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Japanese singer-songwriter Noriyuki Makihara nabbed on drug charges

Tokyo police arrested Thursday Japanese singer-songwriter Noriyuki Makihara, 50, on charges of illegal drug possession. (AFP/file)
Tokyo police arrested Thursday Japanese singer-songwriter Noriyuki Makihara, 50, on charges of illegal drug possession. (AFP/file)
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13 Feb 2020 05:02:37 GMT9
13 Feb 2020 05:02:37 GMT9

TOKYO: Tokyo police arrested Thursday Japanese singer-songwriter Noriyuki Makihara, 50, on charges of illegal drug possession.

The Metropolitan Police Department suspects that Makihara had some 64.2 milliliters of liquid containing isobutyl nitrite, known as a "Rush" drug, on March 30, 2018, in a room of a condominium in Tokyo's Minato Ward where he then lived and 0.083 gram of stimulant in the room on April 11 the same year.

The police department did not disclose whether he has admitted to the charges.

According to investigative sources, those drugs were found during the police's search of the room, conducted in the wake of an arrest of his management office's former head for alleged illegal drug possession.

Makihara was held at his current home in Shibuya Ward.

This is not the first time for the pop musician to be arrested on charges of violating a drug control law. In August 1999, Makihara was apprehended for suspected stimulant possession at home. Later, he was given an 18-month sentence suspended for three years.

Born in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, Makihara debuted as a professional singer-songwriter in 1990 and made a big hit with "Donna Toki mo" ("At Any Given Time"), released in 1991. After the first arrest, he wrote "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" ("The One and Only Flower in the World") and provided it to the now-defunct male dancing-singing group Smap. Since it was released as a single in 2003, the song has sold more than two million copies.

JIJI Press

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