The Supreme Court has turned down the final appeal of economist Kazuhide Uekusa, ensuring the once well-known TV commentator will serve four months in prison for molesting a female high school student on a Tokyo train in 2006.
Presiding Judge Takaharu Kondo of the third petty bench made the ruling Thursday, upholding the term handed down in lower court trials against Uekusa for public indecency.
According to the lower courts' rulings, Uekusa, 48, put his hand up the teen's skirt and touched her on the night of Sept. 13, 2006, on a Keihin Kyuko Line train between Shinagawa and Kamata stations.
Uekusa pleaded not guilty, saying he was mistaken for the real perpetrator.
But the Tokyo District Court convicted Uekusa based on eyewitnesses' testimonies, and the Tokyo High Court affirmed the ruling.
Earlier, Uekusa was convicted of public indecency and fined ¥500,000 for trying to look up a girl's skirt using a mirror at a Tokyo railway station in April 2004.
