Japan star Sakai gets 18 months in jail

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-09 11:42

TOYKO: Japanese actress and singer Noriko Sakai was sentenced to 18 months in jail, suspended for three years, for drug use, Tokyo District Court ruled on Monday.

Sakai was arrested in August for drug possession after her husband, Yuichi Takaso, was caught with stimulants a week earlier. When Takaso was arrested, Sakai disappeared for a week with her 10-year-old son, before eventually turning herself in at a Tokyo police station on August 7.

Since her arrest, it has emerged that Sakai had been taking drugs for at least two years. In his trial, which started last week, Takaso has claimed that his wife is a drug addict.

At the trial, Sakai pleaded guilty to charges and prosecution had demanded 18 months for the star.

On Monday, more than 3,000 people attempted to get in for the judgment, with the 20 places available in court decided through a lottery.

Since it emerged that Sakai had taken drugs, the case has been the subject of intense media scrutiny in Japan, where the star's squeaky clean image had helped her to maintain a fan base for two decades.

Sakai rose to fame in the late 1980s as a pop singer and later branched out into acting. Popular in Japan, she also has a significant fan base in other Asian countries, such as China and South Korea. The drug scandal has seriously damaged her image, but many in Japan remain supportive of the actress.

According to media reports, Sakai and Takaso are now considering a divorce.

Sakai was the second celebrity to be caught taking drugs " kakuseizai" in the summer, after Avex Entertainment's Manabu Oshio was caught using drugs after a woman he was with died in the upmarket Roppongi district of Tokyo.

Oshi was sentenced to 18 months, suspended for five years, last week.