Japan’s hot spring perverts circulated photos of 10,000 women over 30 years: police

Karin Saito, 50, admitted to being the ringleader of a network that secretly recorded women bathing in traditional outdoor hot springs

The 16 arrested men – which included local officials – used top camera equipment and hid in bushes, before holding viewing parties of the footage, police said

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The men learned to hide themselves in undergrowth on hillsides. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 8:30am, 13 Feb 2023Updated: 12:56pm, 13 Feb 2023

Japan has been shocked over the arrest of a network of voyeurs, who were found to have taken and shared photographs of women bathing in hot springs across the country for three decades.

Police in Shizuoka Prefecture, a popular weekend destination from nearby Tokyo and famed for its hot springs, confirmed earlier this month that 16 men had been taken into custody in connection with the case.

Quoting police officers, the Asahi newspaper identified the ringleader as Karin Saito, 50, who admitted to filming more than 10,000 women over 30 years.

Saito’s case is still being heard in the courts, although he is understood to have identified more than a dozen other men that he shared explicit images and video footage with.

An outdoor hot spring bath in Yuzawa, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Photo: Bloomberg

Shizuoka police have sent files on the men – who reportedly include a doctor from Tokyo, senior company executives and local government officials – to prosecutors on suspicion they violated nuisance prevention ordinances. Images they took were also understood to violate laws on child pornography.