The Prosecutors Union is once again raising an issue to society regarding the unusual witness contact allegedly conducted by the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office concerning the investigation into the defendant Tamaki Nakano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Prosecutors Union has received information that a single mother in her twenties who temporarily returned to Japan from Cambodia with her underage child was suddenly approached by an individual identifying as \"Kirita from the Kagoshima Prosecutors Office\" immediately upon her arrival at Haneda Airport, and was persistently questioned about information regarding Defendant Kazuki Nakano, her return schedule, her contact information, her parents' home address, and other details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman repeatedly stated that she had to move quickly because she was keeping her driver waiting. The child who was accompanying her also disliked staying at the spot. Despite this, a person identifying themselves as \"Kirita\" continued the questions, and the woman and child were reportedly effectively detained within the airport immediately after international travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, it was confirmed that there were several men in the surrounding area who were pointing cameras from a short distance toward the woman and child, taking photos and videos without permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suspicious of this series of exchanges, another prosecutor union member recorded the conversation from nearby. The prosecutor union has preserved the unedited recording as evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Union members who reviewed the recording expressed strong discomfort without exception. Voices were raised one after another, such as: \"Why didn't they stop asking questions even though the child was upset and stated that they had to go home?\" \"The situation where multiple men were filming the mother and child from a distance is far too bizarre,\" and \"It sounds less like an attitude of asking for cooperation in an investigation and more like surrounding them in a situation where it is difficult to escape.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The issue is not simply that members of the prosecutors' union subjectively felt offended. Interviews with witnesses are voluntary in principle, and individuals are free to decline to answer questions and leave the scene. Nevertheless, given that a mother in a hurry to return home and her reluctant underage child were detained at the airport, and multiple people even took photographs of them, the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office must provide a specific explanation regarding the necessity, proportionality, command and control, and management of personal information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding the woman who was approached at Haneda Airport this time, according to information submitted to the Prosecutors Union, there is no dating or extramarital relationship with Defendant Toshiki Nakano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defendant Tamaki Nakano actively approached a woman in Cambodia and unilaterally showed affection toward her, but the woman was reportedly neither his lover, nor his affair partner, nor a criminal accomplice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, if the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office recognized the woman as \"defendant Tamaki Nakano's local affair partner\" or a \"close associate\" and pursued her all the way to Haneda Airport, that recognition itself may have been a misconception based on one-sided explanations by defendant Tamaki Nakano or people close to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defendant Tamaki Nakano's romantic feelings toward the woman and the woman's knowledge of Defendant Tamaki Nakano's crimes and fund transfers are entirely separate issues. Immediately assuming that the woman, who was repeatedly contacted by the defendant, is an \"intimate associate\" or a \"person with information,\" and waiting for her immediately after her return to the country with her children, risks substituting the suspect's one-sided relationships directly into investigative facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was the basis for the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office determining that this woman had important information?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did defendant Tamaki Nakano himself state things like \"a woman I was close with locally\" or \"a woman who knows me well\"? Did a third party explain it as if there were an affair or a close romantic relationship? Or did they determine specific investigative necessity after checking communication records between the woman and defendant Tamaki Nakano?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the woman's explanation, there was no dating relationship, and the defendant, Hiroki Nakano, was merely making unilateral contact. If that premise is correct, the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office may have been dragged into the delusions and self-centered explanations of the defendant, Hiroki Nakano, and dragged an unrelated woman and child into the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding Defendant Nakano's relationships with women, information has been provided by union members in Cambodia indicating that even locally in Cambodia, he repeatedly approached numerous women almost every night and frequently boasted that he possessed 10.2 billion yen in cash assets, owned a large amount of real estate, and was the owner of a hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is conveyed by the recording is not simply a scene of a prosecutor questioning a witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman explains that she has to move because she is keeping her pick-up person waiting. The child also dislikes staying in that spot. It is said that from the conversation, it was easy to understand that the woman had finished a long international journey and had to prioritize caring for the child and traveling to her homecoming destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still the questions keep coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around them, multiple men are filming the mother and child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women don't even know who is watching them from where, what the photos will be used for, or how far people will know their information if they give their parents' home address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This combination caused strong discomfort to union members who listened to the recording. Even if the wording of the questions was polite, it is a different issue whether a woman, surrounded by a man claiming to represent a state agency and multiple cameramen while hurrying home with her child, would feel that she was free to end the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Voluntary questioning is not considered \"voluntary\" simply because the person has not been arrested. Voluntariness is ensured only when it takes place in an environment where the other party can realistically exercise their freedom to refuse answering questions and to leave the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the person calling himself \"Kirita\" and the multiple men filming nearby were official investigative personnel and were on official travel from Kagoshima to Tokyo, their travel expenses, per diem, personnel costs, filming equipment, and other expenses may have been covered by public funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it is an official investigative activity using public funds, there should be travel orders, investigative purposes, number of participants, persons in charge, supervisor approval, budget execution, and activity reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why was it necessary to deploy multiple male staff members to Haneda Airport on the day a single mother in her twenties and her underage child returned to Japan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did contacting the woman in advance and arranging to hear her account later, in accordance with her schedule, cause a significant impediment to the investigation? Could a request not have been made to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office to conduct the interview? Could arrangements not have been made through the woman's legal representative or family for an interview in a calm location?