According to NHK, the diplomat in query is a 55-year-old who’s a “former” embassy adviser. Advisor is a diplomatic rank for officers serving abroad, for instance in an embassy.
The Yomiuri newspaper reported that on February 27, a person used a smartphone to secretly film a 13-year-old highschool student within the changing room of a public bathhouse. The boy was naked.
According to the Asahi newspaper, employees at a public bathhouse in Tokyo’s Minato ward called police, who upon arrival searched the diplomat’s phone and located “multiple nude photos of male patrons.”
It added that the diplomat refused to go to the police station, but told officers that he had taken such photos in other public baths.
‘Lack of judgment of right and wrong’: Japan sees rise in artificial intelligence child pornography and calls for law change
‘Lack of judgment of right and wrong’: Japan sees rise in artificial intelligence child pornography and calls for law change
Asked to delete the photos from his phone, the diplomat “deleted them on the spot,” a Japanese news outlet reported. He allegedly deleted 700 photos from his phone that he told police he had taken within the six months before the incident.
Tokyo police are investigating possible violations of kid pornography laws and plan to ask Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to have the person turn himself in, Asahi said. Formal charges are also being considered.
The diplomat was dismissed as an adviser but is just not subject to arrest under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which states that diplomats can’t be arrested or detained within the country to which they’re sent.
The embassy, asked by the Asahi newspaper on Thursday, was reportedly unaware of the general public bath incident. The embassy also told the newspaper that the diplomat “accomplished his task on April 12” and returned to Singapore.
CNA contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
Additional Kyodo reporting
