Education board members apologize at a press conference on Monday.

Teacher, 38, arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting 11-year-old girl in Ibaraki

Tuesday 24th June, 09:56 AM JST

IBARAKI —

A 38-year-old school teacher was arrested on Monday for allegedly sexually assaulting a 11-year-old schoolgirl in Kamisu City, Ibaraki Prefecture. Hidekazu Kojima, 38, was arrested for allegedly assaulting the girl at a hotel in February, 2007, after taking her out for a drive. In May, the girl told a friend who reported the case to police. According to police, Kojima and the girl became acquainted with each other through a mutual friend.

The local education board held a press conference Monday to apologize for Kojima’s behavior. They said that the school principal had heard rumors about the incident at the time and had asked the teacher about it. But Kojima denied the allegations.

After police raided the school on Monday, Kojima and his father called the school admitting the allegation and apologized to the girl.

Latest 15 of 50 Total Comments Show All

rurika at 09:10 PM JST - 24th June

Children's bodies may be maturing faster than ever due to plentiful food (and possibly hormones in the environment) but their minds certainly aren't. Girls who emulate the behaviour and clothing of females they see in the media often lack the emotional maturity to deal with the kind of attention they receive.

A 20-year-old who dresses or acts 'slutty' knows exactly what she's doing. A very young girl who dresses or acts this way does it because it's fashionable. She doesn't understand the image she projects.

As for people who suggest the girl 'agreed' to go on a drive, she didn't have the emotional maturity to agree to whatever happened next. She was a child, he was an adult trying to fulfill a sick fantasy.
spotehun at 10:18 PM JST - 24th June

I don't give a damn how kid's bodies mature, or how they feel responsibility or not. They are CHILDREN! And since we are the adults, who SHOULD feel responsibility, and feel disgusted just by hearing about any such thing. That man just needed a slight chance, and he already took advantage of it. He is working with children!! I work with children too, I teach them how to swim. And I would rip off the arms of any bastard who dares to take advantage of them.

People who try to reason about the responsibility of the little girl: 38 years - 11 years. Do you really think, the 11years old one should be more responsible? Those who think like this, are not less sick-minded than the guy who did this.
JoiceRojo at 10:41 PM JST - 24th June

At 11 you are just starting to understand the world. He was a teacher and hence, a person that a child tend to trust, so he abused of his power. True, kids nowadays tend to mature faster than, say 15 years ago, but still, the mind is not prepared, even if physically you look older and you've had so much info through internet to understand better some things.

It also could be the other way around, I've read that in my country and other countries there is child prostitution, and this girl might be involved on that since the circumstances they've met each other, and the fact that it took 16 months to denounce the attack, but even though she were one, she is underage, it is wrong and illegal, and since the guy admitted the fact, why it says, "arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting..." it is a crime in any way you look at it.
yosun at 11:35 PM JST - 24th June

This teacher has to be very careful in jail.
medievaltimes at 12:15 AM JST - 25th June

Respectfully, I would argue that many men all around the world are interested in young women, even those that are teenagers.

Do you live in Japan? If yes, how long? Flip through some comics when you have a free moment. Flip through a girlie mag. Check out the adult section of a video store. Go into a sex shop and see how many high school uniforms you see that are available for sale. Ride the trains late at night and watch drunk 50 year old men staring for what seems like an eternity at young girls.

Yes there are pedophiles all around the world....but in Japan, it seems to be a heck of a lot more. Almost seems acceptable here. Sick.
KitsuneYoukai at 12:30 AM JST - 25th June

I don't know that I would go as far as to say "there are a lot of pedophiles in Japan, but I will say that men in Japan typically have a thing for school girl uniforms. It doesn't mean that they all like little girls. They may just like women dressed up in school girl uniforms like some like women calling them daddy in other cultures.

This is a sad case because I'm sure the girl had no real idea of what sex implies for a mature adult. Sounds like she was telling her friend like girls like telling each othe about their first time sexual encounter. It looks like the friend took it upon herself to report it having better sense and knowing the gravity of what happened to friend. I give a thumbs up to the friend for good judgement and caring about her friend.
Molenir at 01:15 AM JST - 25th June

These are the kinds of crimes that are unforgivable in civilized society. Regardless of how you spin it, the girl is not to blame. As someone else said, she's 11, she can't seduce anyone. A man can take it that way, but he would be wrong, and be proving himself a pedophile.

