Complaint against TV personality Nomura accepted

Japan Policy & Politics, July 26, 1999

TOKYO, July 21 Kyodo

Prosecutors have accepted a complaint filed by actress Mitsuyo Asaka against TV personality Sachiyo Nomura on suspicion of violation of the Public Offices Election Law by falsifying her educational background, Asaka's office said Wednesday. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office told a lawyer for Asaka on Wednesday that they accepted the complaint Monday, her office said. Asaka is ready to cooperate if requested by prosecutors, her office said. Asaka alleges that Nomura falsely stated she studied at Columbia University in the United States, when she ran in the 1996 House of Representatives election on a ticket for the now-defunct New Frontier Party. The prosecutors at first did not accept Asaka's complaint on the grounds that the three-year statute of limitations would expire in two months and that an investigation into the matter could not be completed in time, according to her office. But Asaka, 68, filed the complaint again last Thursday on the grounds that the statute had more than three months to run as Nomura, wife of Katsuya Nomura, manager of the pro baseball team Hanshin Tigers, had spent time overseas and that time should not be included in the three-year period. Nomura, 67, failed to win a seat in a Tokyo single-seat constituency in the October 1996 general election while becoming a runner-up in the proportional representation, and still has a chance to be awarded a proportional representation seat up until October. The relationship between Asaka and Nomura reportedly turned sour after Asaka complained publicly about Nomura's alleged rudeness to her during a stage rehearsal. Asaka, a professional stage actress, reportedly helped Nomura make her debut on the stage.