Overview
- Sapporo Chuo Police re-arrested a 25-year-old nursery teacher from Yakumo on suspicion of filming and saving sexual images of four children, marking his third arrest in related cases.
- Otaru Police searched the operator linked to a ski-resort escalator accident that killed a boy in late December on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death, with the investigation ongoing.
- Reporting revealed the Sapporo City Board of Education spent more than a decade excluding cases with potential criminality from ‘serious incident’ inquiries under the anti-bullying law, a practice experts criticized as a misreading of the statute.
- The government warned of a deceptive social-media video that appears to use Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara’s news conference footage to solicit investments, urging users to exercise caution.
- Ishikari City approved measures to waive basic water charges for all households and businesses for March through June meter readings and to issue premium vouchers as price-relief support.