Nursery schoolteachers arrested in Japan over abuse allegations

Police have arrested three teachers at a nursery school in central Japan on suspicion they routinely abused toddlers, including hitting their heads, holding them upside down and locking them up in a bathroom, in a case that has triggered outrage and allegations of a cover-up.

Shizuoka prefectural police said they arrested three women on Sunday on suspicion of assaulting at least three children in June at a nursery school in the city of Susono, at the foot of Mount Fuji.

The mayor of Susono, Harukaze Murata, told reporters on Monday that he had also filed a criminal complaint against the school’s director, Toshihiko Sakurai, for allegedly covering up the abuses. He urged police to widen their investigation.

In one case in June, one of the teachers is accused of holding a boy upside down. Another teacher pushed a girl in the face, according to police, and the third slapped the head of another boy.

Their arrests followed a search of the private school by police on Saturday in response to the city’s revelation last week of 15 counts of alleged abuses between June and August.

Results of an internal investigation revealed the three teachers routinely abused toddlers in their care, including slapping their face and heads, forcing them to cry, threatening them with a cutter knife, verbally abusing the children by calling them “ugly” and “fat”, locking them up inside a toilet or storage room, according to the city.

Murata accused the school director of “covering up” the abuses by getting other teachers to sign a paper requiring them to conceal the problem and delaying giving an explanation to the parents, calling his handling of the issue “heinous”.

The mayor of Susono, Harukaze Murata (left), and the vice-mayor bow during a press conference in Susono on Monday. Photograph: AP

The three teachers, all in their 30s, reportedly told investigators that their treatment of the toddlers was “discipline”, while the director said he had the document signed only to protect privacy of those involved and denied trying to cover up the abuses.

The city has faced public criticism for sitting on the case for more than three months since a whistleblower first came forward to reveal “inappropriate” cases at the school in mid-August. Murata said he took the criticism seriously and would take a pay cut for two months while also punishing three senior officials.

Separate investigations into possible abuse are continuing in two other nursery schools.

In Sendai, northern Japan, officials are conducting an internal investigation following allegations that children had to strip down to their underwear during mealtimes so they did not dirty their clothes. At another school in the northern city of Toyama, police are investigating teachers on suspicion they locked up crying children in a storage facility or poked their backs with a stick to order them to move.

Experts say nursery teachers tend to be low paid and schools face chronic staff shortages and a harsh working environment.