A film director with a history of sexual abuse accusations was arrested on Tuesday on charges of sexually assaulting a woman under the guise of giving her acting advice.
Hideo Sakaki, 53, who is also a director at a talent agency, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s at an apartment in Tokyo’s Minato Ward in 2016. The woman aspired to be an actress, and it is suspected that he abused his position as a director. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has referred him to prosecutors.
While allegations of sexual abuse were made against Sakaki as far back as March 2022, this is the first time that the director has been taken into custody.
According to Tokyo police, Sakaki allegedly said to the aspiring actress that he wanted to check whether she had tattoos and asked her to undress.
“You have to be naked sometimes when you want to appear in movies,” Sakaki allegedly told the woman. “Give it a try.”
The woman consulted Tokyo police through a lawyer in September 2022 before eventually filing a formal complaint in June 2023. She first encountered the director in the fall of 2015 at an actors’ workshop.
Sakaki has denied the charges, calling them “false accusations.”
Police are investigating the matter further in view of the number of complaints filed against him by different people.
Among those who have accused the director of sexual abuse is actress Midori Suiren, who first came forward in late March 2022. She alleged that an incident had taken place in 2015, after Sakaki “cast her in a film and called her to pick up the screenplay for the film” at his office in Tokyo’s Akasaka neighborhood.
Weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun published an article in March 2022 detailing multiple allegations of sexual abuse against Sakaki, all of which he has denied. The report led to the cancellation of the release of his movie “Honeymoon” and his divorce from singer-songwriter Izumi.
Suiren, at a news conference in December to address the matter of sexual abuse in Japan’s film industry, had called on the media and the public to refrain from treating such issues as “love scandals.”
“I have been saying for the past year-and-a-half that this is a structural problem but I am afraid that this is still not well understood,” she said in December.
Sakaki is known for his movie “Disregarded People,” which was nominated for an award at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2013. In 2018, he won a Pink Film Award for his movie "Black Tears."
He has also acted in several movies and dramas, including appearing in a leading role in the movie “Alive.”
Sakaki's arrest comes on the heels of accusations of sexual abuse made against prominent figures in the media industry.
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