A Japanese rock musician who tried to hang himself after being arrested for unruly behavior on a flight to the Mariana Islands has died in hospital, reports said Monday.
Rocker Taiji Sawada, who was best known as the former bass player with heavy metal group X-Japan, died on Sunday when medics at Saipan's Commonwealth Health Centre turned off his life support, the Saipan Tribune reported.
The Marianas Variety newspaper reported that Sawada, 45, had been in intensive care since July 14 after he tried to hang himself with a bed sheet in a jail in the U.S.-administered Pacific territory.
He had been arrested three days before for allegedly assaulting a female cabin crew attendant during a Delta Airlines flight from Tokyo to Saipan, court documents showed.
The documents, filed on the Northern Marianas District Court, said the flight attendant went to the business class section after hearing banging and found Sawada struggling with a female passenger.
The crew member said a number of male passengers helped her subdue the musician and move him to another seat but he caused another commotion, punching windows and kicking seats, as the plane prepared to descend to Saipan.
Eventually, the plane's captain ordered Sawada to be placed in physical restraints and he was arrested after the flight landed, the court documents said. No reason was given for Sawada's behavior.
Sawada enjoyed success with X-Japan in the late 1980s but left in 1992 and since then had played in various other bands, according to fan websites.
© Agence France-Presse
44 Comments
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ihavegreatlegs
PCP? Does not sound too stable. RIP
azninvasion
rock and roll
nath
Weak
YuriOtani
lame
Munawir Ismail
what a waste
Alexander Warrick
At least he didn't overreact.
Laguna
Doesn't sound like he TRIED to hang himself; sounds like he succeeded.
TimeiClic
Good. I can just picture the kind of petulant behaviour displayed; we have all seen it before, right guys?
jforce
@alex: Damn, funny. But he did overreact! (hello, obvious here) Rocker? What is this the 80s? Back in the day we called them "burners" or "skids". Ugh, the thought of those days brings chills. Where are my sheets!!
some14some
Bad Karma, combination of previous birth and present birth.
oikawa
What is it with this band and suicide? Seriously... Their music wasn't that bad.
BurakuminDes
While this rock'n'roll star does sound like a grub with his antics - assaulting women and the like - it is sad for his family and friends that he chose to end it all. I guess this finally kills off any talk of X-Japan re-unions - half the band are dead.
Skeptical Hippo
A true samurai. Commit suicide out of shame and/or to prevent ratting on others during interrogation torture after being captured by the enemy.
Foxie
It is sad to see talented people ending up this way. He did have a harsh life. RIP
Leigh Ivan Quintellio Wighton
Suicide cases are getting lamer and lamer each time. The guy acts like a douche on a flight, gets arrested so he kills himself? Seems logical enough, doesn't it?
Every other month I read about some semi celebrity in Japan killing themselves over the stupidest reasons. Then there's the non-celebrity masses offing themselves who don't get much of a mention. I understand some of these people had hard lives and mental illness, which is not an excuse, but for a lot of them I get this feeling that they just lacked mental fortitude and needed to grow up learn all about responsibility.
GW
burakumin
X Jpn still has a group together, they just gt back from a short stint in the UK/Europe & will do SAmerica in Sept
johninnaha
One of the key things to understand the Japanese psyche is they don't feel guilt so much as shame. If you try to understand this and other recent suicides in terms of guilt, it doesn't compute.
There is also the fact that Taiji had psych treatment/counseling.
That'll do it most every time.
YuriOtani
Life is so sad, a person has talent, money and prestige yet still "self destructs".
bass4funk
Hey, this is the result of what happens when you do drugs.
Cricky
Japan has a very high suicide rate a low drug rate, do not get the drugs = suicide thing. He was Japanese and it's their way of saying sorry, when it's embarrassing. Shame most politicians are exempt.
nath
So many people make jokes about it, but anyone doing that to themselves is so sad and tragic.
Hide didn't commit suicide, for those mentioning his death. It was an accident.
tmarie
Kicking windows? Idiot. Sad and tragic? Not really. Would have been more so if he had managed to kick out a window or injure someone.
Molenir
I don't regret that he hung himself, the man obviously had problems, but what I find interesting, was that it happened in Saipan. Didn't another Japanese guy hang himself a few years ago, rather then be deported to face a trial for murdering his wife?
amerijap
Too bad he had so many demons within himself. I suspect he was on drugs and alcoholic at the time of ruckus in the air.
miyazawa3
These So called (SUGOI HITO TACHI)great People finally realized.. that they have no reason to live...like you and me .
Fadamor
Umm... just like it says. He was found with his bed sheet tied around his neck, cutting off his blood supply to his brain.
Skeptical Hippo
What is it with highschool dropouts and prison suicides? Above-mentioned Kazuyoshi Miura was a highschool dropout too...
Drugs? Who said he was on drugs?
Actually, his mother and fiancée made the decision to turn off his life support system.
oikawa
What is it with trips to Saipan inspiring suicide?
Skeptical Hippo
I'm glad they decided to turn off his life support system.
whiskeysour
What was he on ???? I`m surprised this did not make the world news ? Or televised night and day !!!!!
kitsuki14
i doubt it was only what happened on the plane that brought him to do it. RIP
papasmurfinjapan
My wife is a huge Taiji fan, so this news is really going to put her into a crappy mood for the next couple of days.
I don't care for X-Japan or Taiji, and from the reports, he certainly was acting like a wanker, but nevertheless RIP. