Crime & Courts

Ex-Boxing World Champ Yakushiji Arrested for Assaulting Woman; Pole for Hanging Clothes Used in Attack

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Yasuei Yakushiji celebrates after defeating Joichiro Tatsuyoshi in a WBC bantamweight title match in Nagoya on Dec. 4, 1994.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:17 JST, January 28, 2025

Former professional boxing world bantamweight champion Yasuei Yakushiji has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting and injuring a woman at his home in Nagoya, according to sources close to investigators.

The sources said that officers from Aichi Prefecture’s Naka Police Station arrested Yakushiji, 56, for allegedly beating an acquaintance, a woman in her 20s, on Saturday with a pole used to hang and dry clothes, resulting in injuries to her face.

Yakushiji won the World Boxing Council bantamweight championship in 1993, and successfully defended the title four times. After retiring, he worked as a boxing commentator and TV personality. He is also the chairman of a boxing gym in Nagoya.