Japanese composer Hidekazu Tanaka pleads guilty to molesting minors

Yesterday (March 15) at the Tokyo District Court, 35-year-old game and anime composer Hidekazu Tanaka admitted to attempting to molest a 15-year-old girl. He forcibly held the underage girl's hand in a bicycle parking area at a train station in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, last August. In court, he said he "liked her face and presence" so he followed her from the train and then tried to molest her.

According to the police, the girl reported the case at a nearby community police post. The report mentioned that the police later found footage of someone following the girl from the security camera at the train station.

Not only that, Tanaka Hidekazu also admitted that he had at least dozens of helmets in the past 10 years. He was previously prosecuted for filming women's skirts at Ebisu Station and other train stations from September to October, and exposing his private parts on the train at Rakucho Station. He said in court that he wanted to experience the nervous "pleasure" of not knowing whether he would be caught, and explained that he did these things to "relieve anger and work pressure."

Police arrested Tanaka in Tokyo on October 24 last year on charges of attempted forcible indecent assault.

Hidekazu Tanaka spent his career mainly at MONACA, composing music for many games and animations over the past 10 years. His representative works include the opening theme and soundtrack of "Sneak! Nyaku", and the first opening theme of "The Idolmaster Cinderella" "Star!!". He left the agency at the end of July 2021.

He also composed the opening songs for the second season of the animation Pokémon Journey and Uzaki-chan Wants to Play!ω. The independent CD release of the second season opening song of Uzaki-chan Wants to Play!ω has been cancelled, and Pokémon Journey also deleted Tanaka's name from the opening song after the incident.