uniforms.
© Japan Today
53 Comments
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GW
Keystones do it again, idiots! For petes sake!
Wow I didnt realize prefectural laws shoot skyward? Hey just how high do the go! And the earth rotating on its axis & the earth revolving around the sun, ALL AT THE SAME TIME 24/7 well I guess we will need to forgive the keystones, all this is very complicated indeed......................DOH!
jumpultimatestars
What if it had been a more severe crime, such as murder? Would he still have been freed because of this "jurisdiction loophole"? Surely not, therefore this logic does not stand.
jumpultimatestars
So you're telling me that if he murdered someone instead of looked up someone's skirt, he'd still be freed because of this "jurisdiction loophole"?? Surely not, therefore this logic cannot stand. If I remember correctly from the previous article, this guy was an executive with major cash. Something's fishy...
ADK99
No, murder is illegal in all of Japan. As the article states, laws on some crimes vary from area to area. That wouldn't apply to murder.
jumpultimatestars
@ADK but surely all three prefectures had at least SOME law that prohibits this kind of activity.
gaijinfo
What a bunch of clowns. I'll bet the victim feels wonderful.
Disillusioned
Ok, so they can't charge him for that offense, but did they raid his pad to get more evidence? You can bet this pervert has done it before and would have many more GBs of illegal filming.
By my reckoning, if they can't accurately determine which prefecture he was in he should be charged in all three prefectures, right?
Yubaru
While it's disgusting, and hopefully the JP's will come up with the law to cover actions like this in the future, better than one guilty many go free than create laws on the run.
yasukuni
So what happens on international flights?
nath
These laws are difficult to enforce in the first place.
Assume your filming your buddy at the station and a women with an incredibly short skirt enters the frame and unavoidably her privates are caught on your camera, or assume a woman in a skirt drops her pen and as she picks it up her privates once again are captured on your camera frame.
How do the prosecutors prove you did or did not intend to take those pictures?
What angle is a camera allowed to be before it's considered illegal?
What if I live on the bottom of a hill where a high school is, can I set up a "security" camera at my front door, pointed upwards towards the hill? How does the law judge or prove my intent? And if something explicit is caught on my (or any) security camera, is the owner liable?
Sorry for the awkward questions but I believe these are legitimate questions in these "public filming" cases.
jumpultimatestars
@Neversubmit, all of that is made irrelevant if the intent is confessed, and he confessed. Additionally, even if he did not confess there's no mistake in this situation, given the circumstances.
waltery
Thats given me some ideas for the ext time I'm flying
mikihouse
what will prevent the rest of the passengers in doing the same thing? Hmmm sky is the limit eh? Maybe next time, someone will do the same thing not only to flight crew but passengers as well. And maybe not only spycam...
its not prosecutable....just opened a can of worms
nath
YubaruOct. 13, 2012 - 04:42PM JST
The odds are that this was one of the keystones.
If they're not going to prosecute him, because of some legal technicality, you'd think they's at least name and shame him. However this Japan and the flight attendants will be probably named and shamed first; not wearing regulatory knickers.
Probie
I don't know why everyone is complaining. This is just what I expect from Japanese police and the courts here.
Japanese law enforcement without incompetence is like soccer without a ball.
philsandoz
These laws are difficult to enforce in the first place. Assume your filming your buddy at the station and a women with an incredibly short skirt enters the frame and unavoidably her privates are caught on your camera, or assume a woman in a skirt drops her pen and as she picks it up her privates once again are captured on your camera frame.
I think the fact that he was using a camera disguised as a pen may very well suggest that he knew he was doing something illegal -- or, at least wrong. This is not really a matter of illegality, but rather one of common decency.
Lowly
I bet they reviewed the flight logs to their best ability, and then reviewed the film that the guy made, whith its camera-clock records, over and over before making their determination.
Peter Shaw
the airlines should just ban him from flying with them, that will probably cause a lot of problems for him.
Robert Dykes
Arnt crimes commented on an airplane in us airspace all federal crimes? Japan has no such laws? These cameras can be bought on a hundred websites. I thnk I have seen them for sale in the back of an airplane magazine!!!!!
Serrano
"used a hidden camera"
I guess it wasn't hidden too well.
I also guess the guy is laughing his ass off at this decision.
Robert Dykes
@peter shaw. I am just wondering, have you looked at a map of Japan? You can drive or take a train anywhere in Japan. A bullet train will take you from Kyushu to Sapporo around 12 hours. I think this guy won't be too put off if he can't fly a Japanese domestic flight agian. He broke no federal laws, so I doubt they can ban him from international flights from non Japanese carriers.
Ivan Coughanoffalot
I think it is very interesting that, on 14th September, JT identified this pervert as a company director from Takamatsu. Suddenly he's just "a man"and the reportage from JT is no longer available.
I wonder just what strings this chap pulled to orchestrate such a Paris-Hiltonian level of one rule for poor people, another for the Ruling Class?
