Eastern Court hears Japanese national Eisaku Hara, 50, lost his job after case was disclosed to public. — SCMP
The ex-head chef of a restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, who formerly worked at the Michelin-starred flagship in Tokyo, has been given a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to secretly filming upskirt videos of women.
Japanese national Eisaku Hara, 50, lost his job at Tempura Uchitsu after the case was disclosed to the public earlier this month, Eastern Court heard on Monday.
The defendant earlier admitted hiding a camera pen in the side pocket of his backpack to film three women inside the Central store of retail chain Don Don Donki on April 10, 2022.
Hara’s lawyer said her client had been greatly appreciated by his employer but lost his hard-earned reputation over the criminal offence.
“His mistake has left his hard work over the past three decades in tatters,” she told Magistrate Tsang Chung-yiu.
The counsel said Hara was suffering from depression as a result of being separated from his family in Japan during the Covid-19 pandemic and that serving a custodial sentence would only aggravate his mental illness.
She added that Hara’s wife might file for divorce because she was saddened by what her husband had done.
As Tsang passed the sentence, he noted that Hara had shown remorse, which was reflected in his guilty plea.
The magistrate said he would have sent Hara to jail if there had not been a significant delay to proceedings on the prosecution’s side.
“Delaying the prosecution for two years is absolutely unacceptable. If it was done in time, (Hara) could have served the sentence long ago and returned to Japan,” Tsang said, adding the victims in the case were also affected.
He set the starting point for three counts of unlawful recording or observation of intimate parts at six weeks in prison and reduced it by a third to reflect the defendant’s early guilty plea. The sentence was suspended for two years.
Tempura Uchitsu, located in Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, is an international branch of the flagship Tentenpura Uchitsu in Tokyo, which has one Michelin star and where Hara had also previously worked.
On April 10, 2022, a woman spotted Hara suspiciously holding his backpack in Don Don Donki after she felt someone touch her calf.
Hara was tailed by the woman and her boyfriend, who noticed he put the bag down near another target.
As the couple attempted to stop him from leaving the store, Hara ran out and dropped two camera pens on the pavement before he was stopped and arrested by an officer outside Central Market.
Police found upskirt footage of three women. One of the women could not be identified.
Hara admitted to police that he attached the camera pen to a notebook placed in the side pocket of his backpack. He said he had been influenced by watching pornographic videos.
A spokeswoman for the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong earlier clarified that it did not oversee the management of the restaurant, which was located inside its premises. – South China Morning Post
