Aomori Prefectural Police headquarters (Mainichi)

       AOMORI -- The Aomori Prefectural Board of Education announced on July 30 that it has fired a junior high school teacher following his arrest on suspicion of drug possession.

       Kyohei Fujita, 36, who was employed as a teacher at a municipal junior high school in the Aomori Prefecture city of Mutsu at the time of his arrest, was sacked on July 30. According to the prefectural education board, Fujita was arrested July 11 by the Aomori Police Station for suspected possession of stimulants. He was allegedly in possession of drugs in a plastic bag in the parking lot of an internet cafe in the city of Aomori that same day.

       Fujita is said to have admitted to the allegations when questioned by the education board, and also confessed to using the stimulants.

       Fujita was hired in 2016. While there were no issues with his daily work performance, he was quoted as telling the education board that he had had health problems and been having trouble sleeping at night, which caused difficulty in recovering from daily fatigue. He reportedly said that due to this, he had been unable to do his job the way he wanted and was stressed out. Fujita was quoted as telling the board that he purchased drugs online.

       Prefectural education board superintendent Nobutoshi Wajima apologized over the former teacher's arrest, saying that it "seriously undermined society's trust in educators as a whole" and that it "caused distrust in education among residents in the prefecture." He added, "We will continue to work on maintaining discipline in our public duties and make an effort to make our schools trustworthy."

       The Aomori District Public Prosecutors Office indicted Fujita on July 30 on charges of stimulant possession and use. According to the indictment and other information, he stands accused of using stimulants in a hotel in the city of Aomori around July 10 and had the drugs in his possession at a parking lot in the same city the following day.

       (Japanese original by Yushi Ezawa, Aomori Bureau)

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