Several schools have brought in shorts for cheerleaders at baseball tournament while another positioned teachers between the cheerleaders and spectators

High schools taking part in Japan’s annual spring baseball tournament are taking action to prevent spectators from taking sexualised photographs of female cheerleaders.

The invitational tournament – and a regular tournament held every summer at Koshien stadium near Osaka – are supposed to be a celebration of youthful sporting prowess and a chance for teenage boys from 32 schools around the country to make their mark and perhaps catch the eye of a professional ball club.

But in recent years the events have been marred by incidences of voyeurism, in which female members of cheerleading groups, often dressed in sleeveless tops and short skirts, are photographed without their consent, with the images posted online in some cases.