Noriko Sakai walks into court on Monday.

Sakai given suspended term for drug possession, use

Monday 09th November, 12:18 PM JST

TOKYO —

Pop idol-turned-actress Noriko Sakai was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, Monday by the Tokyo District Court for possessing and taking illegal stimulant drugs this summer.

A week after actor-singer Manabu Oshio was also given a suspended 18-month term for taking the synthetic drug MDMA, the ruling on a bigger-name celebrity comes as a fresh and vivid reminder that the Japanese show business industry is not immune to illegal drugs.

Sakai, 38, was convicted of smoking a stimulant drug on or around July 30 during a family trip to Amamioshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, and of possessing 0.008 gram of the drug on Aug 3 at her Tokyo home.

Her husband, Yuichi Takaso, 41, a self-described pro surfer, was arrested Aug 3 and is awaiting the Nov 27 verdict on charges also of stimulant drug possession and use. Prosecutors have demanded he receive two years in prison.

Judge Hiroaki Murayama said Sakai was addicted to and in a way dependent on the drug, and described her behavior following her husband’s arrest as ‘‘contemptible as she fled from area to area in an attempt to avoid detection of her use.’‘

Sakai left the scene when Takaso was questioned by police on the street and went on the run before turning herself in five days later in a bid to clear her body of the drug, she has told the court.

‘‘Unfortunately, this incident and the trial are the reality,’’ Murayama told her. ‘‘You will likely realize its gravity from now on, but I hope you won’t succumb to it and will cut off drugs and rehabilitate.’‘

At the one-day hearing of her trial Oct 26, prosecutors demanded 18 months imprisonment after she admitted to the charges and apologized.

The highly publicized case attracted 3,030 people hoping to win by lot one of the 21 gallery seats available on the day of the ruling, the court said.

Since Takaso’s arrest and the discovery of drugs at Sakai’s home the same day, the Japanese media has covered developments extensively, prompting the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization to warn last week that the reporting was ‘‘overheated.’‘

The case has been widely portrayed as a betrayal by Sakai, known by her nickname ‘‘Nori-P,’’ of her image as a pure and innocent idol and more recently as a good mother in a happy family.

Sakai debuted in 1986 in a TV drama, released her first record the following year, and gained popularity in other parts of Asia, including in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, in the early 1990s. She married Takaso in 1998 and gave birth to their son in 1999.

In the wake of the cases involving Sakai and Oshio, the Japan Association of Music Enterprises held an antidrug seminar for artists’ managers Friday, which an official said was part of its ‘‘long-term efforts’’ to break the industry’s connection with drugs.

Grouping around 100 talent agencies, the association also is considering mobilizing performers for antidrug campaigns from the viewpoint that illegal drug use is a problem not only in show business, it said.

But the industry tends to easily pardon artists and musicians convicted in drug cases, said Masaru Nashimoto, 64, an entertainment reporter calling for this tendency to change.

Hope lingers among fans and industry insiders for Sakai to stage an early comeback, which Nashimoto said usually happens after a year in cases involving stimulant drugs and half a year in those involving marijuana.

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Latest 15 of 60 Total Comments Show All

Valmain at 05:44 PM JST - 9th November

High five, nisegaijin.
Junnama at 05:47 PM JST - 9th November

Looking at this picture - I can say Nori-p looked so much better in that interview when she was high as a kite.
gogogo at 06:02 PM JST - 9th November

Hope lingers among fans and industry insiders for Sakai to stage an early comeback, which Nashimoto said usually happens after a year in cases involving stimulant drugs and half a year in those involving marijuana.

Exactly as I predicted... the entire industry is run by the yakuza...
Nessie at 06:19 PM JST - 9th November

Her husband, Yuichi Takaso, 41, a self-described pro surfer,

If only he'd described himself as "a pro surfer who would never touch any illegal substance" the media would have run with that and he'd never have gone down.
TokyoGas at 07:07 PM JST - 9th November

hahaha

Another monied up person skates...

Was there ever any doubt. LOL
dr_jones at 07:16 PM JST - 9th November

Small fishes are better be thrown back into the pond! How about going for the big fishes Japan Law Enforcement?!
dolphingirl at 07:19 PM JST - 9th November

DXXJP: Thanks for clearing that up. I was going to say the same thing. In some cases, yes, celebs do get special treatment. (and not just in Japan but everywhere) But Sakai got the same punishment as any average person would have gotten. And yes, she probably will return to her career but that's not unusual either. Lots of Hollywood stars are arrested and/or convicted of similar or worse crimes and they, too, usually go back to the lifestyle they had before. People make mistakes. Some learn from them. It's time Japan saw their precious idols as human beings.

