Noriko Sakai

Sakai's agency fires her after indictment over drug possession

Saturday 29th August, 03:56 AM JST

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kenchan at 04:33 AM JST - 2nd September

my god....u people cannot be serious? I guess u lot have never taken any serious drugs or lived with people affected by drugs (use or abuse)....pls stop watching yr documentaries and meet real people who are affected by drug use. Just basing yr view of the world on freakonimic-type logic just ignores the LINK between drug use and drug abuse. You cannot just separate these things because you have never actually experienced them in yr soft, cushioned lives. Even if you legalise drugs then you don't solve the social problem of drug use/drug abuse.

Damien15>laws are made to protect society from things that can harm them even if its only afew (not because every case of drug use ends in tragedy)....like we have laws against murder, rape etc. Its not that the law thinks we will all be affected by such events but it has to be there to protect the affected if it happens. You are wrong and must educate yourself to the world outside of the web.
BuddhismTech at 05:16 AM JST - 2nd September

If Sakai was a merely casual and habitual user, she would just walk straightly to cooperate with the police without any problem. She could turn in her cell phone and identify a drug dealer to the police. She should be ready to give up her drugged pleasures for rehabilitation. Then she would confess and apologize to the public without any urge to run away and take advantage of time to destroy evidence, especially like discarding her cell phone with data on it. Sakai really thought that she fixed everything but was so surprised about the contradicting outcome, thanking to the police's strong willing. This incident would never happen if Sakai already privately discussed with Masahisa Aizawa about her problem with drugs.

She is not like Manabu Oshio who committed a crime for possessing a drug but did not try to escape from the police and deliberately sanitize evidence.

Hard to believe that there are already a series of family members who fell in the Sakai curse:

(1) Sakai's mother died when she was 4.
(2) Sakai's father died when she was 18.
(3) Sakai's manager died.
(4) Sakai's brother was arrested.
(5) Sakai's husband was arrested.

Maybe Sakai's arrest can help burying the Sakai curse. We don't really want to know if there is any demon dwelling inside her beautiful body and face. A source from a different website said that Sakai was losing a great amount of weight prior to her arrest. No one in the world had a chance to help her until the police arrested her. I think that her evil self was exorcised by her mistake, which that also saved her life by referring to the experts who can help her to overcome addiction and get her weight and health back. Further, her most difficult job is to separate herself from the illegal substances, wrong crowds, and bad places, while deal with her losses, such as the vanishing contracts (money), ruined reputation, and firing.

Most important of all, we should be be thankful that she did not commit suicide. It will help her alot if many Asian fans from different Asian countries are stubborn enough to continue supporting her.

Are super wealth and evilness are callaborating together?
dolphingirl at 12:54 PM JST - 2nd September

Griff: Couldn't agree with you more!! Drug use and drug abuse are two different things and it is the criminalization of drugs that leads to so many problems in our society. If you're interested, another good documentary to check out is 'The Union: The Business of Getting High'
BuddhismTech at 02:38 PM JST - 2nd September

Latest report about Noriko Sakai:

Sakai's obsessive male fan was threatening a bomb scare to police. Sakai is planning to divorce her husband and taking her son to the United States for studies.

channelnewsasia.com - "Noriko Sakai fan threatens police with bomb scare"

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/1002096/1/.html
BuddhismTech at 03:10 PM JST - 2nd September

This may be Sakai's husband's fault, not Sakai's? Then I apologize for my theories which caused some inconvenience to Sakai's fans and Sakai, herself.
griff at 08:57 PM JST - 2nd September

my god....u people cannot be serious? I guess u lot have never taken any serious drugs or lived with people affected by drugs (use or abuse)....pls stop watching yr documentaries and meet real people who are affected by drug use. Just basing yr view of the world on freakonimic-type logic just ignores the LINK between drug use and drug abuse. You cannot just separate these things because you have never actually experienced them in yr soft, cushioned lives. Even if you legalise drugs then you don't solve the social problem of drug use/drug abuse.

there is no direct link between drug use and addiction. there are so many variables. it's certainly true that some substances are considerably more damaging than others, but i think you'll find more often than not that those with serious drug problems began using drugs as an escape from pre-existing and serious problems such as poverty, domestic violence, unemployment, lack of ambitions for the future, etc. etc.
Dilbert14 at 08:58 PM JST - 2nd September

Kenchan, Interesting, I always assumed that people who are against drugs, are the ones that have no experience with them. You sound experienced, yet rejecting the difference between occasional use and constant abuse.
You are right on about laws are made to protect us. But are they made to protect us from ourselves? If I cut my arms, which will diable me to work all my life and will instantly ruin my life, would law have a problem with it? No. So why not make a law that punishes you for hurting yourself phisically? How would you like to go to jail because you failed to wear prtective wear and hurt yourself badly doing sports? Or smoking cigarettes?
But you are wrong about us not knowing anything about the real world. My real life experiences were around people who did it responsibly, and enjoyed occasionally. People with average intelligence won't let it get between them and their lives. There are those who abuse it, make themselves believe that's the state they always want to be in. Weak people I call them.
Funny story I heard from a friend, who spent a week in jail for fighting in a bar. His jailmate was J-man, turned himself in with bag of MDMA, because he said he could not stop taking them daily. He was surprised that they were charging him with posession, rather than sending him to rehabilitation.
I think, even a man as weak as him, had the sense to put an end to it by turning himself in.
helloklitty at 10:57 PM JST - 2nd September

She'll have to take up typing lessons.
mistersmarmy at 01:05 AM JST - 3rd September

so, how come she can go to the US after these likely drug convictions? I dont get it? I thought this drug stuff was a big no no with Uncle Sam? can anyone explain?
BuddhismTech at 02:47 AM JST - 3rd September

I am an American, I think that Noriko Sakai (if she is interested) and her son are very welcome to come to our country. Noriko Sakai has to protect her son and herself from the Japanese media and humiliation.

