“I’m not thinking about retiring from the entertainment industry at all．．．” JanPoké’s Saito Shinji， who was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse， among other charges， is interviewed exclusively about the sexual assault．
On October 7, it was reported that Shinji Saito (41), a member of the popular comedy trio Jungle Pocket, had been referred to the prosecutor’s office by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse and non-consensual indecent assault. “Saito is suspected of sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s in a car parked on a street in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, in July of this year. Saito is believed to have committed the crime while he was alone with the woman on a location bus used for filming a television program. The incident came to light when the woman reported the incident to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. He is said to have said about Saito, “I will never be able to forgive him.” During the voluntary investigation, Saito admitted to the charges and said, “I regret that my reckless actions caused trouble to the other party and my family.” (Social Affairs Department reporter) Since the beginning of August, Saito has been absent from his regular appearances on shows such as “ZIP!” (NTV) and “Winning Keiba” (TV Tokyo) without prior notice, and has been closed for a long time. At the same time, social media updates also stopped. Then, on September 20th, Saito’s agency Yoshimoto Kogyo announced that he would be taking a break from activities for the time being due to poor health. Since then, he has dropped out of all of his regular programs. “When the suspension was announced, some sports newspapers reported that it was a compliance issue, but the articles were quickly corrected. Because of the victim, a gag order was put in place regarding this incident, but information was leaked out around the time of the announcement of the hiatus.” (Sports newspaper reporter) After the announcement of the hiatus, rumors began to spread that Saito had caused trouble, rather than simply being on hiatus due to poor health. Those involved are said to have been busy making apologies on a tour. “Although only a limited number of people within Yoshimoto knew about it, Otake and Ota Hirohisa, who form a trio with Saito, were aware of the situation beforehand and, anticipating that it would become a police matter, had been apologizing to all parties involved, saying that they might be causing trouble. There are also rumors that Jan Poké will continue with the other two members, excluding Saito.” (Comedy industry source)
Right before the announcement of the hiatus, a reporter directly interviewed him… The “Shukan Bunshun” reporting team was the first to catch wind that Saito had been having problems with women since early September, before he announced his hiatus, and was facing the threat of retiring from the entertainment industry. On September 12th, they called Saito himself to confirm the facts and confronted him directly. –Saito-san, this is Shukan Bunshun. “Ah yes. It’s Saito.” –Saito-san, are you retiring from the entertainment industry? “What? No, I’m not retiring from the entertainment industry at all.” –He’s been taking a break from TV since last month. “I’m currently hospitalized with pneumonia.” –I heard that a female talent who worked with you is suing you for sexual assault. “Eh? Is that kind of talk coming out? Where did that story come from?” –It’s a rumor in the comedy world. So, Saito is the only one who leaves Janpoke and retires. “That’s not true at all. There’s been a lot of talk online about the death of the jockey (Editor’s note: jockey Kakuta Taiga, who was friends with Saito, passed away in August at the young age of 21) and so on… Not at all.” When confronted by our reporter at the time, Saito completely denied any trouble. However, this ultimately led to the documents being referred to prosecutors. Attention is focused on Saito’s future movements.
>>1 Why didn’t Bunshun publish this interview on September 12th? If they had, Saito’s lies would have been even more obvious! Pressure from Yoshimoto?!
>>1 If he raped a woman in her 20s on a location bus, doesn’t that mean she was a gravure idol or an ad? If she was in a weaker position, he thought he could silence her with Yoshimoto’s power I’m sure he’ll have a bunch of other crimes coming to light.
Takabatake Yuta…rape Arai Hirofumi…rape Yamamoto Keiichi…rape Yamaguchi Tatsuya…forcing minor to drink alcohol, indecent assault without consent, breast groping and kissing Yamashita Tomohisa…forcing minor to drink alcohol, sexual misconduct with minor, damage to property Himura Yuki Kano Eiko Sakamichi Columbus Hayashi Nobuyuki Koide Keisuke Hysteric Blue Naoki One OK Lock Tomoya JYJ Yuchun Uchishiba Masato Hifumi Shinta Watanabe Mahoto Mentalist Daigo Sweet Power President Sakaki Hideo…arrested for the fourth time ←new! Kinoshita Houka, Sono Sion, Kagawa Teruyuki, Sakamoto Hayato, Harlequin Kuruto, Funaoka Hisashi (attempted jump), Yamakawa Hotaka, Johnny Kitagawa, Ichikawa Ennosuke, Ike Nuwara, Iwai Yuuki, Takagi Soichiro, Matsumoto Hitoshi, Furuya Toru, Ranjatai Ito Koji, Jungle Pocket Saito Shinji ←new!
>>21 The bullied become the bullies. A really common pattern. I’m full now. Why can’t you understand other people’s feelings? Both bullies and those bullied are truly insensitive to other people’s feelings.
They get criticized because they are singled out one by one. If all Yoshimoto comedians do it, maybe it will change society’s common sense and make people think that it’s normal?
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