英语文摘:Japanese star Oshio indicted over woman's death

TOKYO, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Japanese star Oshio Manabu was indicted Monday over his role in the death of a woman in August last year.

The woman, 30-year-old bar employee Kaori Tanaka, was given the synthetic drug MDMA by Oshio and then left to die in an apartment in Tokyo's upmarket Roppongi district on Aug. 2 last year, according to prosecutors.

Oshio has been charged after failing to act to save the woman's life.

The trial for the former star will take place in a trial under Japan's new lay-judge system, and will be one of the most high- profile cases since the legal changes came into effect last August.

In December, Oshio was charged with giving the drug, which has the street name Ecstasy, to the woman. He was also charged and given a suspended sentence in November for taking the drug himself.

In the late summer and autumn last year, Japanese media was dominated by reports of drug abuse by Oshio and also Noriko Sakai, who was found to have taken drugs by prosecutors just days after Oshio's arrest.

Oshio spent his childhood in the United States and rose to fame with his band, LIV, in the late 1990s. He later went on to simultaneously pursue a career in acting. He was represented by Avex, a large Japanese entertainment company, which canceled its contract with him after he was caught taking drugs.