DID NOT VOLUNTARILY INFORM MFA ABOUT INCIDENT
Japanese media reported that in February last year, the diplomat had used his mobile phone to secretly film a 13-year-old first-year middle school student in the changing room of a public bath. The boy was naked.
The police were called and “multiple naked photos of male customers” were found on his phone, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. It added that the diplomat refused to go to the police station but told officers he had taken such photos in other public baths.
When asked to delete the photos from his phone, the diplomat “deleted them on the spot”, reported Asahi. He allegedly deleted 700 photos from his phone, which he told police he had taken in the six months leading up to the incident.
MFA was made aware of the allegations on May 1, 2024 after it was contacted by Japanese media outlets. The diplomat, who had completed his tour of duty in Tokyo as scheduled and returned to Singapore, did not inform the ministry of the incident until he was asked about it.
He was then suspended from duties.
Sim returned to Japan for questioning by the police in June last year upon request by authorities there, with newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun then reporting that he had admitted to taking the photos.
“I was unable to control my desires when I saw a man naked,” Yomiuri Shimbun quoted him as saying, while Asahi reported that Sim was “surprised by the Japanese public bath culture and became interested in baths”.
This is the second sacking by MFA in as many weeks, following the Mar 27 dismissal of a director-general who was jailed for lying over the use of a diplomatic bag service.
