Suspect Hideo Sakaki
On the 20th, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Investigation Division 1 arrested Hideo Sakaki (53), a film director and company executive from Nakahara Ward, Kawasaki City, on suspicion of quasi-rape for sexually assaulting a woman under the guise of acting as an acting instructor. According to the First Investigative Division, he denies the charges, saying, “It was a false accusation.”
He was arrested on the night of May 23, 2016, on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s who was aspiring to become an actor at an apartment in Minato Ward, Tokyo.
After having dinner with Sakaki, the woman was allegedly invited to give him acting guidance and was assaulted after being told things like, “If you have tattoos, it would be difficult, so I want to see you naked.” Several other people have reported similar damage, and the department is investigating.
The woman met around the fall of 2015 at a workshop where Sakaki gave acting instruction. In September 2022, she consulted the Metropolitan Police Department through her lawyer, and in June 2023, she filed a complaint.
Regarding the suspect Sakaki, Shukan Bunshun reported in March 2022 that he was suspected of forcing multiple female actors to perform sexual acts. Director Sakaki’s film “Mitsutsuki”, which focuses on domestic sexual assault, was scheduled to be released in the same month, but the movie was canceled. At the time, he claimed that the content of the article “contains things that are true and things that are not.”