Tokyo Nursery School Teacher Arrested for Indecent Assault

Tokyo, Feb. 4 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo police arrested a 40-year-old nursery school teacher on Wednesday on suspicion of indecent assault on an elementary school boy during an accommodation event hosted by an after-school child care center. The suspect, Masaaki Kimura, who works at a nursery school in the Japanese capital’s Shinjuku Ward, has denied the allegations, people familiar with the investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department said. Kimura is suspected of entering the room where the school boy was sleeping and touching his lower body during an accommodation event in Tateshina, Nagano Prefecture, between the night of Jan. 5 and the morning of Jan. 6, 2024, when he was working at a support staff member at the after-school care center. Dozens of boys at the nursery school and the affiliated after-school care center have reported incidents of indecent behavior, the people familiar with the investigation said. Kimura appears to have repeatedly committed indecent acts for about four years. He has been suspended from duties since October last year, when a case came into light. About 1,200 obscene images, including about 360 pieces of child pornography, were found in smartphones seized from the suspect. The nursery school operates around the clock, accepting children, from as young as 43 days old, of medical workers, government employees and restaurant employees among others, according to its website. A woman whose child attends the nursery school described Kimura as a “friendly teacher who greeted people cheerfully with a smile.” The chair of the school’s board said the organization would “carefully determine the facts and respond strictly.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]