Tokyo, July 17 (EFE).- Police in Japan’s capital, Tokyo, said on Wednesday that they had arrested the country’s national football team member, Kaishu Sano, who is soon expected to join a Bundesliga club in Germany, for an alleged sexual assault on a woman.
The 23-year-old midfielder is suspected of having assaulted the victim in her 30s in a hotel in Yushima, in the Bunkyo district of central Tokyo, on July 14 along with two other men he knew, according to public broadcaster, NHK.
Tokyo police responded to an emergency call from the woman on the day of the alleged incident and went to the hotel, where they arrested the three suspects, including Sano, who reportedly also had dinner with the victim.
It was unclear whether Sano, who played for Japan in the Asian Cup and was going to be transferred from Kashima Antlers, fourth in the Japanese first division, to German Mainz 05, had admitted guilt.
Defensive midfielder Sano signed for Mainz 05, twelfth in the Bundesliga, on a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee on July 3.
The news of his arrest comes after Japanese international footballer Junya Ito was investigated in February for allegedly assaulting two women last summer and was temporarily removed from Japan’s senior squad.
Ito, 31, who played for Japan in the 2022 World Cup, is suspected of having assaulted those two women while they were drunk in a hotel in Osaka in June 2023, after a friendly match between Japan and Peru. EFE
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