A Japanese Football Association official was sentenced in France to an 18-month suspended term and fined after admitting to viewing child pornography images aboard a flight.
A senior Japanese Football Association official, Masanaga Kageyama, has been sentenced by a French court to an 18-month suspended jail term and fined €5,000 after being found guilty of viewing child pornography images while on a flight to Chile.
Kageyama, 58, was intercepted during a stopover in Paris when airline crew noticed him viewing such images and alerted authorities. The Bobigny prosecutor’s office said the charges included importing, possessing, recording or saving pornographic images of a minor under the age of 15.
In court, Kageyama admitted to viewing the images and “did not realise it was illegal in France,” claiming that the photos had been generated via artificial intelligence. He expressed shame for the act. The judgment also includes a ten-year ban on working with minors, a prohibition on returning to France during that period, and his addition to the French sex offenders’ registry.
Kageyama previously served as coach for various Japanese youth national teams and held responsibilities within the Japan FA, including youth development and coach education.