Hokkaido government official gets slap on wrist for sexual relationship with girl, 13

The Mainichi Shimbun
June 5, 2007
Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070605p2a00m0na024000c.html

SAPPORO -- A Hokkaido Prefectural Government official has been handed a suspended prison term for having sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl.

The Sapporo District Court sentenced Hiroyuki Ishikawa, 33, an official with the prefectural government's local taxation office in Fukagawa, to one year in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the anti-child prostitution law.

During hearings, his defense lawyer had claimed that Ishikawa was innocent. "He neither knew that the girl was under 18 nor promised to pay her for sex."

Judge Iichiro Sakata dismissed the defense counsel's claim. "The girl clearly looked under 18." He also said the girl's statement that Ishikawa had promised to pay her can be trusted.

Ishikawa was convicted of having sexual relations with the girl, who was 13 years old at the time, at a hotel in Shiroishi-ku, Sapporo, in early December last year, and promised to pay her 20,000 yen, while knowing that she was under 18. (Mainichi)

June 5, 2007