Trial of upskirt photo gang gives glimpse into underwear underworld

By Ryann Connell
October 22, 2004

Japanese have a fondness for clubs and organizations possibly unmatched across the globe, but one group that went too far has got even one of the country's typically staid and stuffy judges screaming obscenities at them, according to Shukan Jitsuwa.

Standing trial at the Tokyo District Court while accused of violating a public nuisance ordinance were a group of six men who proudly boasted of their membership in the Tosatsukai, an organization whose name translates roughly into English as the Stolen Photo Association. Stolen, in this case, should be taken to mean "unaware," like in a stolen kiss, because the men were part of a massive ring aimed at taking lecherous panty shots up women's skirts with hidden cameras.

"They worked in groups doing what they called 'Chat and Snap.' A 'kabeyaku' (blocker) would call out to the targeted woman to attract her attention and keep her occupied, while other members of the groups, called 'utsuriko (shutterbugs)' thrust their cameras up her skirt and took photos," a reporter on the court beat for a national daily tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "They used to take turns performing the different roles and compete to see who'd get the best results."

Breakthrough arrests in the case came in March after a Saitama Prefecture woman found a photo taken up her skirt had been posted on an Internet site and contacted the cops to complain.

"That site was filled with photos that guys into this sort of thing had filled with snapshots they had all taken themselves," the hack says. "They even used to critique each other's work. Besides the woman who exposed them, there were hundreds of other women who had fallen victim to these guys. There were almost so many women who'd fallen victim that it was close on impossible for the cops to lay charges in connection with the all."

Members of the Tosatsukai were, whatever their faults, incredibly well organized. But their faults were not the type to treat lightly.

Among those convicted by the court included one man who made his living operating a website that sold saucy footage of women taken using concealed cameras, another with three prior convictions for using illicit photographic equipment for lascivious purposes and yet another who was on probation following a conviction for breaking the Child Pornography Law.

Their scant regard for the law prompted one of the judges hearing their case to scream out at them to stop "fornicating" with the system, though the exact word -- also starting with an "F" -- used was different.

Incredibly, the sordid six got off with suspended sentences, though the period of probation was admittedly longer than the one or two years normally imposed by Japan's district courts.

"The leader's 18-month sentence was suspended for five years, while the yearlong terms given to all the others were each suspended for four years," the reporter says. "It's almost unheard of for such long periods to be imposed on convictions for breaking a local government ordinance."

Proponents of the disgraceful practice may even have taken heart at the penalties handed down to the members of the Tosatsukai.

"On the strictly member's only site they ran, they all had different handle names given out in accordance with where they stood in the association. There was The King, Beckham Cum Cum, SRF4, Young Man, PL and The Natural. The site was divided into a pyramidical structure of three stages. While paying members higher up the rank to take part, members were also expected to upload their own photos taken with hidden cameras and have them judged by the more important members of the group," a rank-and-file member of the Tosatsukai tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "Each of those convicted was an influential member of the site's Level 3, the most intensely secret part of the site. These are the types of guys who'd pull out all the stops just to get some decent footage. For the average sneak shot fan, these guys were almost like deities."

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