A man with Pakistani nationality has been charged on suspicion of indecent acts with variously aged women on the streets of Hanyu, following several other recent incidents in the Saitama city.
The unanmed 25-year-old man, who lives in Fujiishimogumi, Hanyu, has been additionally charged with the gropings and sent to the prosecutors.
Local police say there have been eight such cases in Hanyu, of which the man has now been additionally charged in connection with five.
The alleged incidents took place between July and December last year, and involved women in Hanyu either walking or traveling by bicycle at night. The five victims were all Saitama residents and aged from their teens to their fifties.
The man has been arrested a total of three times in connection with groping cases. He was identified by surveillance camera footage and his testimony.
“I wanted to touch a woman’s body and could not control this desire. They were my type,” the alleged perpetrator is quoted as saying in media reports, which have emphasized the man’s foreignness.
His first arrest was in early January over an alleged act of groping a woman in her twenties who he had stopped to ask for directions in Hanyu shortly after 9 p.m. on January 4. “Where is the city office?” he asked her, before pushing her down and groping her body.
The second arrest was in early February over the alleged groping of a female high school student on the streets of Hanyu in September last year.
His third arrest was in late February, which has now led to the additional charges over the 2023 incidents.
In Japan, police often keep suspects in detention for long periods by arresting them again in the hope of extracting evidence or a confession to further crimes.
As Japan looks to increase migration to cover chronic labor shortages, such crimes as this may be weaponized by xenophobic voices in the media and on social media. Needless to say, the vast majority of such groping crimes are done by Japanese citizens.
