A quite extraordinary scandal appeared in the Japanese media in the last few days. The model and celebrity Loveli (real name, Izumi Shirahama) is facing prosecution over an allegation of sexual assault on another woman in May 2019.
The Shukan Bunshun has published a sensational interview with the victim, named only as Ms. A.
According to the story, the Filipino-Japanese Loveli allegedly assaulted Ms. A while they were staying in Shirahama in Wakayama. After drinking, her accuser says, Loveli threw herself on the woman in the early hours of the morning, taking off her panties and going down on her. “I really want to lick it,” Loveli supposedly said.
Despite A’s protestations, Loveli then penetrated A vaginally with her finger.
The assault apparently ended two and an half hours later. A filed a police report with local authorities that August, and it was referred to the prosecutors in March last year, when Loveli made a slightly ambiguous response through social media. The case has become more widely known now due to the recent interview with in the weekly tabloid.
Unless she makes a private settlement with the victim, we assume she may well be indicted and go on trial. Her lawyer says that a crime did not take place.
The curiously named Loveli, who is now 31, has half a million Instagram followers and is the older sister of Alan Shirahama, a member of the boy band Generations. She married a filmmaker, Gota Yonekura, in November 2019 and the couple has a child.
It is very hard to see her career recovering from this scandal.
We find it especially sad because it may damage the reputation of lesbians, who do not enjoy a visible presence in mainstream Japanese society. While sexual assault and even rape do sometime rear their ugly heads in the Japanese entertainment industry, it is almost exclusively heterosexual, male-on-female cases.
