Carnal koban: Two police officers punished for having sex on duty
Pity the police officer in “no crime” Japan. Of course, there is plenty of crime in Japan, at both the highest level of government and the lowest level of society (we wrote about a horrible case just yesterday). But in terms of petty crime, it’s generally felt that Japan has less than other countries.
As such, cops sitting their police boxes or substations (known as a koban) have relatively little to do much of the time. Instead of twiddling their thumbs, though, some cops are up to mischief, it seems. With each other.
Two police officers in Kanagawa, the large prefecture that neighors Tokyo to the west, have been punished for having sex while on duty.
The male sergeant in his forties and female officer in her twenties were apparently doing it in the koban.
Their punishment for “inappropriate dating while on duty,” besides very red faces, is a 10% pay cut for a month, Kanagawa police decided on November 7.
According to a report in the Mainichi Shimbun, the two engaged in sexual intercourse several times in the koban break room late at night while on duty between late June and around August 11. The affair came to light when an anonymous letter stating that the two were having an affair was posted to the station’s “suggestions box,” which collects opinions from staff.
In other words, they were rumbled because another police office ratted on them!
The two offices had been on duty together since September 2024. About from doing it while nominally on duty, you might well think there’s little wrong with two coworkers enjoying each other’s company, so to speak. But this was also technically adultery, because the male sergeant is married. His wife could now sue the single female officer for compensation.
The sergeant reportedly (and candidly) said, “I regret doing something stupid.” The officer said, “I liked him because he kindly give me guidance.” Of course, we are sure the sergeant was totally not expecting anything in return for his, ahem, guidance since last year.
Hiroshi Mukai, head of the inspector general’s office, commented, “We will provide thorough guidance to our staff.”
We actually wrote a report about a similar case of koban sex way back in 2014. Perhaps it’s pretty common, just rarely becomes public!
There’s also quite a good pun in this: the Japanese slang term for full sex is honban, which shares the same sex character as koban. So (drum roll) koban honban!
