Some events have been taking place recently regarding well known singer Sakai Noriko. There are a few different articles that this "saga" spans over at this point.

Actress Sakai traced to Yamanashi
Kyodo News

The trail of actress Noriko Sakai, who has been missing since her husband was arrested Monday for allegedly possessing illegal stimulant drugs, went cold Tuesday evening in Yamanashi Prefecture, police said Wednesday.
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Following a request earlier Tuesday from her mother-in-law to search for the 38-year-old actress, the police traced her cell phone to Yamanashi before the signal stopped, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

Her husband, Yuichi Takaso, 41, was arrested early Monday after a police officer found a plastic bag containing stimulant drugs in his underwear in Tokyo's Shibuya district.

Sakai, who married the self-described professional surfer in 1998, is believed to have disappeared with their child, according to the police.

Source - http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 806b1.html

Sakai's son found safe in Tokyo
Thu, August 6, 2009 (11:20am EDT)
The whereabouts of Noriko Sakai (38) remain unknown, but at least her 10-year-old son was found safe on Thursday night. The boy was left in the care of one of Sakai's friends in Tokyo. He is said to be in good health.

Sakai and her son had both been missing since Monday, when Sakai's husband Yuichi Takaso (41) was arrested for drug possession on a street in Shibuya. At the time of Takaso's arrest, Sakai was reportedly nearby in a parked car, but she has been unreachable after that.

No signal has been detected from Sakai's cell phone since the arrest, except for a brief time on Tuesday night when it was traced to the vicinity of Mt. Minobu in the Yamanashi prefecture. Sakai's father had been living in Yamanashi until he passed away in a traffic accident in 1989. Police are continuing to search for Sakai in that area.

Source: http://www.tokyograph.com/news/id-5124

Details on her location and arrest will be coming up later today.

Sakai Noriko Arrested, Brought to Police Headquarters the Night of the 8th

On the 8th police headquarters arrested actress Sakai Noriko, who had a warrant issued for her arrest, under charges of a violation of stimulant control laws (posession). Around 8:00 that same night Sakai Noriko was brought into police headquarters for questioning. Having been 6 days since Sakai Noriko's disappearance, the situation had become a serious one.

According to investigations, Sakai may have been smuggling stimulants into her home.

According to investegators, contact was made with the defendent and she was requested to come to headquarters. Sakai came to headquarters and after questioning, she was arrested.

According to headquarters investigation up until this point, straws used to suck up stimulants were confiscated from Sakai Noriko's home. When DNA was taken from the saliva on the straws, it was established that it was consistent with Sakai Noriko, and headquarters began to wonder whether or not she used stimulants daily.

After her husband, a self-proclaimed pro-surfer named Takasou Yuuichi (41) was arrested at a Shibuya station 3 days earlier on the same charges, the whereabouts of her and their 10 year old eldest sun were unknown. On the night of the 6th, headquarters took their son into protective custody when they found out he was dropped off with Sakai's friend in the Tokyo area.

However, as of that point Sakai Noriko's whereabouts were still unknown. When headquarters searched her home, they issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of the same stimulants that was confiscated, and tracked down her whereabouts.

Source: http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20090 ... sanspo-ent

There was a lot of wild speculation about this before she was found - the most popular rumor that since she'd left her child with a friend and traveled to Yamanashi, near a popular place to commit suicide that she was going to do exactly that. I'm glad she's ok, though sorry to hear about the drug charges. Let's hope she's cleared, since they didn't find any in her system, but given what her husband is facing I think they might go after her pretty hard.

As a possible "conclusion" to this, I just wanted to post another news sites update as to the latest in the saga. Nothing that I translated (I got lazy), so here's the source if someone wants it:

http://www.nt2099.com/J-ENT/news/asian- ... nd-agency/

Noriko Sakai holds press conference after being released on bail, apologizes to fans and agency

Pop star Noriko Sakai was released on bail on Thursday. The tearful pop star and her pro-surfer husband Yuichi Takaso were busted for stimulants and charges are continuing to grow as more and more evidence is being found. Her husband was released yesterday but both are forbidden to come in contact with each other.

“My weakness caused me to give in to illegal drugs and caused grief to many people,” she said. “I pledge to repent and atone for this crime for the rest of my life.”

Sakai was not able to say much but she did deliver a tearful apology, “To my fans in Japan and overseas who have supported me until now, and the people in my agency who have worked for me…I am truly, truly sorry.”

Officials of her former agency were on hand and said that she will be staying at a hospital to avoid the paparrazi.