The Tokyo District Court sentenced former KAT-TUN member Junnosuke Taguchi, 33, and former actress Rena Komine, 39, to six months in prison suspended for two years for possessing dried cannabis at the Tokyo flat they shared.[1] The indictment said the pair kept about 2.2 grams at their condominium in Setagaya on 22 May, and both admitted the charge at their first hearing on 11 July.[1] The court also confiscated two packets of cannabis.[1]
Officers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s Wangan precinct had arrested the couple at home that May for violating the Cannabis Control Law.[2] Taguchi told police he had been smoking marijuana for ten years.[2] Each was released on 7 June on bail of three million yen.[2] On release Taguchi apologised to fans and everyone involved in his work, prostrated himself on the pavement for 19 seconds, and said he would suspend his entertainment activities to reform himself.[2]
The verdict had originally been set for 30 July but was postponed at the prosecution’s request after it emerged that the narcotics agents who searched the flat had supplied a recording of the search to the media.[1] Prosecutors re-examined whether the evidence still stood and concluded it did; the defence did not contest the evidence but asked for leniency over the three months of distress the delay caused.[1] Prosecutors had sought six-month terms, and the defence had asked for suspended sentences.[1]
