March 4, 2025
TOKYO – In the world of sports, there is a problem with female athletes being photographed with sexual intent. The situation is becoming more serious as images and videos are posted on social media and spread online. Although competition organizers and sports federations are taking action, there is still no definitive solution.
At the Paris Olympics last year, the Japanese women’s volleyball team wore innovative uniforms that attracted the attention of the Western media.
Mizuno, a major Japanese sporting goods manufacturer, designed the uniforms using infrared-opaque material to thwart attempts at illicit photography using infrared cameras that can see through ordinary fabric to reveal underwear and skin. Many invasive photos of athletes that appeared to have been taken using this method were circulating online, and measures to prevent this had become a pressing issue.
The Japanese women’s national teams in six sports at the Paris Olympics, including volleyball, table tennis, archery and field hockey, wore uniforms made of this special fabric. According to Mizuno’s public relations department, the players who wore the uniforms said they were “relieved and happy to be able to play comfortably.”
Mizuno also said that its innovation was reported on by Western media in countries such as the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, confirming that it was recognized as a serious issue overseas.
The problem of athletes being photographed without their knowledge is not a new one. In the 1990s, there were several cases in which photos of female athletes’ breasts and lower bodies were enlarged and published on the internet and in some weekly magazines.
As a result, the Japan Triathlon Union strengthened its measures from around 1995. Photographers are now required to apply in advance, and those who fail to do so have their cameras confiscated. The Japan Gymnastics Association banned spectators from taking pictures as of 2004. (Some exceptions have since been made.) Figure skating also banned spectator photography from the 2005-2006 season.
In August 2020, such issues came under the spotlight again. The Athletes’ Committee of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations received complaints from several female athletes that “Photos and videos that give the impression of sexual intent, such as those that emphasize parts of the body, are taken at competition venues and then distributed on social media sites.”
These images were edited to emphasize sexual intent, obscene comments were added, and the content violated the human rights of the athletes. Upon receiving the report, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) said: “There must be junior high and high school students who cannot speak up. A quick response is needed.” It began to conduct interviews with sports organizations.
As a result, multiple reports of similar harm were received from other sports organizations. In November 2020, seven sports-related organizations, including the JOC, the Japan Sport Association and the Japanese Para Sports Association, issued a joint statement calling for the prevention of such incidents. The statement declared, “We will protect an environment in which all athletes can concentrate on their sport and enjoy it to the fullest.” To coincide with the release of the statement, the JOC also set up a special website to widely solicit information about such incidents.
The seven organizations created a poster that included a QR code to make it easy to report such acts, with the message, “If you see any suspicious behavior such as voyeurism at the venue, please inform the event organizer.”
In response to this situation, some local governments have stepped up their policing efforts. In January 2020, Kyoto Prefecture revised its Prefectural Public Nuisance Prevention Ordinance, and in addition to the existing regulations against taking photos of underwear and naked bodies, it also made it a crime to take photos of breasts and lower bodies even when covered by clothing, as “indecent behavior.”
In September 2021, the Kyoto Prefectural Police sent documents to prosecutors on suspicion of a violation of the ordinance against disturbing the peace through indecent speech and behavior in the case of a man who was accused of taking photos that emphasized the lower bodies of female high school students in their uniforms at a track and field event. In January 2023, documents were similarly sent on a man accused of persistently taking photos of the lower bodies of female athletes at an ekiden relay race.
In March 2024, the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly passed a revision to the Prefectural Ordinance on the Elimination of Sexual Violence to define the act of secretly filming athletes and schoolchildren for sexual purposes as “sexual violence.” Although there are no penalties, the revised ordinance clearly states that the act of secretly filming people in sports facilities for sexual purposes is “sexual violence, whether they are clothed or not.”
In July 2023, the central government enacted a law to punish voyeuristic photography. This law was intended to bring a unified approach to the issue of voyeurism, which had previously been prohibited by separate ordinances in each prefecture. However, the law only covers voyeurism of certain body parts such as breasts and buttocks, or voyeurism of people in their underwear, and it was stated that it would be difficult to distinguish between illegal and legal cases of voyeurism of people in sports uniforms.
Given the limitations of legal enforcement, Naoya Yanagiya, director of the Olympic Movement Department at the JOC, emphasized: “The most effective way to prevent voyeurism of athletes is to improve the law. We will continue to lobby relevant organizations in the future.”
He also said, “We will continue to strengthen support for athletes who suffer while cooperating with the Japan Sports Agency and related organizations.”
On Feb. 4, Mizuno released a new uniform for athletics that has improved the effectiveness of its fabric to counter infrared cameras. A company representative said, “We want to continue to support an environment that protects female athletes and allows them to concentrate on their sport.”
As sports-related organizations, the central and local governments, and sports equipment manufacturers continue to seek ways to prevent such despicable acts from occurring in sports environments, it is also important that the rest of us, as bystanders, recognize such acts and work together to prevent them.