Japanese actor arrested for allegedly assisting mother’s suicide
TOKYO – Japanese kabuki actor Ennosuke Ichikawa has been arrested by the Japanese police on Tuesday for allegedly assisting his mother’s suicide.
On May 18, his parents were found lying in the living room on the second floor of his Tokyo apartment with no external injuries, while he was found in a semi-conscious state in the basement closet.
His mother Nobuko, 75, was pronounced dead at the scene, while his father Danshiro Ichikawa, 76, also a kabuki actor, was in a coma and died later in hospital.
The 47-year-old actor, who starred in the second season of the popular Japanese television drama series Hanzawa Naoki (2013 and 2020), was taken to hospital. A letter suspected to be his suicide note was found in the apartment.
The actor told the police during investigations that he and his parents held a “family meeting” on May 17 after he learnt that a Japanese weekly magazine would run stories on his alleged involvement in incidents of sexual harassment and power harassment.
He said his parents had allegedly taken sleeping pills after they talked about “being reborn together”, according to various Japanese media reports.
The police suspected that he assisted in his mother’s suicide, including giving her sleeping pills. His father’s death is still under investigation by the police.
Born into a kabuki family, Ichikawa’s original name was Takahiko Kinoshi. He later adopted the stage name Ennosuke Ichikawa IV.
He has starred in TV series such as the popular Hanzawa Naoki and the historical drama The 13 Lords Of The Shogun (2022).
In the second season of Hanzawa Naoki aired in 2020, Ichikawa left a deep impression on viewers with his role as Taiji Isayama, head of Tokyo Chuo Banking Corporation’s equity sales department and the antagonist to the titular banker played by Japanese actor Masato Sakai.
Ichikawa is also the cousin of another famed Japanese kabuki actor, Teruyuki Kagawa, who played Isayama’s mentor and bank director Akira Owada in the show.
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