As all Japanese people know, “Sex Settai" is common in Japanese society. "MAKURA EIGYŌ" is well-known in Japan's entertainment and sports worlds, but universities are no exception.
At private schools, “Soapland Settai", as described below, is not considered bribery and is therefore commonplace. In the past, the Settai provider would provide their business partner (negotiating partner) with Geisha at a Ryōtei (high-end restaurant). Nowadays, “high-quality SEX service" is provided by “Cabakura Girls” or "high-end Soaplands."
However, if an employee of a national or public university or high school were to engage in "Soapland Settai," they would be arrested for bribery. Since the University of Tokyo is a national university, if they were to engage in "Sex Settai," they would be arrested for bribery.
Most employees of Japan's medical and pharmaceutical schools are in collusion with vested interests, and bribery is commonplace. Bribery is a "victimless crime" (there is neither a perpetrator nor a victim, and both the briber and the recipient benefit, resulting in a win-win situation), and it rarely comes to light.
【Soapland-Addicted Medical Professor】
The arrested professor at the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Medicine specified Soaplands in Yoshiwara and high-end clubs in Ginza as his preferred locations. The Metropolitan Police Department is also questioning a former associate professor voluntarily.
2026/01/25 08:40
On January 24, 2026, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested a doctor and professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School on suspicion of bribery for allegedly receiving expensive entertainment from a joint research partner. The professor frequently requested entertainment at soaplands and high-end clubs, and even specified the locations.
Last year, a corruption scandal involving the selection of medical equipment at the University of Tokyo came to light.
《Suspect Sato Shinichi》
The suspect arrested was Sato Shinichi (62), a professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Medicine. He is suspected of receiving sexual favors worth approximately 1.8 million yen at a soapland from the representative director of the Japan Cosmetic Association (52), a general incorporated association, in exchange for facilitating research for the "Social Collaboration Course" on the skin benefits of legal cannabis compounds.
A male doctor (46), a former associate professor at the same graduate school, also received sexual favors worth approximately 1.9 million yen at a soapland. The Metropolitan Police Department is also questioning the former associate professor and the representative director voluntarily.
National university employees are considered "deemed public servants" and are subject to bribery charges.
The Social Collaboration Course is a department that conducts research in collaboration with private companies and other entities, with expenses covered by the partner. Sato met with the representative director through an acquaintance in May 2022. In September of the same year, he applied to the university for deliberation to establish a course.
The sexual entertainment began in February 2023, after the course's establishment was approved. The representative director dined with Sato Shinichi and the former associate professor at a French restaurant in Tokyo, paying approximately 150,000 yen for food and drinks. After that, Sato Shinichi began recommending soaplands in Yoshiwara, Tokyo, and high-end clubs in Ginza to the representative director, where he frequently provided sexual entertainment. The sexual entertainment occurred twice a month, and the cost of visiting soaplands for Sato sometimes exceeded 100,000 yen per session.
The social collaboration course was established in April of the same year. Sato Shinichi decided on the research content, and the former associate professor led the actual research.
According to the University of Tokyo's website, Sato Shinichi graduated from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Medicine in 1989. After serving as a professor at Nagasaki University and other institutions, he became a professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine in July 2009. In 2021, he received the University of Tokyo Hospital Director's Award for his work on a treatment for scleroderma, a condition that hardens the skin and internal organs. He also served as head of the Dermatology Department at the University of Tokyo Hospital.
The incident came to light when the representative director contacted the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in September 2024, reporting that Sato Shinichi and others had demanded money from him.
A doctor who serves on the board of the nonprofit organization Medical Governance Institute pointed out, "While industry-academia collaborative research supports research activities at universities struggling with funding, it can also easily become a breeding ground for collusion. This incident may just be the tip of the iceberg."
Even among national universities, the University of Tokyo is a huge organization with a large number of faculty, staff, and research institutes. Each faculty has considerable discretion, and the lack of progress in internal governance and reform has been a challenge.
At the end of last year, the University of Tokyo failed to meet the accreditation criteria in the second round of applications for the "International University of Excellence" designation, which receives annual subsidies of several tens of billions of yen from the government's investment profits of approximately 10 trillion yen in university funds, and was placed under "continued review" for up to one year.
At the expert panel reviewing the accreditation, it was pointed out that "if it is determined that a new governance-related scandal has arisen during the ongoing review period, the University of Tokyo will terminate the review."
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20260125-GYT1T00013/?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAqEAgAKgcICjDX194KMOi01gEwy6b0BA&utm_content=rundown&gaa_at=g&gaa_n=AWEtsqfaT72Iq aNVpiZYDjtwk7gBxr01dMQF1bmt6Ua7Vn_0TzKD1oXE4_NsDDqsxS01hk13ljLF2XctjHYX&gaa_ts=697610bf&gaa_si g=FW8MUsrFGZ-RlA84mL8XhypVFar4wOhN8G2Bt_2a3l3lEZJW_O9H-FXZH9LlPvoF1J7rhqk_gZYILHxf84iSEg%3D%3D
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