A male professor at Kagawa University in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, has caused a controversy after he posted on Twitter that his “hobby” was sexual harassment. The tweet went viral on the internet, resulting in a public apology by the university’s president on Tuesday.
According to the university, on July 2, an outside source contacted the faculty via email and asked whether they were aware of what one of their male professors was tweeting, Fuji TV reported. The school then approached the professor -- who teaches economics but whose name has not been publicly revealed -- and asked him about the tweets. He confirmed that he did post some in April, in which he said sexual harassment felt good and that it was his hobby. He also tweeted that he like touching women’s bodies.
Kagawa University President Yoshiyuki Kakehi apologized on behalf of the educational institution, saying “the content was inappropriate and truly regrettable.”
Kagawa University’s public relation office has announced it will further investigate the contents and take appropriate disciplinary measures against the professor who joined the university in 2003.
© Japan Today
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Kazuaki Shimazaki
http://www.yukawanet.com/archives/5386649.html
To be fair to that guy, here's what he said:
Jonorth
@Kazuaki Shimazaki
Thanks for adding this detail, which seems kinda important. I don't know why this article didn't include it. It's still not the smartest thing to tweet, but it puts it into a different context.
smithinjapan
"Kagawa University’s public relation office has announced it will further investigate the contents and take appropriate disciplinary measures against the professor who joined the university in 2003."
Yeah, I can see that resulting in nothing pretty quick. Certainly won't result in a firing or even anything besides the apology, except maybe the university will still allow sexual harassment but ban Tweeting so as making it less easy to be caught. They certainly seem more embarrassed about being in the spotlight than upset about the content.
Disillusioned
He'll get a 5% pay cut for two or three months and 'urged' not to post anything like that again.
Luddite
What a stupid man.
mmwkdw
Have Japanese old guys been suddenly hit with a Bug that makes them tell the Truth ?
thepersoniamnow
Ok professor, me too!
Come play with me and see what happens to you.
Dango bong
nobody was ever promoted for a good tweet, but many careers have ended because of a bad tweet.
This is why I never use
theFu
@Kazuaki Shimazaki Thanks for your added info. This story is taken out of context.
He was doing a thought exercise and naively shared it in public.
Social networks have become the P.C. thought police. Appears he was trying to start a meaningful conversation by pointing out many meaningless statements.
He isn't allowed to say that he likes touching womens' bodies? See how bad that sounds when taken out of context? Think I discovered why Japanese birth rates are so low if that isn't allowed.
IloveCoffee
This just shows the low level of higher education in Japan.
ZoomZoom
I think that employment contracts should come with a "delete your twitter" clause.
rainyday
The full tweet as translated by Kazuaki above suggests that this headline is highly misleading and unfair to the prof.
Toasted Heretic
The prof probably chose some very ill-advised comments to make, though. For a man of learning, he doesn't seem all that clued up.
juminRhee
Hope he has tenure. People can say stupid or controversial things. Im sure people here have done so too. Sure you'd hate to lose your job over it. As a professor, he should have added protection so as to talk openly about controversial subjects instead of towing the party line.
Yuko Maeda
Still an idiot. Fire him. We have an overabundance of perverts in education already - both in the closet and out.
starpunk
Yes, but remember what Donald Trump says on tweet and in public. He brags about it like an 11-year-old kid.
ebisen
Bad article, meaninglesly pushing an agenda and gaining nothing with it...
Lizz
Sexual harassers are men in positions of authority on a violent power trip. The perpetrator may use force, threats, and manipulation or sweet talk and flattery (or a combination) but the end result has less to do with sex than leveraging their power to manipulate and coerce people less powerful than themselves. I've personally never heard of offenders talk in terms of simply 'wanting to touch' but even if they use sex addiction as a reason it is generally speaking an excuse -- simply seeking a justification for bad behavior (serial womanizing, philandering, harassment, etc).
inkochi
Another instance of universities being supposedly full of clever people when clearly they are not.
Moreover, some people in them would never survive in the outside (corporate) world, and vice versa.
Why do I think this guy is not clever? Well, if you think of tweets, I think of 'channeling Trump'.
BeerDeliveryGuy
It seems like he was trying his hand at satire or a thought experiment, rather than condone sexual harassment or state a fact (that he enjoys sexual harassment).
Slow news day? Over sensitive much?
Scrote
These days universities are looking for any excuse to fire their tenured faculty and replace them with contract employees. Regardless of the intent, the professor was unwise to tweet about sexual harassment in a way that appears to make light of the matter.
Wc62six
Wonder if they’ll fire him or just slap him on the wrist.
starpunk
Sex harassment can be done BY females too.