OSAKA (TR) – Prosecutors will decide whether actor Keisuke Koide will stand trial for fraternizing with a 17-year-old girl after drinking with her while knowing she was underage, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (Sept. 13).
On Wednesday, Osaka Prefectural Police referred Koide, 33, to prosecutors over the widely reported case in which he is suspected of fraternizing with the minor while making her consume alcohol at a bar in downtown Osaka sometime before dawn on May 9.
Koide, has been accused of violating an ordinance regarding healthy youth development, is denying the allegations, saying that the girl didn’t look like she was 17 and that he learned about her age afterwards.
But police determined he was aware she was a minor based on statements from people involved with the case. The girl also told weekly tabloid Friday (June 23) that he was aware of her being underage.
On June 8, Koide, known for big-screen roles in the likes of “My Girlfriend Is a Cyborg” and roles in television dramas like “Jin,” issued an apology for an “inappropriate relationship” in confirming the reports via a statement posted on the site of his agency, Amuse. The agency said on the same page that Koide’s activities with the agency will be indefinitely suspended.
Three others also referred
Police also referred to prosecutors three other people involved with the case, including a man in his 30s who was with Koide at the restaurant and invited the girl, and a manager at the restaurant who served them alcohol.
An investigative source told the Asahi Shimbun (Sept. 13) that police questioned numerous people, including a person who was at the restaurant with Koide and the girl, and learned Koide was with the girl despite knowing she was under 18.
Police questioned the girl’s mother and confirmed she went out with no prior consent to do so.
Under the youth development ordinance, teenagers between 16 and 18 are forbidden from being taken out without prior parental guardian consent to do so between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. Violation of the ordinance carries a maximum fine of 300,000 yen.
Forced her to have sex five times
Friday quoted the girl in a June 9 issue as saying that Koide, who was in town for a television shoot, drank numerous straight shots with her at a bar. They then went to a hotel, where the girl said Koide forced her to have sex with him five times.
“On top of that, he ejaculated inside me two of those five times,” Friday quoted the girl as saying in the article, which featured photos of the pair snuggled together singing karaoke.
The girl told him he was the same as Eiko Kano, another actor who according to reports was also sexually involved with a minor. “He responded by saying ‘I know that,’ in a defiant tone,” she said.
Roppongi and Nishi Azabu
Koide was known for “being quite a playboy with women,” a source in the entertainment business told Friday. “He was supposedly playing around with pretty extravagantly with non-celebrity women in places like [Tokyo’s] Roppongi and Nishi Azabu [districts],” according to a source in the restaurant industry.
In speculating on legal action that could be taken against Koide, a lawyer mentioned to Friday the possibility that he may be accused of violating the youth development ordinance in Osaka Prefecture, which is indeed what happened. “In this case, he’d be slapped with a two-year jail sentence or less, or perhaps a fine of 1 million yen or less,” the lawyer said.
Streaming giant Netflix responded in July by announcing that the company’s original titled “Jimmy: The True Story of a True Idiot” featuring Koide in a leading role would be reshot with a different actor, Oricon News reported (July 6).
