“As long as everybody is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done.” (Marge Simpson)

A reporter for one of Japan’s leading newspapers, Asahi Shimbun, was arrested for allegedly recording video up women’s skirts while riding a train on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo. According to police, the suspect, 35-year-old Keisuke Masuda, confessed, “I’ve been doing it for months, and I couldn’t stop.”

On 7 November, at around 4:30 p.m. between Tamachi and Hamamatsucho stations, a passenger noticed Masuda acting suspiciously and called 110. Police apprehended the sports reporter and found that a paper bag he was carrying had a camera facing upward through the opening.

A spokesperson for Asahi said they are taking the matter very seriously and will deal with it strictly once all the facts are known. Overall, it was a pretty open and shut case, but this matter took a turn for the strange in the following report.

https://twitter.com/YES777777777/status/928145350480732161

According to the video, it turns out the “passenger” who called the police was actually a cameraman for Nippon TV (NTV). After noticing the suspect acting oddly, the camera operater did what he does best and began shooting.

When the victim got off the train and the suspect followed her, the NTV cameraman got the authorities involved. He then presumably turned right around and headed back to the office to give his news desk a nice fat early Christmas present.

The irony of a reporter for a national newspaper caught voyeuring by a voyeuring cameraman for a national broadcaster was not lost on Twitter commenters. However, a few people felt there was little difference between what both men were doing.

“When you voyeur, so too may you be voyeured. It’s just a fact of life.”
“I wonder if the policeman caught the voyeur who caught the voyeur too.”
“Good, a taste of his own medicine.”
“What a difference pointing the camera up and pointing it sideways makes!”
“The NTV cameraman is the worst selling a secretly recorded video of a fellow voyeur.”
“World, this is Japan.”
“The NTV guy was probably gearing up to voyeur too, but found something better instead.”
“It’s like an ouroboros kind of thing.”

Despite some people’s misgivings, it’s hard to ignore the world of difference between secretly filming a crime in progress to provide evidence and doing it to look at someone’s underwear without permission.

But the greater lesson to learn here is that nowadays cameras are literally everywhere from intersections, to cars, to inside everyone’s pockets. This incident exemplifies the mixed blessing that this situation is, but the best way to roll with it is to carry yourself as if someone is always pointing a camera at you.

That’s why I constantly walk around waving a peace sign wherever I go.

Source: NHK, Twitter/@YES777777777, Hachima Kiko
Feature image: Pakutaso