An NHK reporter arrested for an alleged rape in Yamagata Prefecture is suspected of raping another woman in Yamanashi a few years back, investigative sources said Thursday.
Yasutaka Tsurumoto, 28, who works at an NHK branch in Yamagata, was arrested Monday on suspicion of breaking into a woman's room in the prefecture and sexually assaulting her in February last year.
Tsurumoto denied the charge, the police said.
But Tsurumoto is also suspected of raping a woman in Yamanashi Prefecture because DNA samples collected from the Yamagata incident match those left at the crime scene in Yamanashi, the sources said.
The rape case in Yamanashi took place when Tsurumoto was working there between 2011 and 2015. He was transferred to NHK's Yamagata bureau in July 2015 and worked there until being relocated to the prefecture's Sakata office in July last year.
The police arrested him on suspicion of allegedly forcing his way into the residence of a sleeping woman in her 20s outside Sakata at around 5 a.m. on Feb. 23 last year before raping her. It was reportedly his day off.
The woman, who had no relationship with the suspect, suffered injuries that required two weeks to heal, police said.
The police said they searched Tsurumoto's residence in Sakata on Monday. Inside they found and confiscating women's underwear and several keys.
The police are also investigating Tsurumoto's possible links to an attempted rape in Yamagata in or around February last year, the sources said.
