After two-time Olympic champion Masato Uchishiba was arrested Dec. 6 on suspicion of raping a female member of a university judo team, Japanese TV personality and the former first lady of Indonesia, Dewi Sukarno, defended the gold medalist on her blog. She personally called the National Police Agency to find out the name of Uchishiba's lawyer and in the process discovered that the case was being handled by the NPA's criminal investigation section.
"Was the incident that serious?" she asks. According to the police, the victim, a minor, went out drinking with the rest of the Kyushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare's judo team and their coach, Uchishiba, one night in September after a training session in Tokyo. The woman got very drunk and Uchishiba volunteered to take her back to the hotel, where the alleged rape took place. Uchishiba admits they had sex but insists it was consensual.
Sukarno believes Uchishiba's story because it jibes with her views on female guile. "These days 18- and 19-year-olds are essentially adults," she writes. "They are saying she was forced to drink, but she could have refused. She should be expelled for drinking." Sukarno imagines the young woman using her feminine wiles on her coach. "Girls are interested in famous people, especially handsome ones." In Sukarno's mind, what probably happened is that the next day Uchishiba acted as if nothing happened. Spurned and hurt, the woman then accused him of forcing sex on her.