On 13 July 2023 a new statute took effect alongside the amended Penal Code: the Act on Punishment of Acts of Photographing Sexual Postures and on the Erasure of Electromagnetic Records of Sexual Images in Seized Items, commonly the voyeurism punishment act. Voyeurism, previously handled under prefectural nuisance-prevention ordinances, became punishable uniformly nationwide under national law. Holding a smartphone behind someone on an escalator, hidden filming in a changing room, secret recording of a sexual act: for a category of crime in which the victim’s body is copied permanently as an image, a unified criminal framework was finally provided.

The photographing of sexual conduct offence (性的姿態撮影罪) is the umbrella term for the crime categories under the 2023 voyeurism punishment act (Act No. 67 of 2023), in force 13 July 2023. It punishes, as independent offences, the non-consensual photographing and recording of sexual postures, the provision and circulation of such images, and their storage. This article covers the background, the principal provisions, the scope, and the issues.

Background

Voyeurism control in Japan long ran through prefectural nuisance-prevention ordinances, which punished the secret filming of sexual postures as conduct “causing serious public nuisance”, typically by up to one year’s imprisonment or a one-million-yen fine. Ordinance-based control had structural limits: provisions differed by prefecture, so scope and sentencing varied by location; filming on private land or inside a residence often fell outside the ordinances; and ordinance amendments lagged the diversification of methods through smartphones and miniature cameras. Some prefectures did not punish the act of filming at all, and the circulation and storage of filmed images lay largely outside ordinance reach, leaving a wide gap given that an image of the victim’s body persists. The Ministry of Justice advanced a comprehensive reform of sex-offence law from 2021 to 2023; in June 2023 the amended Penal Code (Act No. 66, creating the non-consensual sexual intercourse offence) and the voyeurism punishment act (Act No. 67) passed together, both in force from 13 July.

Principal provisions

Article 2 (the photographing offence) punishes the non-consensual photographing of “sexual postures, etc.”, meaning a sexual body part (genitals, anus, breasts), the part of worn underwear normally hidden by clothing, or a posture relating to an obscene act or intercourse. The punishable types include non-consensual filming (including exploitation of a state in which expressing intention is difficult), filming by a method deceiving the subject as to the fact or situation of filming, filming of normally covered parts, filming of a child under 13 (regardless of consent), and filming of a child 13 to under 16 where the filmer is five or more years older (likewise regardless of consent). The penalty is up to three years’ confinement or a fine up to three million yen.

Article 3 (provision and public display) punishes providing a sexual-image record created by filming to a third party or displaying it publicly (uploading online); up to three years or three million yen, aggravated to five years or five million yen for provision or display to unspecified or many persons. Article 4 (storage) punishes storing such a record for the purpose of the provision offence (up to two years or two million yen), allowing prosecution on the fact of storage alone without catching the filming itself. Article 6 (the recording offence) punishes recording a live-streamed sexual posture knowing it to be such (up to three years or three million yen). Articles 7 and following empower the court, without awaiting the victim’s request, to order the erasure and non-reproducibility of seized sexual-image records, an institutionalised protection of the victim’s personality rights given that an image, once spread online, cannot be recovered.

Scope and relation to neighbouring law

The reach of the photographing offence is broad: no restriction by place (escalators, trains, public toilets, changing rooms, accommodation, private residences) or by means (smartphone, miniature hidden camera, drone, voyeurism app). Cases over the scope of consent have grown, such as one party filming a consensual adult sexual act, or filming consented to but the leak of the image not. Enforcement figures are published in the annual Ministry of Justice and National Police Agency statistics, recording several hundred arrests a year.

The offence shares ground with three neighbouring statutes. Image leaks intended for publication fall under the revenge-porn prevention act (2014); filming of children under 18 under the child-pornography law; and non-consensual filming of persons 18 or over under this offence, with multiple charges often joined in practice. Nuisance-prevention ordinances coexist, with minor cases (filming over clothing) handled by ordinance and serious cases (filming involving genital exposure) by this offence.

Issues

Enforcement has highlighted the difficulty of executing erasure against illegal images moved to overseas servers, the irrecoverability of electronically spread images, and the limits of retroactive control over previously published images. Effective victim relief is held to require stronger international cooperation, an institutionalised removal duty on platforms, and expanded victim support.

See also

• Revenge porn
• Child-pornography law
• Penal Code Article 175
• Non-consensual sexual intercourse offence
• Sexual consent