The association’s technical director, Masanaga Kageyama, was detained last week while making a layover at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on route to Chile, according to the Le Parisien daily.

According to reports, he was traveling to Chile for the Under-20 World Cup.

When the flight crew noticed that the condemned guy was looking at photos of child pornography aboard the aircraft, they raised the alarm, revealing the facts, the court prosecutor’s office in Bobigny, north of Paris, told AFP.

The 58-year-old was fined 5,000 euros ($5,830) and given a suspended jail sentence of 18 months by the court on Monday for importing, possessing, recording, or storing pornographic images of a minor under the age of 15.

His sentence included a 10-year prohibition from working with minors and a 10-year restriction from going back to France.

Additionally, Kageyama will be listed as a national sex offender in France.

According to Le Parisien, flight attendants on an Air France trip in business class saw him looking at the photos on his laptop.

He asserted that the images were artificial intelligence-generated and claimed to be an artist.

According to the report, he acknowledged seeing the pictures during his court appearance, said he was embarrassed, and said he was unaware that it was against the law in France.

Prior to his Monday court appearance, he spent the weekend in police custody. Following the hearing, he was set free.

Kageyama is in charge of training coaches, developing young players, and putting policies into place to improve Japan’s football teams, especially the national squad.

In addition to coaching multiple J-League teams, he played professional football in the league. Additionally, he had managed the under-20, under-19, and under-18 teams for Japan.