TOKYO: Tokyo police have arrested Japanese national soccer team midfielder Kaishu Sano on suspicion of committing nonconsensual sexual intercourse, it was learned Wednesday.

The 23-year-old was arrested together with two acquaintances in their 20s for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in her 30s at a Tokyo hotel shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday, according to Metropolitan Police Department officials. The MPD did not say whether the trio admitted the allegations against them.

Investigative and other sources said that the trio dined with the woman and her female friend in the Roppongi district in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on Saturday night. The three apparently sexually assaulted the woman at the hotel in Bunkyo Ward after her friend left for home around 2 a.m. Sunday.

The woman called the police immediately after the incident, and the suspects who were on the street near the hotel were taken into police custody. Their arrest warrants were executed Sunday night.

Sano was a player of the Kashima Antlers in the J1 top division of the Japan Professional Football League, or J.League, from last year, when he was selected a member of the Japanese national soccer team for the first time.

On July 3 this year, his transfer from the Kashima Antlers to German club Mainz was announced.

JIJI Press