Controversial Dongguk University Professor Banned From Classes Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations

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Dongguk University will remove from teaching next week a professor in its Japanese Studies Department who, after being arrested in Japan on allegations of sexual assault, has been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting students while teaching.

On April 3, the university said Professor A will be excluded from all classes beginning April 6, and replacement instructors will be assigned to the three courses he had been teaching.

On March 23, the Japanese Studies department student council and other students posted a public notice alleging that Professor A used his position to engage in nonconsensual physical contact — including kissing the backs of students’ hands — and made sexually harassing remarks.

According to that notice, Professor A routinely made sexually explicit comments to students, saying things like, “When you date, be careful. Find a man who gives you a lot of massages in bed,” and, “A woman I met earlier was getting orthodontic work, and it was fun to touch her with my tongue.”

Japanese police arrested Professor A on the night of Jan. 26 in Okayama on suspicion that he touched the body of a woman in her 20s without her consent. In February, the Okayama District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to indict him.

Dongguk’s Human Rights Center received a related complaint on March 26 and is conducting an investigation. The university said it will determine whether to impose disciplinary measures after the center completes its probe.