Comedian Shinji Saito is being investigated for sexual assault

The Metropolitan Police Department has referred Shinji Saito, a member of the popular comedy trio Jungle Pocket, to prosecutors on charges of sexually assaulting a woman and having non-consensual sex with her on a bus at a filming location, investigative sources revealed Monday .

Saito, 41, has admitted the allegations and said that “it was a reckless act that caused trouble for the other party and my own family,” the sources said.

The comedian allegedly sexually assaulted the woman, aged in her 20s, in July while they were alone on a bus parked in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district that was being used for on-location filming. The woman consulted the police after the incident.

According to the sources, the woman said that she could never forgive Saito for the incident.

Yoshimoto Kogyo, Jungle Pocket’s agency, announced in mid-September that Saito had health problems and was even hospitalized and that he requested a break.

Jungle Pocket was founded in 2006.

Translated by Japan Times