Blog

Apr 07, 2023

Japan slugger Yamakawa referred to prosecutors over rape allegation

Kyodo World Baseball Classic winner Hotaka Yamakawa was referred to prosecutors

Kyodo

World Baseball Classic winner Hotaka Yamakawa was referred to prosecutors Tuesday for allegedly raping a female acquaintance at a Tokyo hotel in November.

The 31-year-old power-hitting infielder from the Seibu Lions was removed from the team on May 12, a day after weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported in its online edition that he had assaulted a woman in her 20s and that the woman had filed a criminal complaint.

In referring Yamakawa to prosecutors on suspicion of forcible sexual intercourse, police said they would leave the final decision on whether he should be indicted to the prosecutors.

This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software.

Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.

If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see this FAQ.

We humbly apologize for the inconvenience.

In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.

Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