Kaishu Sano, Japan’s National Soccer Team Member, Arrested for Alleged Sexual Assault; Two Others Also Taken into Custody

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:28 JST, July 17, 2024

A 23-year-old member of the national soccer team has been arrested with two others for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in her 30s at a Tokyo hotel, it has been learned.

Midfielder Kaishu Sano was arrested on Sunday with his acquaintances on charges of nonconsensual sexual intercourse, according to investigation sources. Sano was chosen for the national team, Samurai Blue, for the first time in November for the second Asian qualifying round for the World Cup.

Sano is suspected of having committed the assault with the two other men, also in their 20s, at around 4 a.m. on Sunday at a hotel in Yushima, Bunkyo Ward. The woman called police shortly afterward, and police officers later found the three suspects on a street near the hotel and took them into custody, according to the sources.

The sources said that the three men had been dining with the woman prior to the incident, and that the Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the details of the case.

Sano used to play for the Kashima Antlers in the J. League. On July 4, it was announced that he had signed a deal with Mainz on Germany’s Bundesliga.