TV Lone Wolf's "Cub" Arrested in Thailand

[Colin Geddes]

Found the following on the alt.asian newsgroup. Anyone have any further
news on a Japanese case of a child star gone bad? And whatever became of
the actor who played Cub in the movies?

http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/archive/199912/26/news01.html

Sunday, December 26, 1999

         Ex-child actor extradited, busted for
         corpse-dumping

         Mainichi Shimbun

         NIIGATA - A child actor
         turned local politician
         suspected of involvement in the
         death of a moneylender has
         been arrested after being
         extradited from Thailand,
         police said Saturday.

         Kazutaka Nishikawa, 32, who
         from 1995 until earlier this year
         served a single term as a
         member of the municipal
         assembly in the Niigata
         Prefecture city of Shirone, was
         arrested while on a Japan
         Airlines flight from Bangkok for
         the illegal disposal of a body.
         He was taken to Niigata shortly after his flight arrived at
Narita
         Airport on Saturday morning.

         Nishikawa is alleged to have dumped the body of Yukio Sato, 56,
a
         moneylender, in Asahi, Niigata Prefecture, on Nov. 30. Police
         suspect Nishikawa may have been involved in Sato's death and
         placed him on an international wanted list after he fled the
country on
         Dec. 1.

         Nishikawa flew to Hong Kong and traveled to Macao before
         INTERPOL officials notified Japanese police on Dec. 22 that the
         former child actor had been apprehended in Thailand.

         Nishikawa was arrested for conspiring with Yuichi Kawahara, 30,
         manager of a mah-jongg parlor that Nishikawa owned, to wrap
         Sato's body in a blanket, shove it into the trunk of his car,
then
         dispose of the body in a forest in Asahi. Kawahara has already
been
         charged with illegally dumping Sato's body.

         Police and sources said that Nishikawa had eaten with Sato at a
         restaurant in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, on the night of Nov.
29. Later
         that night Nishikawa and Kawahara arranged to travel together
to
         Sato's office in Joetsu. Nishikawa left Kawahara sitting in his
car,
         telling him that he was going to borrow some money.

         Nishikawa then apparently called Kawahara into the office.
         Kawahara says that by the time he arrived there, Sato had
already
         collapsed on the floor.

         Police later discovered that 5 million yen was missing from
Sato's
         office. Police believe that Nishikawa and Sato had quarreled
over
         money the one-time actor wanted to open a mah-jongg parlor.

         Nishikawa played Daigoro in the popular 1970s TV drama
         "Kozure-Okami," about a wandering samurai accompanied on his
         journeys throughout the country by his young son. After
retiring from
         acting, Nishikawa held a number of jobs, including a post as a
         manager of a swimming school, before he was elected to the
Shirone
         Municipal Assembly in 1995.

-------------
Check out my Hong Kong movie poster auctions at:
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=antifish
-------------
Colin Geddes
cgeddes at interlog.com