Japanese judo champ arrested for sexual assault

[matsuki]

CA is a horrible place to be a man.

While I get what you're saying, I never had any trouble and grew up there. Maybe it made me a lil more cautious (who am I kidding, you know how cautious I am) when it comes to crazy women but never had any problems.

[Mike Oxlong]

Tokyo court finds Olympic judo champion Uchishiba guilty of rape, gives 5 year prison sentence
The Japan Daily Press | February 1, 2013
...The incident took place in a Tokyo hotel when the college judo team that Uchishiba was coaching attended a training camp. The victim apparently got drunk with several other members while at a party at a karaoke parlor, but woke up in her room later to find Uchishiba sexually assaulting her. When she tried to resist, the coach turned up the television volume and covered her mouth with his hand. Uchishiba has maintained that the girl never made any requests to stop, but prosecutors say there is no doubt it was rape seeing as how intoxicated she was and her inability to maintain consciousness...
More...

Looks like one can avoid jail-time if they are a little more highly placed than Uchishiba (and have deeper pockets)...

Parliamentary secretary Takeshi Tokuda resigned over rape report

The resignation earlier this week of parliamentary secretary Takeshi Tokuda was due to a tabloid report of a rape incident that took place nine years ago, reports Nikkan Sports (Feb. 6).

In an issue hitting newsstands on Wednesday, Shukan Shincho (Feb. 14) details a rape case involving a 19-year-old woman and the former parliamentary secretary.

In February 2004, Tokuda and the victim, whom he met through an acquaintance, were out drinking in Tokyo’s Akasaka entertainment area. After moving to a hotel room, Tokuda sexually assaulted the highly intoxicated woman two times.

In 2007, Tokuda paid 10 million yen as compensation to the victim...

http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2013/02/06 ... pe-report/

[Russell]

Well, some animals are more equal than others...

[matsuki]

I dunno, the Tokuda thing sounds more like a blackmail issue. Get drunk and go back to some old d00d's hotel room and you expect what? That's like wearing a steak bikini and walking into a wolf den.

[Mike Oxlong]

World judo chief urges Japan to clean up its act after scandals

The world judo chief urged Japan Monday to clean up its act after the sport was sullied in its birthplace by scandals including abusive coaching, misuse of funds and sexual harassment.

International Judo Federation (IJF) president Marius Vizer told a news conference in Tokyo that Japan’s judo authority needed to shape up because he is aiming to raise the sport’s profile in the Olympics with reforms.

“The IJF follows very carefully the present situation in Japanese judo,” he said. “The IJF with the All-Japan Judo Federation will do our best to clean up the situation and start with new reforms and new development in Japanese judo.”

Japan’s judo community was rocked in February when the coach of the national women’s team was found to have used a bamboo sword to beat athletes, calling his charges “ugly” and telling them to “die” in the run-up to the London Olympics.

The coach resigned later.

In April, judo officials were accused of receiving subsidies for coaches from a government fund although they did not serve as coaches.

Then the Japanese federation said last month it was considering expelling Jiro Fukuda, 76, for life following the revelation that he made unwanted sexual advances toward a female athlete in 2011.

Vizer said the IJF had given the Japanese federation until Oct 15 to submit a full report on the incidents and that the IJF would take appropriate action against any illegal acts.

Vizer, an Austrian businessman who became the IJF president in 2007, was visiting Tokyo after his May election as president of SportAccord, an umbrella organization for all international sports federations.

He said the visit was partly aimed at grasping the “situation” in Japan as his organization wants to convince the International Olympic Committee to allow a team competition to be added to the judo program for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

The 2016 program will be decided at an IOC session in Buenos Aires in early September.

“We have a great chance to go with the teams to the Rio Olympics,” said Vizer, 55, who is credited with promoting judo as a more visible international sport by establishing a full world tour, introducing world rankings and modifying rules.

He said the IJF’s efforts in the last four or five years had helped judo go up in a new revenue-sharing ranking of Olympic sports in five categories by which IOC fund allotments for the Rio Olympics are distributed.

In late May, the IOC executive board promoted judo to the third tier from the fourth tier. The top flight consists of athletics, swimming and gymnastics.