A female student at a Nagasaki prefectural school said a staff member had sexually abused her, and neither the prefectural education board nor the school reported it to prefectural police, it has emerged. The board said the response was not appropriate.
Police sent papers to prosecutors in July on a man in his 20s, a former employee, on suspicion of nonconsensual indecent assault. The suspected assault took place in 2025, when he was a fiscal-year contract employee at a prefectural special needs school, in a school shuttle bus, against a girl in the junior high division. He has admitted to the allegation, according to the account, and the Nagasaki District Public Prosecutors Office indicted him on the charge without detention in October.
The man was hired in 2024 and helped students on and off the bus, including supporting their bodies. The girl's parent consulted the school in November 2025, saying her daughter appeared to be having her body touched by the man. He stayed in the job until his contract ended in March. The board and the school never reported the abuse to police, and the parent went to police by February.
A duty to call police
The law on preventing sexual violence against children by teachers, which took effect in 2022, requires schools and their operators to report suspected sex crimes by teaching staff to police promptly. The board acknowledged that its initial response was slow. It cited as the reason that the former employee denied involvement, saying the touching had been part of assisting the student.