Gang of peeping Toms arrested after 30 years of voyeurism

There are peeping Toms and then there are peeping Toms. And these guys didn’t do things by half measures.

Shizuoka police have arrested a gang of peeping Toms who have been active for 30 years — yes, three whole decades! The 13 voyeurs, including the 50-year-old leader, were apprehended in recent months, while a further three others connecting to the filming (including a doctor) have now been referred to the prosecutors.

Active since he was 20, the leader alone claims to have filmed over 10,000 people without consent at locations all around Japan (with the exception, for some reason, of Okinawa). His hobby apparently brought him into contact with over 100 other fellow voyeurs over the years.

Police paraded the elaborate equipment the gang used over the years, including an array of lenses, tripods, and camouflage gear. The gang used this arsenal to film outdoor bathing areas at hot springs from as far as 100 or 200 meters away.

In Japan, such secret filming for voyeuristic purposes is known as tosatsu. The footage is often for the private enjoyment of the filmers but may also be sold via specialist websites.

As first reported in December, the gang started operating collaboratively from around spring 2021 after first meeting some years earlier via a tosatsu retail website. The members even held screenings to share what they had filmed with each other.

The gang was rumbled when a police officer questioned the leader late on night in October 2021 when he noticed that the car the man was driving had a license plate registered with a distant prefecture. (Personally, we think this is a very weak reason to question a member of the public — but perhaps it reveals a lot about the Japanese police.) The man’s equipment was discovered and it led to the first arrests two months later.