Actress Sakai admits to taking stimulant drugs+

TOKYO, Aug. 9 Kyodo - Arrested actress Noriko Sakai has admitted to taking stimulant drugs since last summer at the recommendation of her husband, also arrested for possessing amphetamines, investigative sources said Sunday.

While a urine test was negative, she told investigators that she had taken
drugs with her husband, Yuichi Takaso, 41, by heating and inhaling them or
smoking them through a pipe, according to the sources.
The Metropolitan Police Department is now investigating the details, including
how she obtained the drugs, the sources said.
Sakai, 38, was arrested Saturday night on suspicion of possessing stimulants
after she turned herself in to the police. Her whereabouts had been unknown
following the Aug. 3 arrest of her husband.
She told the investigators she decided to turn herself in as she saw on TV that
an arrest warrant on her was issued, the sources said.
The police are also questioning her on where she disappeared to, according to
the sources.
Meanwhile, Masahisa Aizawa, president of Tokyo-based Sun Music Production Inc.
where Sakai is registered, told a press conference in Tokyo, ''We must
naturally come to (a decision), including dismissal'' if she is indicted and
found guilty.
Aizawa apologized to people concerned and to Sakai's fans, and expressed relief
that she turned herself in to the police, adding there was no contact from her
while she was missing.
The police obtained an arrest warrant Friday for the former pop idol after
finding 0.008 gram of amphetamine wrapped in aluminum foil in Sakai's apartment
in Tokyo's Minato Ward, where she lives separately from her husband. The police
suspect that it may have been residue as the usual dose taken by users of the
stimulant drug is about 0.03 gram.
Takaso, who describes himself as a professional surfer, was arrested after a
police officer found a plastic bag containing stimulants in his underwear in
Tokyo's Shibuya district.
Sakai was summoned to his arrest site but refused a police request to go to a
police station on a voluntary basis and take a urine test.
Sakai and her 10-year-old son went missing after Takaso's arrest, but her son
was found safe at an acquaintance's home in Tokyo on Thursday. According to the
police, Sakai asked the acquaintance to let her hear her son's voice during a
call she made from a public phone at an unknown location Wednesday.
Sakai, known by her nickname ''Nori-P,'' debuted in 1986 in a TV drama and
released her first record the following year. Her popularity expanded overseas
in the early 1990s to places such as mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
After marrying in 1998 and giving birth to her son in 1999, Sakai appeared in
commercials and changed her image to that of a good mother in a happy family.
In 1993, Sakai appeared in an event promoting campaigns against drug abuse.
Following her arrest, many of her fans called the Tokyo police, saying, ''Why
did you arrest her?'' ''Would you please encourage Nori-P?'' and, ''You must
clamp down on drug use by entertainers more tightly,'' the police said.
Meanwhile, Victor Entertainment Inc., which has released Sakai's CDs, announced
Sunday it has decided to call off the launch of her greatest hits album, which
was set for Sept. 16, saying, ''Such antisocial behavior is not forgivable. We
will deal with this issue in a strict manner.''
==Kyodo