Prosecutors drop case against SDF officer arrested for allegedly sexually molesting woman on train

Uemura was sitting next to the woman who was asleep when he reportedly put his hands up her skirt, pulled down her pantyhose and placed his hand inside her underwear.

Reportedly or allegedly? Seems to me that the writer is convicting the "alleged" incident!

Prosecutors, who dropped the charge against Uemura on Tuesday, gave no reason for not proceeding with the case, other than they wished to protect the woman's privacy.

More like the woman in question refused to go ahead with the case. Until recently unless the victim pressed charges in sexual assault cases, the police and prosecutors were legally unable to continue with the case. Hence many high profile cases getting dismissed because there was an "agreement" made between the people involved, typically money changing hands to keep it quiet.

Now police can continue to proceed, whether or not the alleged victim choose to file charges or not.

Not knowing all the details here, but from the article alone, it's sounds like there may be problems on the police side of any real evidence and comes down to "he said/she said" and they couldnt proceed, thus using the excuse they give here.

so on a crowded train in the morning, the officer was able to pull down the panty hose of a girl . Anybody tried doing that? It is physically impossible without lifting the girls buttocks, loosening her skirt because it anchors the panty hose, then put his hands on her underwear. The police found it was difficult to prove the allegation. Case closed.

It is physically impossible without lifting the girls buttocks, loosening her skirt because it anchors the panty hose, then put his hands on her underwear.

He could have just pulled down the front enough to get his hand in.

I don't see that it's physically impossible. Awkward maybe, but not impossible.

so on a crowded train in the morning, the officer was able to pull down the panty hose of a girl . Anybody tried doing that? It is physically impossible without lifting the girls buttocks, loosening her skirt because it anchors the panty hose, then put his hands on her underwear. The police found it was difficult to prove the allegation. Case closed.

Not a lot of experience with females who wear panty hose I take it?

One panty-hose are not "anchored" by a skirt, and he would not have needed to loosen the skirt, not to mention that it would not take all that much to pull down the pantyhose far enough to put his hand INSIDE the panties and there is no need to lift the butt to pull off the panty hose either.

Another perverted sexual predator gets off scott free withba bag of cash. I wonder how much he paid her to drop the charges. TIJ!

And nobody saw this incident ?

Prosecutors, who dropped the charge against Uemura on Tuesday, gave no reason for not proceeding with the case, other than they wished to protect the woman's privacy.

WHAT?!?! Seriously? I can't believe the things people get away with here.

Some women would rather take the money and forget about incidents like this. And since I'm not a woman, I can't condemn them. Or those that don't even want to go through the well-documented horrible experience of dealing with the police in the first place.

That said, that an SDF officer is going to just go back to work, with just a bit less cash in his bank, does very little to change things in Japan. He should have lost his job and faced prison time, period. And while I don't know the penalties involved if prosecutors are successful, perhaps such payoffs wouldn't be so attractive if civil penalties to victims were possible, in addition to the criminal punishment.