It capped an awful week for the sport in the country of its birth after Ryuji Sonoda, Japan's national women's coach, was forced to step down following allegations he beat athletes with a bamboo sword. 

Uchishiba was sentenced for the assault on a teenage member of a college judo club he was coaching after she drunkenly fell asleep in a Tokyo hotel.

Uchishiba, 34, was feted as a national hero after bringing home a gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics, an achievement he repeated at the 2008 Beijing Games.


Prosecutors said the incident occurred in September 2011, when the women's judo club from Kyushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare had been on a visit to Tokyo.

After a night of drinking and karaoke, the unidentified teenager, whose exact age was not given but who was believed to have been 18 or 19 at the time, fell asleep in her hotel room and awoke to find Uchishiba raping her.

"When she became aware, she resisted by saying, 'What are you doing? Stop," porsecutors said. 

"But he turned up the volume of the television and covered her mouth with his hand."

Married Uchishiba pleaded not guilty and maintained throughout the trial that the sex with the teenage student had been consensual.

Uchishiba plans to appeal against the decision.

Sonoda resigned after admitting claims that he beat his athletes with a bamboo sword were "more or less true".

He also allegations of violence against his charges, including face-slapping and verbal abuse.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
January 2013: Japan judo head coach quits over "beating" scandal
January 2013: Japanese Olympic judokas "beaten with sticks" by head coach
January 2013: Olympic judo champion facing five year jail sentence if found guilty in rape trial