Pop star Kusanagi apologies in 1st press conference after arrest

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TOKYO, April 24 Kyodo -
Pop star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi offered an apology to his fans and fellow SMAP
members Friday night in his first press conference since his arrest the
previous day for allegedly stripping naked in a central Tokyo park.
''I drank lots of alcohol and fell into a state where I couldn't figure out
what I was doing,'' said the 34-year-old Kusanagi, who wore a dark suit and
necktie. ''I did something I'm ashamed of as an adult and I deeply regret it.''
He is unlikely to reappear on TV programs and in commercials for the time being.
After being sent to the Tokyo local public prosecutors office earlier Friday,
the member of popular music group SMAP was sent back to Harajuku Police Station
where he was freed. He had spent the night in custody at the station.
Kusanagi was apprehended on a charge of public indecency at around 3 a.m.
Thursday at a park next to the landmark Tokyo Midtown complex in the
Roppongi-Akasaka area, after a man living nearby called the police because of
noise.
He is unlikely to be indicted based on action taken in similar cases in the past.
Kusanagi has been a regular performer on Fridays on Fuji Television Network
Inc.'s daily lunchtime program ''Waratte Iitomo!'' (You Can Laugh), but Fuji TV
announcer Rio Hirai said in the latest feed that he ''is absent today because
of the situation as reported in the news.''
Fuji TV also plans to remove images of Kusanagi from its Monday night program
''SMAP X SMAP,'' which features all the band's five members, by recomposing it
with footage from the past, while TV Asahi Corp. will cut footage in its
Tuesday night program in which Kusanagi appears.
Kusanagi is believed to have drunk more than 10 mugs of beer and shochu
distilled spirits over a period of about six hours before his arrest, police
investigators said Friday.
During detention, he was taken to hospital and put on a drip due to being in
bad condition, but recovered by Friday morning, the police said.
He drank alcohol at a Japanese-style bar in Akasaka, Minato Ward, from around 8
p.m. Wednesday through around 1 a.m. Thursday and then went to another bar in
the vicinity afterward, leaving the second bar around 2 a.m. to walk to the
park where he was later arrested, according to the police.
Kusanagi was quoted as saying by a lawyer who has met him, ''I went to the
first bar and ate and drank alone, and was drinking with its owner and a female
employee after the bar was closed.''
He has told the police he regrets what he did but does not remember how he got
to the park or why he stripped naked, the police said.
A breathalyzer test conducted five hours after his arrest showed his alcohol
level was five times higher than the limit for drunken driving. A urine test
showed no drug use, and the police seized nothing during their half-hour search
Thursday at his home in Minato Ward.
Kusanagi's arrest has had huge repercussions in not only the entertainment
industry but also in quarters ranging from business to the government.
An angry Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kunio Hatoyama called
Kusanagi a ''bastard'' Thursday as the ministry had designated him to promote
Japan's shift to digital terrestrial TV broadcasting. But in the face of calls
of protest from a sympathetic public, Hatoyama retracted the comment Friday,
saying he used ''too strong a word.''
SMAP enjoys popularity in many other Asian countries as well. Kusanagi, who is
fluent in Korean, is also popular in South Korea.
==Kyodo