Osaka teacher Takashi Yoshida says harassment was Bond-style seduction

A Japanese head teacher has defended his sexual harassment of female parents of his students by claiming he was merely applying the seductive spying tactics of fictional agent James Bond.

Takashi Yoshida, who resigned last week, was ordered by the board of education of Osaka to explain why he had "touched the bodies" of an unspecified number of mothers and sent inappropriate e-mail messages to others during May and June.

In a 27-page letter, submitted in early October and obtained by the Mainichi Broadcasting System channel, Yoshida, 59, denied accusations of harassment.

"These were actions like 007," he said. "To get information from female spies, I showed them affection."

Yoshida said the e-mails were intended as "jokes" and he insisted that he was not "consciously committing sexual harassment".

The education board initially moved Yoshida to a different elementary school.