A former lawmaker of Nippon Ishin no Kai pleaded guilty at the Tokyo District Court on Thursday to statutory rape of a 12-year-old girl.

Prosecutors said Tamotsu Shiiki, 58, who lost his Lower House seat in a 2021 general election, had sex with the girl at a karaoke parlor on Aug. 20 after he approached her on the streets of the Kabukicho entertainment district in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, well aware that she was underage.

Shiiki, who had never met the girl before the incident, paid her ¥10,000 for the act, they said.

“There is no mistake about it,” he said at the courtroom, donning a dark gray sweater and striped pants.

According to prosecutors, an employee at the karaoke parlor spotted a half-naked Shiiki and the girl through a window and reported them to the police.

Shiiki allegedly denied involvement at the time of the incident.

“I did not do that. You will know if you ask the girl,” he allegedly said.

Shiiki was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012 but lost his seat in a 2014 general election. He regained his seat in 2015 after Hirofumi Yoshimura (now governor of Osaka), resigned from the Lower House to run for that year's mayoral election in Osaka. Shiiki was next on Nippon Ishin’s list of proportional representation.

In 2017 and 2021, he ran again in general elections but failed to secure a seat.