Actor-Director Hideo Sakaki Arrested After Sexual Assault Allegations

Sara Merican

21 February 2024 at 4:57 am·1-min read

Hideo Sakaki , a prominent Japanese actor, film director and talent agency director, has been taken into custody after allegations of sexually assaulting a woman.

According to local reports, Sakaki is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s at an apartment in Tokyo’s Minato Ward in 2016. Police suspect him to have abused his professional standing as the woman aspired to be an actress.

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In September 2022, the woman consulted Tokyo police through a lawyer before eventually deciding to file a formal complaint in June 2023. She first met Sakaki in 2015 at an actors’ workshop.

Sakaki has denied the allegations, calling them “false accusations.” The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has referred him to prosecutors.

Sakaki’s arrest comes nearly two years after several actors, including Midori Suiren, also spoke out about sexual violence allegations against the director. After the allegations were made public, the release of his film Mitsugetsu was canceled and his wife, singer-songwriter Izumi, also filed for divorce.

Sakaki is known for directing Disregarded People (2013), which screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival. In 2018, he won a Pink Film Award for Oustanding Film for Black Tears.

This is the latest sexual assault accusation in Japan’s TV and film industry over recent years. Most notably, in October 2023 the Johnny & Associates talent agency rebranded and split in two after the company acknowledged its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, was responsible for decades of sexual abuse of boys he signed.

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