WORLD> Asia-Pacific
Japan celebrity Oshio receives suspended sentence for drug use
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-02 13:51

TOKYO: Manabu Oshio, the lead singer of rock band LIV and Japanese actor, on Monday received a suspended 18-month sentence for five years for using drugs.

Related readings:
Japan celebrity Oshio receives suspended sentence for drug use Trial starts for Japanese star Noriko Sakai
Japan celebrity Oshio receives suspended sentence for drug use Missing Japanese pop star Sakai turns herself in
Japan celebrity Oshio receives suspended sentence for drug use After fame, Sakai dogged by arrest warrant
Japan celebrity Oshio receives suspended sentence for drug use Japanese police seek to arrest missing actress Sakai
Oshio pleaded guilty in October to using a small amount of MDMA in a Tokyo apartment. After taking the drug, however, a woman with whom he was, Kaori Tanaka, 30, was found dead in the apartment.

During the investigation in Oshio's drug use, the star admitted that he had taken drugs on occasion for the last two years, after first trying MDMA in the United States.

Tanaka was found dead in a house in Tokyo's upmarket Roppongi district on August 2, which led to police questioning Oshio and testing him for drugs.

Oshio spent his childhood in the United States and rose to fame with his band in the late 1990s. He was represented by Avex, a large Japanese entertainment company, which canceled its contract with him after he was caught taking drugs.

Days after Oshio was caught, another star, Noriko Sakai, was also accused of taking drugs in another case that has received much more media attention in Japan. It emerged after Sakai's arrest that the two stars had frequented the same night club in Tokyo.

Police are still investigating the cause of the woman's death.