Since she was 15 years of age, Minako Komukai worked as a pin-up model. Somewhere along the line she got into Metal Gear Solid and drugs.
Her appreciation of Metal Gear earned her the acquaintance of Hideo Kojima. Her love of drugs has her on the run from the law.
This month, a warrant for Komukai’s arrest was issued, but the pin-up star had fled to the Philippines. The TV personality turned stripper is accused of purchasing illegal drugs from a group of Iranian drug dealers, reports The Mainichi Daily. This isn’t the first run-in with the law for the 25-year-old, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for drug possession back in 2009. Her sentence was suspended for three years.
In addition to working as a pin-up model, Komukai appeared at game promotional events, like for Xbox game Blinx: The Time Sweeper – a game she said she enjoyed. Many Japanese B-level celebrities appear at game promotional events to help drum up interest in titles, and at these events they typically say they enjoy whatever they are promoting. They’re paid to do that.
But her acquaintance with Hideo Kojima seemed different. Komukai met Kojima via a serialised game magazine column written by the Metal Gear creator. And according to Dengeki Online, it’s said that Komukai possesses a “deep knowledge” of the Metal Gear series. Besides doing commentary at a Metal Gear Online event, she appeared on Kojima’s “Hide-chan Radio” program three times as a guest in 2006, giving her opinion on the Tokyo Game Show and talking about turning 20 years old. Their rapport was friendly, with Kojima referring to her playfully as “Mina-tan” and talking to her about doing motion capture for MGS4. The motion capture is done totally nude, he added.
“I want to become a voice actress,” she told Kojima, adding that she’d like to be a new character. When Kojima pressed her on what kind of character, she replied, “I’d like to be Snake’s illegitimate child.”
She never did. Her career seemed to be spinning out of control. Back in 2008, she gave an interview about being dropped by her talent agency, saying that many well known Japanese pin-up models work as escorts as a side-gig and swore she never did anything like that. But everything came to a head, culminating in her February 2009 arrest on drug charges. Later that year, she released an autobiography titled “I’m Really Sorry” which, according to her official site, documented: “drop[p] ing out of high school, domestic violence, [being]dismissed from the old casting agency, becoming a stripper…” The following year she appeared in “Flower and Snake 3”, a S&M-themed film from Toei, one of Japan’s biggest film companies. But she wasn’t able to transition that into mainstream success, starring in a soft core flick from SOD, a large Japanese porn company. Last October, she was once again dropped by her talent agency.
To escape her latest drug charge, it seems Komukai fled to Manila, where she arrived on January 21 of this year. The Philippines say there is no record of her leaving the country, and she successfully got an extension of her visa until March 21. She’s able to extend her visa for a total of 16 months and cannot be cancelled until the Japanese government puts forth a formal request. According to the Manila Bulletin, the Japanese government has made no such request.
Tokyo police issued a warrant for her arrest, Komukai cancelled her flight back to Japan, and there are rumours that she is being looked after by Japanese yakuza based in The Philippines. Metal Gear Solid, this ain’t.
Leave a Reply