And instead of shaming people who do drugs or abuse drugs, why not provide them education and rehabilition rather than using fear to try to scare people away from all the 'terribly, bad & dangerous drugs'? It's seems to be a lame imitation of the US's war on drugs which obviously doesn't work. Why not inform people about the good & bad aspects of drugs and let them decide for themselves? The police force here is treating citizens like children and pretending to do something about drugs when really they are not serving or protecting people at all.
anon99 at 07:52 PM JST - 9th November

Exactly as I predicted... the entire industry is run by the yakuza...

Well I must agree, this case and verdict is such a joke. But I can smell 893 involvement in almost every aspect...

Here's what I read and observed from various online sources, regarding the 893 connection:

a. Sun Music is alleged to be associated with the Sumiyoshi;

b. Non-chan's backers (ie. Tominaga, Sakakieda et. al.) are also said to be affiliated with the Sumiyoshi (which might explain why Aizawa and Tominaga are in fact close allies);

c. The (non-police assigned) Honda vehicles that carried Non-chan around have 893-oriented license plates. (FYI those appeared in today's verdict are respectively "Nerima 321 ra 88-88" on the Elysion and "Nerima 360 te 55-55" on the Odyssey Absolute);

d. Given her situation, background and her connection with the 893, Non-chan could've become a convenient subject of elimination by any rival syndicates, esp. given that she might have revealed classified material to the heat which might cause more detriment to the 893's business operations (esp. narcotics). But so far, no rumors or any lead of such hit. Could be that Non-chan has been constantly shadowed by the combined forces of the Yamaguchi (where her family belonged to) and Sumiyoshi ever since the narc bust/scandal. Any resourceful rival gang(s) who wanted to throw in the gauntlet, could've joined forces and offed her today before she could even make it to the court, but that didn't happen.

e. So the judge handed Non-chan a quite lenient sentence (but actually standard operating procedure so to speak). I wonder if such decision was affected by the 893 also. But I'm not sure if the Justice Dept is equally "infected" by the 893, in the form of high-ranking officers etc. Who knows, maybe there are certain "straight" officers who loathe celebs like Non-chan and wanted to take her down once and for all, but the 893 elements interfered, so they backed down. Anyway, just my 0.02.
DenDon at 10:10 PM JST - 9th November

so all the time and money wasted on this case and the message to the youth of Japan/illegal drug users is "why not? go on..."
melonade at 10:41 PM JST - 9th November

great country, but hellishly archaic approach with regards to dealing with drug problems.

dxxjp is right, sakai was always going to get a suspended sentence, it's standard for a first offense. the real travesty here was the way the woman was crucified by both the media and a public that salivates after stories that effectively destroy people. visit a trial one day and check out the people that fill the seats, it's pretty darn sad really.

nisegaijin: try spending a few weeks with some of the detectives from the organized crime squad (they're the ones who would have been interrogating her), you'll soon begin to understand why nori-p admitted to her using on the island. this aint kansas.. that said, the amount she was charged with posessing pretty much says it all though, don't you think?

these people (the japanese police) have no idea of the animal that is drugs in this day and age, and the system that provides them with 23+ days in which to establish practically whatever they want (within reason), coupled with zero education and health support, will only serve to help develop japan's drug problem.

japan I love you, but you get a massive fail here..
sensei258 at 11:12 PM JST - 9th November

Nihonjin pop star = suspended sentence again. Didn't see that one coming. What if she (they) was (were) gaijin? Same sentence? No way!
usaexpat at 11:50 PM JST - 9th November

I should have caught this before my comment on the people cueing up to hear the verdict. Good, suspended sentence but don't you think we could have saved a lot of pain, effort and money if we hadn't turned this miniscule posession case into a three ring circus?
GJDailleult at 09:55 AM JST - 10th November

I'm surprised how many people seem to take this case at face value and are surprised and ticked off by the suspended sentence. My feeling is that from the start this has all just been a weird police/yakuza kabuki dance that got out of hand, and Sakai got stuck in the middle of it. The suspended sentence lets everybody save face and slow down, and was completely predictable. I might be right, might be wrong, but it makes a lot more sense than the official version.
The758 at 01:36 PM JST - 10th November

　Grouping around 100 talent agencies, the association also is considering mobilizing performers for antidrug campaigns from the viewpoint that illegal drug use is a problem not only in show business, it said

If anything, this entire idiotic production has shown us that if you're famous you can do drugs and not get punished for it. Good message to present to the future of Japan, well done.
melonade at 08:06 PM JST - 10th November

If anything, this entire idiotic production has shown us that if you're famous you can do drugs and not get punished for it. Good message to present to the future of Japan, well done.

there is more to punishment than incarceration..