SINGAPORE: A Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) diplomat who was fined last year for filming a naked boy in a public bath in Tokyo was fired on Tuesday (Apr 2).

According to a notice published in the government gazette on Tuesday afternoon, Christopher Sim Siong Chye was dismissed from the ministry's headquarters.

MFA told CNA in June last year that it had started disciplinary proceedings against Sim, following his conviction by a Japanese court.

The 56-year-old career diplomat was fined 300,000 yen (US$1,908) for the lewd act, Kyodo news agency then reported.

Sim, who was named by Japanese broadcaster NHK, was indicted on charges of trespassing and violating the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Anti-Nuisance Ordinance.

He was a former counsellor at the Singapore Embassy in Tokyo and the Singapore Permanent Mission in Geneva, and was also awarded the Long Service Medal in 2016. 

A counsellor is a diplomatic rank for officers serving overseas, such as in an embassy. According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a diplomat cannot be arrested.

However, MFA told CNA in June last year that the officer did not have diplomatic immunity because his posting had ended as scheduled two months earlier.

DID NOT VOLUNTARILY INFORM MFA ABOUT INCIDENT

Japanese media reported that in February last year, the diplomat had used his mobile phone to secretly film a 13-year-old first-year middle school student in the changing room of a public bath. The boy was naked.

The police were called and "multiple naked photos of male customers" were found on his phone, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. It added that the diplomat refused to go to the police station but told officers he had taken such photos in other public baths.

When asked to delete the photos from his phone, the diplomat "deleted them on the spot", reported Asahi. He allegedly deleted 700 photos from his phone, which he told police he had taken in the six months leading up to the incident.

MFA was made aware of the allegations on May 1, 2024 after it was contacted by Japanese media outlets. The diplomat, who had completed his tour of duty in Tokyo as scheduled and returned to Singapore, did not inform the ministry of the incident until he was asked about it. 

He was then suspended from duties.

Sim returned to Japan for questioning by the police in June last year upon request by authorities there, with newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun then reporting that he had admitted to taking the photos.

"I was unable to control my desires when I saw a man naked," Yomiuri Shimbun quoted him as saying, while Asahi reported that Sim was "surprised by the Japanese public bath culture and became interested in baths".