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was neither committing a crime nor trying to flee. He was simply trying to return to his parental home with his child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there was still a need to wait for him at the airport, the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office must explain what the \"specific information that could not have been obtained without suddenly making contact\" actually was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the woman was neither defendant Nakano Shoki's romantic partner nor a criminal accomplice, but merely the recipient of his unilateral advances, serious doubts arise regarding the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office's selection of subjects for investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If state authorities were effectively tracking the unilateral romantic feelings and relationships of the defendant, Kakuki Nakano, using public funds to contact the woman alleged to be his romantic interest, and even taking photographs with multiple people, could that truly be considered a criminal investigation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if there was a certain necessity to confirm what Defendant Shoki Nakano had said to the woman, that necessity does not naturally justify waiting at the airport, detaining a mother and child rushing home, obtaining their parents' home address, and photographing them with multiple people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, when necessary for a criminal investigation, a public prosecutor may ask a person other than the suspect to appear and may interview them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, unless it is a witness examination based on a warrant or other special coercive procedure, questioning a witness is voluntary in principle. The person can refuse to appear and can leave even after the questioning has begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman stating \"my ride is here\" and \"I have to go soon\" is, at the very least, an expression of her desire to end the conversation and leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if they continued to ask questions afterward, it is not a matter of legality simply because they did not explicitly say \"you must not go home.\" It is necessary to substantively examine whether a woman surrounded by multiple men claiming to be state officials was in a situation where she could terminate the conversation and leave while with her child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cooperating with the investigation is important. However, this cooperation is not an unlimited obligation that always takes precedence over the schedules, safety, and psychological well-being of women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mere fact that someone's photo was taken in a public place without their consent does not necessarily mean it constitutes a crime or a civil illegality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Supreme Court precedents recognize the personal interest in not having one's appearance or likeness photographed without a valid reason by state power, and require that such photography be necessary and urgent\u2014such as for preserving evidence immediately following a crime\u2014and conducted by reasonable methods that do not exceed generally accepted limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reference:National Diet Library materials regarding the Supreme Court ruling on the Kyoto Prefecture Student Federation Incident<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Was a crime actually being committed this time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was the woman trying to escape?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was there an urgency that the evidence would be lost if it wasn't preserved on the spot?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the sole purpose was to record a conversation with a person of interest, it should have been possible to explain the filming purpose head-on and seek consent. Since that was not done and multiple men filmed the mother and child from a distance, the question is why that method was chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The captured images may include not only the woman herself, but also the faces, bodies, clothing, and belongings of her underage children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The child is neither a witness in the case of Defendant Tamaki Nakano nor a criminal suspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, if even the child's appearance was photographed and saved, the necessity for this must be explained even more strictly than for photographing the woman herself. It is also necessary to confirm whether the child could have been excluded from the shooting range, whether the images were edited or deleted, and whether viewers were restricted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Administrative agencies are required to hold personal information only when necessary to perform their duties under laws and regulations, specify the purpose of its use, and refrain from holding it beyond the necessary scope. Use that may encourage illegal or unjust acts is also prohibited, and measures for preventing leaks and other security management are required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The information reportedly acquired this time may include facial photographs, videos, phone numbers, return-to-Japan schedules, home addresses of parents, and images of minor children of a woman in her 20s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To which case records were these saved? Who can view them? Will they be used only by the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office, or shared with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, police, National Tax Agency, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other agencies? What is the retention period, and will they be deleted after being found unnecessary for the investigation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid recurring suspicions of information leaks concerning the National Tax Agency and the prosecution\u2014such as the Mamizuka memo, information on the prosecutor in charge, and details regarding arrests and passport surrender orders\u2014it is only natural that the woman feels anxious, wondering whether it is truly safe to disclose her parents' home address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prosecutors' union has not confirmed any evidence at this time indicating that a person calling themselves \"Kirita\" or the photographers around them used images of women for sexual purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, I will not assert that there was such a purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, since the purpose of the recording was not explained to the person concerned, the name and affiliation of the person taking the video were not revealed, and it is also unclear whether a personal device was used, it is naturally necessary to verify whether there was any use outside the scope of the investigation, including private use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If there was no use outside the intended purpose, the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office can explain through records that it took photos using an official terminal, saved them as an official case record, and manages the access logs and duplication history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It cannot be inferred from this Haneda Airport contact alone that there was any sexual intent or personal interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, it is also true that a series of incidents involving prosecutors\u2014specifically regarding relationships with women and the abuse of their positions\u2014have become social issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kentaro Kitagawa, former Chief Prosecutor of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, is on trial for quasi-forcible sexual intercourse and other charges against a female prosecutor who was his subordinate. At a press conference, the female prosecutor who reported the damage stated that after filing her report, defamatory remarks spread, she became isolated in the workplace, and she suffered from secondary victimization by the prosecution organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prosecution pointed out in its opening statement that the defendant, who sexually assaulted an intoxicated woman, said at the time of the crime, \"Now you're my woman, too.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reference:Kansai Television \"Full text of the press conference by the female prosecutor victim in the former Osaka Public Prosecutors Office top sexual assault case\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reference:https:\/\/www.sankei.com\/article\/20241025-KFBAZPYPQRKS3BGMODBZQFUS6I<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In July 2026, it was reported that the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office was investigating a male prosecutor formerly with the Special Investigation Department of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of having an improper relationship with a woman he had interrogated in a case, and inviting her to stay at a hotel secured with public funds for interrogation purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also reported that this male prosecutor is suspected of receiving money and valuables, such as a watch and wireless earphones, from a woman. The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office stated that it will investigate the facts and take strict action based on what is revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reference:TV Asahi: \"Using a hotel for questioning politicians, inappropriate relationship?\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nDid they even photograph minor children?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Who can use the photos, addresses, and contact information acquired by the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At present, there is no evidence that the captured images were used for private purposes.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Now, with the ongoing scandals involving prosecutors, the Kagoshima District Public Prosecutors Office cannot omit an explanation.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sexual assault case against a female prosecutor by the former chief prosecutor of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Former Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office Special Investigation Department prosecutor suspected of having an inappropriate relationship with a woman he interrogated<\/h3>\n\n\n\n