Male Police Officer Suspected of Entering Women’s Restroom in Kobe; Claims “No Paper in Men’s Restroom”

A male officer alleging to have been caught in the washroom for men now faces charges on suspicion of surreptitiously entering the washroom for women in a police facility situated in Kobe. The case was passed on to the local district prosecutor’s office on April 24 without an arrest of the officer, according to information obtained on Friday in response to a petition for disclosure submitted by The Yomiuri Shimbun. The officer, believed to be in his twenties, is being accused of allegedly entering the washroom for women on the second floor of the police facility without a legitimate reason on March 7. The officer, employed at an unknown police station in the Kansai region, denies that there was anything suggestive about his actions. The officer stated that “I needed to use the restroom, but there was no toilet paper in the men’s restroom, so I figured I could go to the ladies’ room to obtain some. It was not to violate any sexual assault laws.”