52-year-old fireman arrested for molesting 19-year-old girl in Saitama

Friday 22nd May, 09:44 AM JST

SAITAMA —

A 52-year-old man was arrested for indecent assault early Thursday morning, accused of touching a 19-year-old girl’s breasts and buttocks as she sat on a staircase in Warabi City.

Police said Hiroshi Ashino, a firefighter posted at the Tsukishima branch of Rinko Fire Station in Tokyo, started talking to the unemployed girl from Kawaguchi City at around 4 a.m. as she sat by herself on the stairs on the first floor of a building near JR Warabi station. The girl told police he asked her what she was doing and asked her to go somewhere with him, and then started rubbing her breasts and buttocks.

The girl was able to solicit help from a male passer-by, who held Ashino until police arrived. Ashino admitted to touching the girl and said he had been drinking at a nearby pub. A senior official from Rinko Fire Station said Ashino was not working on Thursday, and was diligent in his work.

News reports

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Latest 15 of 25 Total Comments Show All

likeitis at 02:39 PM JST - 22nd May

hoserfella: So the guy is drunk, grabs her butt and breasts, which she didnt ask for since she sought the help of a stranger. The police are involved. She gets nothing out of this. Case closed, sez Judge Hoserfella.

Two problems Judge Hoserfella: 1) no woman ever asks for it, not even the ones that don't ask for the help of strangers and had a good time, 2) you have no evidence that any touching occurred, yet here you are dead certain that it did. Why? Granted that most females are pretty honest about it when they make such a complaint (as honest as they are silent when they loved every minute of it) but that DOES NOT mean that women are incapable of lying. They can lie, and they sometimes do. They have also been known to exaggerate. Handle with care, because you might get burned Judge.
buddha4brains at 03:28 PM JST - 22nd May

19-year-old girl

Young woman would be more accurate (less sensationalist too).
Bento at 04:57 PM JST - 22nd May

likeitis..every time a woman gets molested and remains silent about it you are telling us they loved every minute of it?,sometimes extreme fear and embarrassment leads people to remain silent about such incidents.
hoserfella at 06:50 PM JST - 22nd May

same old, same old, likeitis "The woman was asking for it. She's a lier. yadda yadda yadda" Why this hatred of women, likeitis?
sharky1 at 07:11 PM JST - 22nd May

What a hoser...lock him up....19 year old out alone at 4am??? What's this all about???
polarmalik at 08:28 PM JST - 22nd May

This 19 year old girl was asking for trouble sitting by her self on stairs at 4.00 A.M.She like most people should have been in bed and asleeping.
elbudamexicano at 08:44 PM JST - 22nd May

Dirty old Japanese man? Young women out at 4 am? Not a good combination for her and now even worse for this old dude acting as if he were still in junior high school. For shame!
ca1ic0cat at 08:50 PM JST - 22nd May

Given the reputation of the area maybe he thought she was a hooker? Maybe she was but decided she had a better angle to play? Dunno, I wasn't there. The guy is on the verge of admitting everything. He must have been pretty much in the tank to begin with. Bad way to wreck a career, he better start in with the remorse sooner than later.
combinibento at 08:53 PM JST - 22nd May

Like any decent fireman, he found a hottie and asked her to put out. Get it?
airrunwesker at 05:19 AM JST - 23rd May

That is why I do not drink.

... and maybe he should stop !
Himajin at 10:06 AM JST - 23rd May

subconcious mind to realize facts about female sexuality if its buried all the time.

If it weren't 'buried' it wouldn't be 'the subconscious'...
hakujinsensei at 03:27 PM JST - 23rd May

If you hang out with the rugby team, people are probably going to assume you are a player.

19 yo. plus 4am plus alone = player

No one knows if she is shaking him down, which happens FREQUENTLY to silly old men here, or if he was a little too frisky before finding out the availability of the goods. HOWEVER, she should have been arrested as well and charged with vagrancy. If it did happen, the time and circumstances should be taken into account and leniency should ensue. This is a much different situation than if it had occurred at 4pm.
peachy871 at 06:43 PM JST - 23rd May

No one knows exactly what went on there. We can only go by the story and Ashino's admission that he did touch her and that he had been drinking. It doesn't tell us if that is all he said or if he had more to say with regard to why it happened (other than being drunk). Perhaps this girl was up to what some of you insinuate. Or perhaps she had been out on an all-nighter that finished before the trains started and was waiting for them to start running again so she could head home. The story doesn't divulge exactly why she was there. Warabi is pretty slimy place for a young woman to be sitting alone at 4 a.m. but that doesn't automatically prove that she is a prostitute waiting for dirty middle aged men to come and molest her.
newgreatyear at 08:28 AM JST - 24th May

for being drunk it was good thinking: start her fire, then offer to put it out. He's already there and doesn't have to go for the hose truck. BUT maybe he was too drunk for his hose work? You can't be a phoney about these things. 19, she wants hard not limp.
DarkKnightNine at 12:20 AM JST - 25th May

Not to say she or any other women deserve to be molested, but what the hell was a 19 year old girl doing sitting outside on some steps at 4:00AM in a dangerous area of Tokyo? She was just asking for trouble. That's like riding down the street in Compton in an expensive convertible with the top down and expecting not to get car-jacked. Sure it's tragic when it happens, but you should know better.