In a bid to film women bathing in hot springs, a Japanese man carefully implanted a hidden camera within a fake rock he made with clay and brown plastic.

He then wrapped the camera's cable in brown tape and connected it to a power bank.

The unnamed 31-year-old confessed he had been using the same modus operandi to film over 1,000 women at different hot springs since 2022, the South China Morning Post reported.

The prosecution has requested a two-year jail sentence.

How he was caught

The man was caught after a woman discovered the hidden camera at a hot spring in Yamagata prefecture.

She noticed strange reflections in a rock, found the embedded spy camera, and made a police report.

The perpetrator was subsequently arrested by the police when he came looking for the camera.

Although the police initially discovered 44 victims in the footage they retrieved, the man later admitted he had been doing the same thing at different hot springs.

An estimated 1,000 victims had been captured on camera.

Describing the crime as "planned, repeated, and fundamentally harmful", the prosecutor requested a two-year sentence.

The man also reportedly had convictions for possessing child pornography.

Hot spring perverts

In 2023, a network of voyeurs was uncovered and arrested.

They had reportedly been taking and sharing photographs of women bathing in hot springs across Japan for three decades, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

The ringleader, 50-year-old Karin Saito, admitted to filming over 10,000 women over the 30 years.

The group would get together to learn voyeurism techniques from Saito, and hold screening parties to share the videos among themselves.

A total of 16 people from 11 prefectures were arrested, including a doctor, government employees, and company executives.

Top image from Japan National Tourism Organisation