Singaporean Official Under Investigation for Inappropriate Photos in Japanese Bathhouse All the Details

A Singaporean official faces investigation over alleged inappropriate photos taken in a Japanese bathhouse, raising concerns about diplomatic conduct

(C) CNA

According to Japanese media sources on Thursday (May 2), a diplomat from the Singapore embassy in Tokyo was interrogated by the police on suspicion of secretly recording a male adolescent in a public bath.

The individual in question is a 55-year-old diplomat who, as reported by NHK, formerly held the position of counselor at the embassy. A counselor is a diplomatic title bestowed upon officers who serve abroad, particularly in an embassy.

According to a report by Yomiuri Shimbun, on February 27th, an individual used their smartphone to covertly record a 13-year-old kid who was in their first year of middle school, while they were in the changing area of a public bath; what’s worse is that the youngster was unclothed.

According to Asahi Shimbun, the staff members at the public bath in Tokyo’s Minato Ward contacted the police, who subsequently conducted a search of the diplomat’s phone and discovered “several explicit photographs of male customers”. 

Furthermore, the ambassador declined to visit the police station but did admit to authorities that he had captured similar photographs in several public bathing facilities. 

A Diplomatic Crime?

According to the Japanese news website, the ambassador swiftly deleted the photographs from his phone after being asked to remove them from his device. It is said that he deleted seven hundred images from his mobile device, alleging to the police that he had taken them in the six months prior to the event in question.

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Asahi Shimbun reports that Tokyo police are looking into potential infractions of child pornography laws. They would want the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Singapore to help them convince the concerned person to turn himself up. Pressing official charges is another option.

The case is a tricky one, but it is one that is guided by many laws and international procedures—one being the Vienna Convention. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations states that any kind of detention of a diplomat is illegal. 

Apparently, the embassy denied knowing about the public bath incident when questioned on Thursday. Reporting on this was the Asahi Shimbun. The ambassador had ceased to carry out his duties as of April 12 and has since returned to Singapore, the embassy also informed the magazine.