Tokyo Police Arrest NHK Director over Sexual Assault

Jiji Press

15:16 JST, March 6, 2026

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Tokyo police have arrested a director at Japan Broadcasting Corp., the country’s public broadcaster known as NHK, on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman in the Japanese capital’s Shibuya Ward, it was learned Friday.

According to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Shibuya police station and NHK, the suspect, Kensuke Nakamoto, 50, is chief director for sports news programs. Nakamoto has partially denied the allegations, saying he did not hold down the woman’s arms or threaten her.

The suspect allegedly took the woman in her 20s, who was walking on the street in Shibuya Ward, into a nearby multitenant building and assaulted her around 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 4.

The police said that Nakamoto threatened the victim by claiming that he possessed something dangerous. He is believed to have fled by bicycle toward his workplace in Shibuya Ward after assaulting the woman on a staircase landing in the building.

Videos and photographs showing the suspect engaging in indecent acts with other women were found on his smartphone, and the police are investigating the matter in detail.

NHK said in a statement that the employee’s arrest is truly regrettable, and expressed deep apologies to the victim and viewers.