It’s been reported that an elementary school in Nagoya decided to scrap class photos, citing privacy protection. On a Fuji TV program aired on the 21st, talent Koji Higashino explained that the decision was made “by a majority vote of the parents,” and announcer Aoki joined in, sharing her own experience and noting that “there won’t be any photos left with the girl you had your first crush on.” On 5ch, a flood of doubts emerged about this very explanation of events — posters pointed out that the decision was actually made unilaterally by the principal, that the city board of education has not recommended scrapping the photos, and that parents are in fact running a protest movement against it. This gap between the reported narrative and the actual situation at the school became the thread’s main focus.
Koji Higashino says elementary school’s class photo ban was decided “by a majority vote of the parents”; announcer Aoki recalls, “The photo with the girl I had my first crush on…”
Talent Koji Higashino (59) appeared on Fuji TV’s “Shunkan LIVE Toretate!” (weekdays, 1:50 p.m.), which aired on the 21st.
He shared his views, speaking as a parent, on an elementary school in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, deciding to scrap class photos.
It's because little brats use photos of their classmates to make AI deepfake porn ('ai-kora'), isn't it.
5AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:45
Sounds like it's the moms who've had plastic surgery who are against it.
18AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:54
Re: #5
Even if they object to photos of their kids, there's already photos of themselves from when they were young out there, so what's the point?
56AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:30
Re: #21 Re: #5
This headline is basically bait, you know.
The whole "decided by a majority vote of the parents" thing is something Higashino Koji himself came up with — there's no actual record of that happening, not with this Nagoya case or any other.
In this Nagoya case, the principal just went and decided on his own after a handful of parents raised concerns, and the city board of education has said it neither supports nor recommends scrapping the photos — so it's not clear why this principal and school are being so stubborn about it.
The parents are actually running a protest against the principal, saying "don't just decide this on your own and scrap it."
6AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:46
It's unbearable — kids like these don't just use the photos as 'material,' they go and spread around obscene images too.
7AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:46
Graduation photos used to turn up a lot in celebrity leaked-photo scandals, didn't they.
8AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:46
I don't get the reasoning of the parents who are against it — there's no way the kids themselves would object.
9AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:47
I threw out all my group photos and albums when I moved.
10AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:48
You look back and go, "wait, I liked THIS?", don't you.
11AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:49
Guess they can't make graduation albums or class anthologies anymore either — even making it opt-in purchase only, there's no way to edit it so only the kids who opted in show up.
45AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:11
Re: #11
Don't really need the class anthology anyway, lol. That kind of thing just ends up as an ancient scroll of cringe memories.
12AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:50
At this rate privacy is going to get so overblown that kids will end up using fake names and walking to school with masks on to hide their faces.
13AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:50
Friends already snap photos of each other on their phones, so you don't need it anyway.
14AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:51
I never look at graduation albums. Got one each from elementary, middle, and high school, but dwelling on the past doesn't help you move forward.
15AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:53
With how much personal info has already leaked this year, it's a bit late to worry now — if anything, they should just embrace it and upload the class photo to the whole world themselves right after taking it.
16AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:53
So how's TV supposed to get photos of victims or perpetrators then?
17AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:53
Well, when a criminal turns up, their graduation album photo gets dug up and shown on TV anyway.
But jokes aside, I do think this is a bit too much caution. Apparently recent graduation albums deliberately leave names off now.
21AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:57
The "parents decided by majority vote" thing sounds super fishy. If that were true, what about that school's open house days or sports day? Or even the graduation ceremony, for that matter?
22AnonymousOct 22, 2026 00:57
Back in the day it wasn't just photos — names, addresses, phone numbers, even parents' occupations were printed too. And somehow it never caused any major problems.
24AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:00
If it's really about protecting privacy, don't tell anyone's name either — go run a class where nobody knows anyone's name. Creepy.
25AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:00
In my high school graduation album, a teacher who died of illness during our third year had both arms erased from the club photo, turning it into a cursed graduation album.
27AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:01
> Koji Higashino (59)
First time in my life hearing that name. Don't make threads just to boost some comedian's name recognition.
28AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:02
Back in the day a neighborhood photo studio would just show up in the classroom and take the photos, but apparently nowadays the homeroom teacher just shoots it on their personal smartphone 🤣🤣🤣
32AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:03
Keep the baseball club ('yakyuu') photos around though — they'll come in handy as evidence (a jab at how often baseball clubs end up embroiled in scandals).
37AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:06
These days friends can just send photos to each other instantly, so albums don't really mean anything anymore.
38AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:07
Going on about "the girl I had my first crush on" is risky too, so scrapping it was the right call.
39AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:08
Well, it's the age of the internets, after all.
40AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:10
Isn't it fine while they're still in elementary school though? I think it's fair enough to get rid of it from middle school onward, once the school social hierarchy really starts forming.
41AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:10
No wonder class-reunion culture is dying out too. You lose track of everyone's contact info, and classmates' faces and names just fade from memory.
43AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:10
Unlike the Showa era, you can take as many photos as you want these days anyway.
63AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:39
This isn't about the graduation album though, right? I don't even remember taking a class photo at the start of a new school year.
69AnonymousOct 22, 2026 01:45
Re: #63
Yeah. Wonder what that's about.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
For a long time, it was standard for class photos and graduation albums in Japan to include full names, faces, and even home addresses. In recent years, however, schools have increasingly become aware of the risks posed by SNS circulation and AI-based image manipulation (such as “ai-kora” deepfakes), leading many schools to adopt measures like omitting names. This particular report drew attention after Koji Higashino described it as having been “scrapped by a majority vote of the parents,” but posters on the thread pointed out that this “majority vote” framing actually originates from Higashino’s own remarks — the Nagoya City Board of Education has neither endorsed nor recommended the ban, and in reality it was a unilateral decision by the principal, with parents reportedly organizing a protest against it. This suggests a possible gap between how the story was framed in the broadcast and what’s actually happening at the school. The discussion split into two main threads: one questioning the consistency of citing “privacy protection” as grounds for scrapping photos — and how far that logic would need to extend to graduation albums, class anthologies, sports days, and open-house events — and the other centering on a generational gap in how much value today’s kids actually place on class photos and graduation albums in the first place, with several comments tying this to the decline of reunion culture.
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