Serrano
"filming up the skirt of a cabin attendant"
Every time I hear about this sort of thing, the perpetrator is invariably Japanese...
presto345
The perv goes free due to lack of interest prosecutors take in these cases. The fact the man had a pen camera is an indication of the use he had in mind, but possession alone does not prove anything. It's now wait and see till the sicko does it again.
Thunderbird2
They've just given perverts on planes carte blanche to take as many upskirt photos as they like. Muppets!
whiskeysour
wow !!!! SAFEEEEEE But I bet he's blacklisted on every plane flight in japan.
creepy man !!!!!
plasticmonkey
Basically nobody wants to deal with the 'complications' of this case. The police and prosecutors go for cases they have a very high chance of winning (i.e. over 99%, which is the conviction rate). This silly jurisdiction issue would be a nightmare for the bureaucratically-minded stiffs who have to do the paperwork. Reminds me of the 'Tuttle' and 'Buttle' problem in the movie 'Brazil'.
edojin
This was probably a rich man who got off easily. Bet his lawyers were busy behind the scenes. But if this is the case, then he has probably bought another camera shaped like a pen and is ready to continue his hobby ...
lostrune2
Since it wasn't deemed illegal, then he could share the photos!
lucabrasi
@Serrano
Probably because you're reading Japan Today when you hear about it.
If you read Estonia Today, or Laos Today, you'd probably get a different perspective....
GW
Jump,
Yes you wud hope so, but then possessing child porn is legal in Japan so...........
smithinjapan
Only in Japan. And I literally mean that. This would not happen anywhere else.
Congratulations, Japan! I doubt it'll be as talked about as Yamanaka getting the Nobel Prize, but that's only because this nation likes to white-wash the bad, claim to be victim or worse, then play up what little good comes out.
And here I thought this nation was an advanced country.
smithinjapan
Saddest part is he'll probably 'retire' and land a plum job as a result.
BurakuminDes
Oh no - another one to file under "Wacky Japan"! I just hope this dropkick has lost all his customers and the company goes bankrupt real soon.
Not always. I remember several years ago there was one case involving a Korean pervert filming upskirts.
Open Minded
I am voiceless with the amount of loopholes in the Japan law with at the same time death penalty applied. Something is wrong, isn't it?
Serrano
@luca
Japantoday includes world news and I never read about non-Japanese filming upskirts...must be they just don't report those cases!
Yubaru
Unfortunately this would be an invasion of privacy. Unless the perp is actually charged with a crime the police can not release his name.
YongYang
What a bunch of crap. Prosecute, punish and bring the offence onto the books. Easy as 1, 2...
lucabrasi
@YongYang
Surely it'd be more sensible to put the offence onto the books before you prosecute? Otherwise, it's a bit of a waste of time, really, isn't it?
Yardley
Because it seems impossible to stop these perverts, perhaps the best and easiest answer is to change all flight attendant uniforms to trousers. The same could be done with school uniforms. Until some adult men learn to control themselves, or the law begins to take these kinds of violations seriously, that may be the only option.
gaiben
Many comments say this is an "only in Japan" problem, but that is because they lack knowledge of the laws elsewhere. There are many jurisdictions where national criminal laws only deal with certain types of offenses and other offenses are covered (or not) by local laws.
Badge213
Once again many folks blaming the police as "keystones" when they don't really know jack. The police did their job, they arrested the man. The police or keystones as many of you like to say, are not responsible for stupidity of laws written up by POLITICIANS and jurisdictional disputes that are out of the hands of the local law enforcers.
There is no "national law" concerning this type of event, only local prefecture laws, if they cannot positively identify where the event happened then you can't prosecute. Fix the laws, don't blame the police on this one. Of course anything ever the police do is bad for some folks. High employment, blame it on the keystone cops, it's getting old folks. If you got an argument to make then blame the right folks, not the wrong folks.
Spidey
Japan is a country where the needs of the many outweigh the rights of the few. Or the one. And if you are rich...you supersede all.
S
ohayo206
Glad to know rich and powerful pervs are well protected.
Scrote
Unless upskirt filming is allowed in any of those prefectures a crime has been committed. The police and prosecutors are allowing the crime to go unpunished and those responsible should be fired for failing to do their jobs.
battambangbound
Why didn't they print the name of this perve? In Japan as a shame rather than a sin culture, the notoriety of this case would have been more of a punishment for this guy than any statutory punishment.
yasukuni
Gotta feel sorry for the cabin attendant.
Fadamor
What would be idiotic would be for someone to blame the police for this. They only enforce the laws, they don't write them.
What's needed is a nation-wide law that kicks-in where prefectural laws cannot be applied due to uncertainty over where the crime took place.
heretoolong
Laws in this country make me cringe - it's like something outta The Three Stooges. The slapstick comedy here the news provides us would be hilarious if it wasn't true.
DudeDeuce
All this does is make more people try to do the same thing. They will just jump on a Kyushu to Hokkaido flight and have all the laws of each prefecture studied so they know the exact point to do the same thing or even worse.