Man Evaded Detection via Teacher Offense Database by Changing Name

Fukuoka, Oct. 17 (Jiji Press)–A Japanese man arrested for using a forged teaching license changed his surname repeatedly through adoption, apparently to avoid being identified on a national register for teachers punished for child sex or other offenses, sources said Friday. The man, Masahito Kondo, 66, allegedly submitted a copy of the fake license to a board of education in the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka to work as an assistant teacher at a junior high school, although he had been arrested for his involvement in a child prostitution case. According to police sources, the suspect’s last name was Kobata in 1985, when he first obtained a teaching license. In 2014, his last name was Kondo when he was arrested on suspicion of attending a teaching job interview using a fake license. He called himself Hashimoto in 2017, when he was held for allegedly presenting a fake teaching license for renewal. At least in the past four years, he has been using the name Kondo. The board of education explained that it did not find the suspect’s name on the national register when it hired him in spring this year. It is believed that the suspect was registered as Kobata, the name he used when he was arrested in 2005 for offenses including child prostitution involving a junior high school girl. In the same year, Kondo was punished with dismissal, and his teaching license became invalid. He later acquired a new license, but it became invalid again in 2012 after he was found guilty of driving without a driver’s license. Even after that, Kondo worked in education in Saitama and Gunma prefectures, both in eastern Japan. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]