The story below is originally published on Mainichi Daily News by Mainichi Shinbun (http://mdn.mainichi.jp). |
They admitted inventing its kinky features, or rather deliberately mistranslating them from the original gossip magazine. |
In fact, this is far from the general Japanese' behavior or sense of worth. |
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For better or worse, the names of great religions all over the world have in recent years been sullied by their clerics diddling little boys. Now, Shinto, Japan’s native religion, can count itself among the ranks, according to Friday (3/1). A 51-year-old Shinto priest, whose name is being withheld because he escaped a criminal record by paying a fine that left him without a conviction, was caught sexually harassing a boy 35 years younger.
Compounding matters, the perverted priest was the fifth-highest ranking priest at the Ise Shrine, the purported home of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, who is held in popular belief to have spawned the Imperial line.
“We learned about the sex attack in a Feb. 1 newspaper story. It was extremely embarrassing, but the priest had not told us a word about it,” Takeo Nishimura, deputy head of the general affairs department at Ise Shrine tells Friday. “He did something that was totally inappropriate for an employee of Ise Shrine and he was fired the same day.”
Friday says the sex attack occurred on the night of Sept. 22 last year. The drunken priest walked into the public toilet of a train station and stood at a urinal immediately beside a 16-year- old schoolboy going about his business.
Much to the amazement of the boy, the priest leaned over and stared at the lower half of his body.
“Ooh. That’s a whopper,” the priest is accused of saying, before he reportedly reached over and gave the boy’s piece a squeeze.
Shocked, the schoolboy grabbed the priest and dragged him to the stationmaster’s office. Incredulous station officials called in the police. At first, the priest vehemently denied the boy’s accusations. But, considering the state of the inebriated man of the cloth, the boy’s statements were believed and the priest pinched.
“We couldn’t believe it when he told us he was a high-ranking official at Ise Shrine,” the source from the Matsuzaka Police Station tells Friday. “We didn’t arrest him at first, just took him in for questioning. But, in the end, there was little doubt what the boy was saying was true, so we had to take the plunge.”
Authorities finally acted in January, arresting the priest for indecent assault. The Chunichi newspaper reported his case on Feb. 2, by which time the priest had confessed. He readily admits to the wrongdoing now.
“When I drink, I get really high. I went too far and just had a peep,” the priest says to Friday. “It’s true that I did tell the schoolboy he had a big one, but he’s wrong by saying that I gave him a squeeze. It was more like the tips of my fingers brushed across it. Naturally, I withdrew my hand immediately.”
Having dirtied Shinto’s name with a most unholy act, the priest is now seeking redemption.
“The victim is at a very difficult stage where he is undergoing many different emotions,” the priest tells Friday. “To have touched his manhood during such a difficult stage was a very silly act. I pray to gods that he will not be left with any long-term pain.”