Japan’s entertainment world has been turned upside-down by a perfect storm of scandals this week. First, actor Manabu Oshio was arrested for testing positive for the drug Ecstasy after a Roppongi hostess was found dead in an apartment he’d been using, apparently having died of a drug overdose. He’s the estranged husband of super-cute actress Akiko Yada, who became a household name after appearing in a popular AFLAC commercial, and the news has idol and J-drama fans all over the net buzzing. Then in an unrelated case, Takaso Yuichi, a former pro surfer and husband to the hugely popular J-POP star Noriko Sakai, was arrested for possessing stimulant drugs. Soon after this event the singer disappeared, apparently out of embarrassment over her husband’s arrest, but as she was known to be near the Aokigahara “Sea of Trees” suicide forest area there was some fear that she might be contemplating something terrible. Instead, it turns out that drugs may have belonged to her and not her husband, and an arrest warrant has been issued for the fleeing star, which means that the poor woman now has the dreaded suffix of yogisha or “suspect” added to her name during news broadcasts. The singer, who performed the opening themes to Gunbuster and Video Girl Ai if you’re an old-school anime fan like me, has a huge following in China, Taiwan and South Korea, and this scandal has fans all across Asia wondering what will happen to our cute Noripi.
Ccute idol and actress Noriko Sakai is currently a fugitive from justice.
