Lilith
03-12-2006, 01:35 PM
(gg)
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese Buddhist priest who was
arrested on suspicion of having paid sex with a
teenage girl said he was under stress and had given in
to lust.
Itsushi Ehara, 73, chief priest at a temple in the
western Japanese prefecture of Hiroshima and also head
of a nursery school, paid the 15-year-old girl 80,000
yen ($675) to have sex in a hotel in downtown Tokyo, a
police spokesman said on Friday.
"I could not resist my lust. A lot of stress built up
from running the school," Ehara was quoted by Kyodo
news agency as telling police.
Ehara, who is believed to have met the girl through a
prostitute-dispatch service, is also suspected of
having paid for sex with several other teenage girls
over a period of two to three years, Kyodo quoted
police as saying.
Japan has long had a relatively lax attitude toward
sexual exploitation of young people. Teenage
prostitution -- known as "compensated dating" -- was
outlawed in 1999, but it still goes on, though less
openly than before.
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese Buddhist priest who was
arrested on suspicion of having paid sex with a
teenage girl said he was under stress and had given in
to lust.
Itsushi Ehara, 73, chief priest at a temple in the
western Japanese prefecture of Hiroshima and also head
of a nursery school, paid the 15-year-old girl 80,000
yen ($675) to have sex in a hotel in downtown Tokyo, a
police spokesman said on Friday.
"I could not resist my lust. A lot of stress built up
from running the school," Ehara was quoted by Kyodo
news agency as telling police.
Ehara, who is believed to have met the girl through a
prostitute-dispatch service, is also suspected of
having paid for sex with several other teenage girls
over a period of two to three years, Kyodo quoted
police as saying.
Japan has long had a relatively lax attitude toward
sexual exploitation of young people. Teenage
prostitution -- known as "compensated dating" -- was
outlawed in 1999, but it still goes on, though less
openly than before.