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Ex-NHK reporter accused of rape re-arrested in Yamanashi case

Yasutaka Tsurumoto
Yasutaka Tsurumoto has been accused of rape in Yamagata and Yamanashi prefectures (TV Asahi)

YAMANASHI (TR) – A former reporter, 28, for public broadcaster NHK accused of rape in Yamagata Prefecture has been re-arrested over another case in Yamanashi Prefecture, reports Nippon News Network (Mar. 16).

On Wednesday, officers from the Fuefuki Police Station arrested Yasutaka Tsurumoto in the alleged rape of a woman inside her residence in the prefecture on October 4, 2014. The results of a DNA analysis of items left at the crime scene proved to be a match for the suspect.

Tsurumoto is expected to be prosecuted in the case at the Kofu District Court on Friday, according to the Sankei Shimbun (Mar. 15).

On February 6, police first arrested Tsurumoto, then a reporter for an affiliate of NHK’s Yamagata Broadcasting Station in Sakata City, Yamagata, in the alleged rape of a woman, aged in her 20s, inside her residence in the Murayama locality of Yamagata about one year ago. The victim suffered injuries that required two weeks to heal.

After graduating from Waseda University in 2011, Tsurumoto joined the public broadcaster in Kofu City, Yamanashi. In July of 2015, he was transferred to the Yamagata Broadcasting Station. He moved to the affiliate in Sakata last year.

Tsurumoto was terminated by NHK on February 16.