Kusanagi Tsuyoshi from SMAP arrested for public obscenity - Update 1

At around 11.10am today, a male employee (67) from Johnny's Jimusho appeared at the entrance and was immediately surrounded by members of the press which numbered around 100. The employee said that full details of the incident were still unclear to the company as yet and they will release their comments latest by this evening. When the media asked if the company is sorry for what has happened, the employee said in an affirmative tone and apologized for the trouble this incident has brought to everyone. According to this employee, the company only heard about the incident when they watched the news and another employee has been sent to the Akasaka police station to find out more on the situation.

From Jiji Tsushin

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In response to its artiste Kusanagi Tsuyoshi arrested for public obscenity, Johnny's Jimusho has released a fax statement to apologize for the trouble caused:

"Today in the wee hours of the morning, our talent Kusanagi Tsuyoshi was arrested on the scene for public obscenity and is now under custody in Akasaka Police Station.

Kusanagi was drunk and took off his clothes when he was in the park but the details on the exact circumstances are still unclear at the moment.

To begin with, we would like to apologize for the trouble and worry caused to fans as well as many related parties.

As for Kusanagi's career in future, we will provide an update in time to come."

From Sankei Sports

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NHK's PR department has announced that they will be removing the 15-sec CM for the Digital Broadcast PR campaign from this evening onwards. This is in response to the arrest of the CM personality, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi being arrested today for public obscenity.

At the same time, NHK has also anounced that Kusanagi will be dropped as narrator for the children's programme, "Pitagora Switch" with immediate effect. The TV station has yet to confirm when the ban on Kusanagi's appearances in TV programmes and CMs will end.

From Sankei News

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The news of Kusanagi Tsuyoshi's arrest has now spread to the world with Bloomberg carrying the news with the headline "Japanese Pop Star Arrested". Kyoudou Tsushin also has an English bulletin of the news on their newswire.

From Sankei News

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At 12.56pm today, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi left the Akasaka Police Station and was sent to the Harajuku Police Station for further investigations. Picture from Mainichi Shinbun.

As the Akasaka Police Station is undergoing renovations at the moment, they do not have a facility to hold people in custody. That is why Kusanagi has been sent to the Harajuku Police Station instead. Kusanagi was seen sitting in a wagon's backseat between two policemen and dressed in a blue T-shirt.


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Kusanagi Tsuyoshi revealed in the investigation that he was drinking beer and shochuu with 2 of his friends at a nearby Akasaka izakaya (drinking place) before he went to the park, However, he could not remember why he was naked and said that he was sorry for what he had done.

Source: Sankei

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At 2.55am, a resident living near the Hinokicho Park called the police saying that a drunk man was making noise there. Police came to find Kusanagi drunk and sitting cross-legged on the grass while shouting words which did not make sense. When the policemen wanted to take him into custody, Kusanagi shouted that there was nothing wrong in him being naked and refused to cooperate by resisting violently. As such, the police wrapped a sheet around him and bundled him into the police patrol car. They also found some clothing including a pair of jeans and his wallet containing his driving license in the park. The intoxication reading taken in the morning showed that Kusanagi's intoxication level was 5.3 times over the legal limit for prosecution of drink driving.

Source: Yomiuri

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General Affairs Minister Hatoyama Kunio expressed anger when asked about the arrest of Kusanagi Tsuyoshi who is the character for the digital broadcast awareness campaign. Hatoyama said that he feels embarrassed at the fact that Kusanagi was chosen to be the ambassador and that he finds the behaviour unacceptable. He also ordered the removal of all posters containing Kusanagi's picture. Kusanagi was named the ambassador in 2006 and is featured in many related CMs, events and posters for this campaign.

Source: Sanspo

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According to the Akasaka Police Station, 3 policemen arrived at the Hinokicho park and found Kusanagi naked, sitting cross-legged on the grass about 80m away from the entrance of the park, His jeans and denim jumper were put together with a pouch containing his wallet and handphone. As he was too drunk, Kusanagi put his head down on the table most of the time when he was under questioning.

Source: Sankei

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Toyota has announced that they will be terminating the CM contract with Kusanagi Tsuyoshi with immediate effect after news of his arrest broke. Kusanagi had been the CM character for Toyota's Rental Lease since April 1998. Toyota is set to change their advertising strategy as a result of this change.

Source: Sankei

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According to the residents at the nearby condominium complex in Tokyo Midtown, they heard shouts of "Wah! Wah!" at the time when Kusanagi was reportedly there and thought that someone was making noise there to relieve stress.

A 75-year-old male resident woke up at around 3am and saw a drunk man i.e. Kusanagi shouting in the park for about 15 minutes. Initially, he thought that the man was asking for help but later realized that he was just drunk. Another 42-year-old lady said that the voice of the man was very high-pitched and said that she could still hear him even though she closed her windows. She expressed surprise at the fact that the man in question was Kusanagi because she thought that some foreigner was making noise there again as it was quite common in that area.

Source: Sankei