Takahata Yuta began to enjoy attention as an actor when he appeared in last year's NHK morning drama "Mare" and is due to appear in NTV's 24 Jikan Terebi 39 this weekend as the programme's personalities along with comedy duo Oriental Radio. He also has a role in the drama SP "Moumoku no Yoshinori-sensei ~ Hikari wo ushinatte kokoro ga miete" where he plays a support at the rehabilitation centre which Yoshinori-sensei (Kato Shigeaki) goes to after losing his sight but his name and photo have been removed from the cast chart on the drama SP's official website. In response to news about Takahata's arrest, NTV announced that they will be looking into the possibility of getting another actor to re-film Takahata's part in the drama SP. Takahata was also scheduled to appear in the late night programme "Konya kurabete mimashita" on 23 August but the content of the show will be changed. In addition, Takahata who is supposed to appear in NHK's ongoing Taiga "Sanadamaru" from October onwards, will be replaced. FujiTV's mini drama "Tonari no Shinsengumi" will make adjustments to its next episode to be shown on 25 August. TV Tokyo is currently in discussions on how to handle Takahata's parts in their Summer 2016 drama "Otokomeshi". TBS has removed Takahata's name from the official website of their Summer 2016 drama "Aogeba Totoshi" but won't need to make adjustments to the drama since his appearance was limited to the first three episodes only.
Following news of Takahata's arrest, his Twitter has been switched to private mode and his blog has been deleted. At present, only his Instagram account (up to 4.23pm Japan time) can still be accessed. In the comments section of his Instagram account, many users left comments criticising his actions and scolded him for causing grief and a great inconvenience to his mother.
Takahata's agency released a statement in the same evening about his arrest and acknowledged that they were informed about what happened. The agency expressed deep regret and apologised to the victim and everyone who was inconvenienced and worried by what happened. At the moment, as he is still in police custody, the agency has been unable to contact him so they will try to find out more about the situation and will deal with this issue with utmost sincerity.
In Japan, rape is punishable with a prison sentence of between three years and below 20 years. If the charge is rape leading to assault or death, the prison sentence can range from more than 5 years to life imprisonment. When a prison sentence is longer than 3 years, there will be no suspended sentence. Assuming that the case goes to court, it will be decided by a jury. For a rape case, the indictment is dependent on the victim filing a complaint but for a rape leading to assault or death case, the investigation and trial continues even if the victim decides to drop the case.
Due to intense media attention and public concern over Takahata's case, his name was the No.1 trend topic on Twitter and keywords related to his case hogged the real-time search ranking on Yahoo! JAPAN.
As a result of her son's arrest, Takahata Atsuko has resigned from her hosting job for NHK's afternoon programme "Studio Park kara Konnichiwa" on 23 August where Sakakibara Ikue will take over the position. NHK accepted her resignation but did not go into details on what reason Takahata Atsuko had given. There is also concern over whether her career will be affected as she is seen in many dramas such as "Sanadamaru", variety shows, CMs and will take on a leading role in the stage play "Yukimaroge" to be performed between September and October
Sources: Nikkansports 1 / Nikkansports 2 / Sanspo 1 / Sanspo 2 / Yomiuri Hochi 1 / Yomiuri Hochi 2 / Sponichi 1 / Sponichi 2 / Sponichi 3
6 comments:
did not see that coming.. that meant Otokomeshi will be cancelled after 7 or 8 episides?
ugh, this guy is SO gross, every time he appeared he gave off bad vibes. totally used his mother's position in showbiz to get started and pushed even tho he has neither looks nor talent, and now this disgusting aspect slithered out. at least the truth about him came out early and nipped his career in the bud; it's too bad his mother also has to retreat as collateral damage. hope the victim can see justice!
Hi Anonymous, more news about Otokomeshi's treatment of this issue coming up so please refer to that for the current situation.
Hi jd, I haven't watched Takahata Yuta's acting before but saw him on "VS Arashi" as one of the guests once. Can't really tell if he has the acting chops but he appeared to be a bit "over-zealous" that it was rather uncomfortable watching him. I thought it was just his pretense onscreen but the descriptions coming out now suggest that this is how he behaves usually. Then again, I'm quite surprised by the number of projects he was involved in before this news broke even though he only made his debut a few years ago. Whether that had to do with his mother, I can't say for sure because his own elder sister who is also an actress, doesn't seem to be that well-known.
Some articles are quite nasty in pining the blame largely on Takahata Atsuko for letting her son do whatever he wants and allowing him to become a celebrity using her status but ultimately, he's an adult and should be responsible for his actions. Surely they don't expect her to be able to control him even at this age? More details about the case are pouring out now suggesting that he had his eye on the victim before the attack since he was already staying at the hotel for a few days by then and should have seen her before. However, he is claiming that that was a on-the-spur-of-the-moment act which is seemingly looking otherwise. More details might be coming out tomorrow when his mother holds a press conference about this matter.
His mother shouldn't have to take any responsibility for her son's actions--while we can't know what she's thinking for sure, feels like she is the definition of kawaisou in this situation, having to deal with the media on top of having to confront the actions of her son. She shouldn't have had to resign from her job, but mass comi is already coming for her, and as a veteran of the industry, she is probably anticipating the fallout.
I had seen a few of his promotional appearances + the VS Arashi ep you mentioned, he gave off a very similar (unsettling) vibe each time. Feels like he is/was very famewhore-y and aggressively pursued connections via his mom (not necessarily his mom pushing for him), whereas his sister might have been more circumspect in that aspect.
That he might have planned the attack... ugh. Makes me wonder if he had done something similar to this before, but was able to cover it up. To have the audacity to premeditate a crime with the timing and amount of his projects is ...ugh ugh ugh. Mess all around.
Either way, his career is done for. Even if his mom could somehow pull some strings for him after he served his sentence, NO female artistes would want to co-star with him at all. He can consider AV acting where the genre is rape though. *sarcasm intended*
Expect a tearful news conference from his mother (she's an actress, after all..)
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