Overview

• Saitama Prefectural Police on Sept. 25 arrested former facility worker Junya Abe, 47, on suspicion of non-consensual indecency, and he denies the allegation saying he believed there was consent.
• Police allege that on Sept. 30, 2024, he touched a woman in her 20s inside a parked car in Kasukabe during an outing with her mother, whom he supported at a facility.
• Investigators say the woman has an intellectual disability and had difficulty expressing consent or resistance.
• The case came to light after the Koshigaya Core Consultation Support Center reported the woman’s account to police in November 2024.
• Authorities are reviewing his subsequent employment at multiple Saitama facilities, as government research finds over a third of offenders in disability-related sex crimes are support workers and urges measures to avoid one-on-one situations.