A Tokyo metropolitan assemblyman pleaded guilty Thursday to raping and injuring a woman at a hotel in Shinjuku Ward in November, retracting previous statements he had made over the case.
Hisakazu Fukushima, 43, pleaded guilty to the charges during his first trial session before the Tokyo District Court. He had maintained throughout the investigation that the sex was consensual.
"I retract the statements I made during the investigation," he told the court. Fukushima also apologized to the victim.
According to prosecutors, Fukushima was drinking at a bar on Nov. 20 and repeatedly harassed the woman, a hostess in her 20s, seeking a relationship.
He forcibly took her to the hotel, where he inflicted injuries to her arms and legs as he forced her to have sex with him, prosecutors said. During the attack, Fukushima said it was not rape to have forced sex with a hostess and punched her in the face, according to prosecutors.