Representative image of a hot spring.
Credit: iStock Photo
A Japanese man has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for secretly filming women bathing in hot springs.
The 31-year-old, who hails from Fukushima, used a camera hidden in fake rocks for videography. He was arrested in May.
According to a report by South China Morning Post, a woman reportedly discovered the spy camera after she got suspicious of strange reflections in the rock at a hot spring in Yamagata.
The police seized the man-made rock and held the man when he came looking for the camera which he had connected to a power bank.
According to SCMP, the man admitted to making a man-made rock structure using clay. He said that he covered it with a brown plastic to hide the telelens which he had bought online.
The accused, who would dress up as a mountain climber, then hid behind a camouflage net and position the spy camera to observe his surroundings secretly.
At the time of arrest, the hidden camera carried video footages of 44 female victims.
The man confessed that he had been doing this since 2022 at different hot springs.
The man who is reportedly also a convict for accessing child pornography, had video footages of about 1,000 victims.
According to SCMP, the prosecutor requested for a two-year imprisonment, citing that the crime committed by the man was 'planned, repeated and fundamentally wrong'.
As the man had the tendency to relapse to criminal behaviour, the hearing was scheduled for September 17.
Japanese citizens expressed their disappointed over the news. According to the publication's report, one of them said, "Two years is too short. It should be two years times the number of victims. They could be affected for a lifetime if the footage was uploaded to the internet."
Another said, "Light punishment for crimes is not punishment, more like encouragement."
Secret photography or videography in sexually exploitative terms is an ongoing issue in Japan.
According to SCMP, 5737 cases were reported in 2022 at the Japan National Police Agency, whereas in 2021, 5730 cases were booked.
Tokyo according to its law, can sentence its perpetrators six months imprisonment and/or a fine of up to 5,00,000 yen.