Japan pop star Sakai gets suspended jail term for drug use

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese pop star Noriko Sakai was on Monday handed a suspended jail term of 18 months for illegal drug use in a case that sparked a media frenzy and had thousands gathering outside the court house.

Sakai, 38, is a former teenage pop idol turned actress with fans in Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan, who parlayed her girl-next-door and later perfect-mom image into top acting roles and lucrative advertising deals.

She was caught in August -- a week after the arrest of her surfer-husband on drugs charges -- in possession of 0.008 grams of an unidentified illegal stimulant and later pleaded guilty to drug use and possession.

Under Japan's strict drug laws, prosecutors demanded 18 months' prison, but the Tokyo District Court suspended the jail term for three years, after which the case against her will be dropped if Sakai stays crime-free.

"Her addiction to stimulant drugs is obvious," chief judge Hiroaki Murayama said in court, according to media reports, also condemning her "cowardly" decision to run away for almost a week before facing police.

"Please make a clean break with drugs and rehabilitate yourself without buckling down under the weight of this case," the judge reportedly told Sakai as he wrapped up the session, Jiji Press news agency said.

A sombre-faced, black-clad Sakai was driven away from the court without making a statement minutes after the verdict and ruling were handed down.

Sakai was arrested on August 8, a week after her husband Yuichi Takaso, 41, was taken into custody after police caught him with drugs, reportedly methamphetamines, in Tokyo's Shibuya entertainment district.

Sakai went on the run for several days -- possibly hoping to win time before she had to give a urine sample to police that could show drug traces -- before turning herself in to police, when she admitted to habitual drug use.

The case sparked intense media coverage of Sakai and her tragic family background -- her mother died when she was young and her father, who was a mobster, was killed in a car accident.

The judge said the court had suspended the jail term because she had "already faced social sanctions," including dismissal from her talent agency.

On Monday more than 3,000 people lined up for just 21 visitors' seats in the court, including loyal fans who spent the night in a nearby park.

When her trial opened in October, 6,600 people queued up -- a number second only to the crowds drawn by the 1996 trial of the doomsday cult leader behind the deadly Tokyo subway sarin gas attacks, Shoko Asahara.

Sakai's enduring fame had won her advertising contracts with carmaker Toyota, government public awareness campaigns and even a role in a star-studded commercial against youth drug abuse.

Sakai told the court she started using drugs about four years ago, encouraged by Takaso, and had used them almost every month since the summer of 2008 as she was "exhausted physically and mentally."

She has reportedly said she plans to divorce her husband.