Best-selling nonfiction writer Tamotsu Sugano was referred to prosecutors earlier this month after allegations he attempted to sexually assault a woman in 2012, police said Wednesday.
According to investigative papers sent to prosecutors on May 14, Sugano is suspected of having pushed the woman onto a bed and tried to kiss her at an apartment in Tokyo on July 9, 2012.
The police said he has basically admitted to the allegations.
The woman in her 40s filed a damages suit claiming he had sexually assaulted her, and the Tokyo District Court ordered Sugano to pay her ¥1.1 million in August 2017. The writer appealed the ruling, but the Tokyo High Court dismissed the appeal in February 2018.
Sugano, 44, is the author of the best-seller "Nippon Kaigi no Kenkyu" ("A Study on the Japan Conference") published in 2016, which sheds light on the conservative lobby group and its influence on the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