I sincerely hope he gets a long sentence for committing this rape.
nuju at 03:35 AM JST - 25th June

This Teacher is wrong dead in all areas. The Principle and the rest of the facility of this school are just as bad as in they new or they had enough info to surmise what might be happening and turned a blind eye to it they need to be severely reprimanded so this will never happen again (and telling me I am sorry means nothing so they need to stop and start doing something about the situation before it becomes worse). as for the little girl I know this will draw some anger but it has to be said she does not have a clear grasp on right and wrong (her parents and family has not taught it to her for whatever reason). she got in a car with and older man and went somewhere you are not a child at 11 you are a pre-teen there are things that you should have learned that I don't think a lot of younger children are bean taught because families are a lot more chaotic than they use to be the strong nucleus is no longer there so a lot is been left open. She is the victim as a lot of other children but not just by this predator. which is often time where it ends, but it begins at home and precipitated at school and the community. so we are letting are children down by not given them the tools to live healthy mental lives. They must learn right from wrong and be equipped with the ability to make choices.

If this trend continues our society will only get worse and we will turn a whole generation of reprobated individuals
pandachan at 04:50 AM JST - 25th June

So she wasn't one of his students?

Oh well, either way, this guy was really sick in the head for sexually assaulting (or should I say raping?) an 11 year old. Not sure whether the whole thing about how mature she was comes into play here (either mentally or physically.) Maybe she did provoke him, or maybe he's just another pedofile.
Zen_Builder at 05:23 AM JST - 25th June

Yeah, he is sick.

Yet, there is a LOT of teenage prostitution out there. When you look at the under-belly of society you see some sick stuff.

Having worked with the Guardian and Cyber-Angels I saw a lot. So shows like "To catch a Predator", etc aren't even surprising anymore.

And to say that a child/teen DON'T know what is going is on is FALSE. Heck, I have been solicited by 12 and 13yr olds for sex. YES, they approached me.

LOL, remember my sex-ed in school some 30yrs ago, we made the teacher blush as we corrected her on a few points and we were what 13 & 14.

Just my view.
pinga at 10:14 AM JST - 25th June

An 11 year old is NOT a teenager. They are a pre teen. And nothing a child could do should provoke anyone into sexually abusing them.
Molenir at 01:10 AM JST - 26th June

Wait, you're alarmed by Pingas saying that a child can't provoke people into sexually abusing them? Why is that? What is it you're really saying? That you think its understandable and natural that pedophiles are going after young girls? If it is, then what I find much more alarming is your posts.

For gods sake, the girl was 11! Are you defending the guy who raped her, or the society that somehow things its understandable?
TheSeeker at 05:21 AM JST - 27th June

What I find most amusing about all this is that it appears that only foreigners, mostly Westerners, really care about things like this, and the vast majority of the locals really do not care about it, nor they do care at all about the opinions of foreigners , with the exception of an xenophilic minority of the Japanese population who are obsessed with gaining the approval of foreigners, mostly Westerners. You'll see, within a few days, this will all be forgotten and life will just go back to normal as if nothing had even ever happened, with the same thing continuing to happen all over again. Which is why I wonder what's the point of even getting outraged in the first place? Nothing will come of it because the average Japanese don't care about what the gaijins think, nor do they care much about this issue in the first place, for the most part, and the schoolgirls themselves will just keep on doing what they're doing, because hey, they need the money to get the things they want. So much for protecting them, if a customer gets busted, too bad, they'll just move on to the next one. So why stress if it's all for nothing eh?
JelliTlkz at 11:57 PM JST - 27th June

he just said sorry! and if you ask anybody if they sexually assaulted someone wof course they'll say no DUH!!!
Queenofmuffins at 10:57 PM JST - 28th June

So a young naive girl got into a car with someone whose job was supposed to look after her and who she trusted. Oh. My. God. She clearly was asking to be sexually assaulted/raped. Yep. No doubt about it.

Are you kidding me? I don't care how mature she looked (and how do you know, anyway? Have you seen any photos of her?) no one deserves that. I had a similar thing happen to me at that age. It was only a few years ago and at that time, I was convinced kissing would make you pregnant! I hardly "solicated" that man simply because he took advantage of me.

"And to say that a child/teen DON'T know what is going is on is FALSE. Heck, I have been solicited by 12 and 13yr olds for sex. YES, they approached me."

Wow. That must mean every single child whose ever been abused deserved it. They were asking for it. I can tell you now, that is an unfair generalization. And I don't know for sure, but since it was with the cyber-angels, I'm assuming that mean it happened online? Not face to face? So how do you know that the people were the age they said they were?

Well, that's just my opinion. Feel free to rebut!