She is a high profile person. It is possible that her drug trouble was her husband's fault because it was him who encouraged her to start using drugs to fight her fatigue. We don't know if she is really addicted to drugs. This is her problem. She will take care of it. That changed everything when she said that she would divorce her husband. It made her husband to look more, not less, suspicious.

Hawaii will be a good start for Noriko Sakai's son and even Sakai herself, but choosing a location belongs to her decision.

After her release, I don't think that she will have trouble finding a rich man to support her and her son. Maybe she already knows him.
NoriPfan at 03:43 PM JST - 3rd September

There is so much speculation regarding her level of "use", but the fact remains that her prime action was that of protecting her son as she did by dropping him off. It should be clear that a true habitual user who not have likely done so, but instead be caught up in their own addiction in only desperately protecting themself. As for japanese police and her agency, it is the classic case of protecting the law and saving face first despite destroying Sakai's future regardless of guilt or innocence. The best she can do is to focus on her son's future once this is over as enough damage has already been done which is too bad. Could she be protecting others while only being a small time user? Perhaps, but would that be any different in Hollywood where many would be taken down simply because of acquaintance at a large party? Sadly, the law has no preferencial treatment when it comes to being of accused of guilt first regradless of innocence. Sakai's fame and popularity is not likely to recover once this is over. Sadly, as a fan, the best I can see is her recovery to a new future with her son as we have lost a great entertainer. I wish the best for her and her son.
nipponreddog at 09:40 PM JST - 3rd September

the best thing Tokyo can do is to put Noriko Sakai in a drug rehabilitation<

yes, one would think so. But, alas, it is not to be so. I have yet to see anything in the media coverage that even remotely alludes to rehabilitation, drug recovery programs, half-way houses, 12 step program, etc.

Zero, nada. Nothing. Only recriminations and accusatory shame-mongering.
BuddhismTech at 11:29 PM JST - 3rd September

@NoriPfan,

If Sakai is addicted to drugs, then she is less likely to protect her son but herself? How interesting. Hope that this is true.

Japan's criminal culture is different from the United States's, because of the bosses of Yakuza organizations can be as powerful as the drug lords who are mostly found in Central and South Americas. A very few drug lords are living in the United States. Many drug rings and dealers are in America but profits may be directed to the other countries through money laundering. This is why American actors and actresses, who use illegal drugs, are treated differently from Japanese actresses and actors, whom a few of those and Japanese politicians may know some Yakuza bosses personally.

I don't know much about methampetamines in America, but they are not as popular as cocaine and marijuana and can be legally purchased through American doctors. Drug lords don't run the methampetamine businesses, ordinary Americans can do those by illegally setting up their own labs. A number of the U.S.'s clandestine labs for illicit meth greatly increased since 1990s. Seizures of the labs are growing and mostly found near the American-Mexican border.

NoriPfan: "Sakai's fame and popularity is not likely to recover" Yes. I believe in you because this is Japan. If Japanese people make too many mistakes, then everything is over for them. They have to be perfect as they can be. In America, you have many ways to climb up after making some failures.

@nipponreddog,

Oh. I get that. So this is Japan which has a different approach and attitude toward drug users? Not forgivable and excessive scolding? I think that it should be considerate enough to establish more drug rehabiliatations across the long and narrow island.
kenchan at 03:40 AM JST - 7th September

Dilbert14> It is the kids in this forum that object to the link between drug use and abuse...I don't reject the differences between them, but rather I want to discuss the LINK between them and how its easy for STRONG/INTELLIGENT or WEAK/STUPID people to fall into abuse from minor use. I totally disagree with views here that somehow only the stupid/weak can fall into the abuse cycle. I have seen too many bright university educated people fall into the spiral of drug abuse....of course the causes of such abuse are specific to each person but as such can affect intelligent or stupid people. Next you will be implying that only stupid people can suffer from depression too?!

As for yr position on laws..sorry but in such cases as u describe there are laws/regulations that do reduce the chances of such things happening (hurting yrself at work/playing sports etc) by putting in place clear guidelines on safety that if not adhered to will trigger fines/penalties against the offending firm. As for smoking ciggies...this is where governments have been have been weak and ignoring this addiction issue, but finally many are introducing smoking bans in many places of public use.
kenchan at 07:47 AM JST - 7th September

BuddhismTech> so because her husband encouraged her to take drugs then its not her fault? If he told her to jump off a cliff would she do it?