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May 17 (UPI) -- A middle school teacher in Japan was arrested for identity fraud after he attempted to purchase tickets to a Japanese pop concert featuring Nogizaka46, a leading female idol group. Tokyo police said Wednesday the unidentified man, 27, along with three others, were arrested for falsifying information while trying to gain admission to watch the wildly popular performers, Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
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Nogizaka46 has more than 40 members, with singers graduating out of the group since 2011.
The women, who are in their teens and 20s, were at the center of an online controversy in 2012, when the group published a music video featuring members lifting their skirts over their faces, while performing sexually suggestive dances.
Some of the members are as young as 15.
Police arrested the four men, ages 24 to 49, after the concert on Sunday, where they used forged student identification and driver's licenses to watch the group's performance.
Ticket sales were limited to students because local authorities did not want the concert to encourage ticket scalping.
The arrested adults purchased tickets that had been overpriced when they were caught using fake identification to gain entry.
"I wanted to watch the concert by any means available," the teacher said, while admitting to his "guilt" to police.
The Minato ward's board of education in Tokyo said staff should receive more thorough guidance so such "incidents do not happen again."
