There are some things you just can’t bounce back from at work.

Back in October of 2021, a man in Fukuoka City showed which side of the “Should you ask the staff before you use the bathroom at a convenience store?” debate he’s on by politely requesting permission from the woman working the register. Less polite, though, was that the man had just purchased a box of condoms, and the way he phrased his request was “I want to masturbate, so would it be all right if I used the restroom?”

As polished as customer service in Japan may be, convenience stores aren’t quite that accommodating. The man’s request was turned down, and so was an identical one he made on a different day, and nearly a year later a police investigation was finally able to confirm his identity as Atsushi Iwao, a teacher at a public middle school in Fukuoka.

On Tuesday, the Fukuoka Municipal Board of Education handed down its judgement on what to do with Iwao, and announced that he is being dismissed from his job for disciplinary reasons. “His conduct was unforgivable and unbecoming of a public education servant,” said a spokesperson for the board,” adding “We deeply apologize.”

▼ Apology press conferences are expected to include a deep bow in Japan, and the board representatives offered theirs.

Two months of deliberation seems like more time than an organization should really need to decide a guy asking if it’s OK to jerk off in a convenience store restroom shouldn’t be working with kids. As a government institution, though, it’s likely the board of education has certain time-consuming protocols it has to abide by in disciplinary matters. Or maybe they just needed the extra time to process the indictment that was issued last month against Iwao as a result of recent revelations that in both February and March of this year he snuck into an extracurricular club room used by female students at the school where he taught. As Japanese schools usually don’t have dedicated locker rooms, club rooms are generally where students change into athletic uniforms before games and practices, and Iwao’s goal was to secretly record video of the girls. Whether he planned to record the videos in-person or via a hidden device planted in the room is unclear, but his ultimate motive, according to statements he made during the board’s investigation into the matter, was “I wanted to show the videos to a woman I met through social media. I was hoping she would then send me videos in return.”

The statement leaves it hazy as to whether Iwao was hoping for videos of the woman herself or simply videos that she could procure, and also doesn’t explain why he thought she’d be willing to oblige him. Whatever his logic, the guy seems pretty lacking in understanding as to what is and isn’t societally appropriate behavior, and since he was a social studies teacher, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a more suitable educator to take his place.

Source: TBS News Dig via Jin
Top image: Pakutaso (edited by SoraNews24)
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