The Naha District Court sentenced former actress Sae Takagi, 53, to a year in prison suspended for three years for hiding cannabis at her home on Ishigaki island.[1] The presiding judge found that Takagi knew her live-in partner used and kept cannabis, allowed him to bring it into and store it in their home, and had used it many times herself.[1]
Agents of the health ministry’s Narcotics Control Department had arrested Takagi, whose real name is Ikue Masudo, on 25 October 2016 at the house and guest house she ran on the island.[2] They found several dozen grams of dried cannabis with wrapping paper and pipes; the indictment put the amount at about 55 grams, kept together with company executive Moriyama Shigenari, 58, whose trial was still under way at her verdict.[1][2] Takagi denied the drugs were hers throughout, and her lawyers sought acquittal.[1] Two men staying at the house were also arrested for small amounts.[2] Takagi spent the months until January in detention.[1]
Takagi had run unsuccessfully for the House of Councillors the previous summer for the New Renaissance Party, pledging to change the narcotics laws to accept cannabis for medical use.[1][2] After the verdict she held a brief open-air press conference near the court, said she was grateful for an arrest that gave her half a year to reflect, declared she would not appeal, and said she would step back from the front line of the movement.[1]
