Poor Noriko Sakai.

The pop idol has been raked over the coals by the media, the police and society at large ever since her Aug. 7 arrest for suspected possession of 0.008 grams of “stimulant drugs” (about enough to make a cockroach mildly excited). Her arrest came on the heels of that of her husband, Yuchi Takaso, for possession of stimulant drugs on Aug. 4.

The media feeding frenzy that followed threatened to eclipse coverage of the House of Representatives election campaign. Seldom has the pack-like behavior of Japan’s fourth estate been so egregiously on display.

Sakai was released from jail after posting bail on Sept. 17, and her first court date is set for Oct. 26. At a press conference following her release, Sakai confessed to drug use and expressed remorse while fighting back tears that some commentators believed to be genuine.

Well might she cry – her indiscretion could costs her billions of yen in canceled contracts. Toyota, for example, stopped showing a commercial featuring Sakai on its Web site, and her “PP rikorino” clothing line was pulled from stores.

During the first week of the scandal, iTunes Japan reportedly rated Sakai’s 1995 song Aoi Usagi (Blue Rabbit) as its No. 1 downloaded tune. But on Aug. 9, Victor Entertainment – the record label to which Sakai is signed – withdrew her CDs from stores and suspended downloads of her songs. A few Sakai songs can be still be downloaded from iTunes Japan, but only on some Victor compilations of the label’s top-selling hits from the ’90s. Other major download sites such as mora.co.jp are now bereft of Sakai songs.

One wonders whether Victor will also be deleting the catalogues of some of its other drug-tainted and drug-related acts, which include David Bowie, the Doobie Brothers, Dope, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane and Bob Marley.
Private dealers on Amazon Japan, meanwhile, appear to be doing a booming business in Sakai product thanks to her sudden notoriety. A new copy of Sakai’s “Best Selection” 2005 compilation album was going for as much as ¥30,000 via the amazon.co.jp website as of Sept. 20 – roughly 10 times the list price.

Talent agency Sun Music, which has represented Sakai since 1986, suspended its contract with her. Sun Music President Masahisa Aizawa issued a statement apologizing for Sakai’s alleged misdeeds and was demoted to vice president. Sun Chairman Hideyoshi Aizawa stepped down and is now an advisor to Sun, with no right to represent the company.
(Sun Music, by the way, is no stranger to controversy: 18-year-old idol singer Yukiko Okada committed suicide by jumping from the roof of the seven-story Sun Music building in Tokyo’s Yotsuya district on April 8, 1986.)

Sun’s reaction to Sakai’s arrest is standard practice in Japan’s geinokai (show-business world). It’s common for contracts between artists and production/management companies, which wield enormous power in the Japanese music industry, to include a clause stipulating that the company can dump the artist if he or she engages in “immoral” behavior. Record companies take a similar position.

Largely absent from the media barrage surrounding Sakai’s arrest was anything like a rational discussion of her alleged drug use. Drugs are taboo, anathema and indeed beyond the pale in the geinokai world, reflecting broader Japanese society’s demonization of psychoactive substances other than approved consciousness-alterers such as alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and genki drinks.

A cynical observer might describe the Japanese government’s draconian anti-drug stance as inconsistent, if not hypocritical, in that the state owns 50 percent of the shares in a drug-peddling company – Japan Tobacco – whose products have been proven to cause death and disease. But don’t expect the mainstream press to point that out.
Meanwhile, Sakai will be subject to the geinokai’s typical murahachibu (ostracization) treatment. That doesn’t mean her career is over, however. The scandal has given Sakai more media exposure than she’s had in a long time.

Given the minuscule amount of drugs allegedly found by Tokyo’s vigilant constabulary, one wonders why Sakai wasn’t afforded the same degree of leniency as singer/guitarist Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, who some years ago was also busted for drugs (in his case, marijuana). Nagabuchi wasn’t formally charged, after the authorities reportedly decided the amount of evil hemp discovered in his possession was too small.

Certainly that wasn’t because Nagabuchi’s father was a policeman. In contrast, Sakai’s late father, Mineki Sakai, was the boss of a local crime syndicate in Fukuoka (according to a recent report in weekly magazine Shukan Post).

The case of male vocalist Noriyuki Makihara, who was arrested a few years back for possession of speed, may give an idea of what will happen to Sakai. Makihara was publically shamed and lost his record deal, but was able to make a comeback a couple of years later after making all the right contrite noises.

And although drugs (apart from alcohol) weren’t involved, the recent incident involving SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, in which he was found naked, drunk and raving in a Tokyo park, is also instructive. After Kusanagi ate large amounts of crow publically, the authorities decided not to press charges on the basis that the poor chap had suffered enough. Bless.

So it’s a fair bet that after her ritual public humiliation, Sakai will be readmitted to Japan’s happy and harmonious geinokai village. But like Casey Jones in the Grateful Dead song of that name, she’d better watch her speed. ❶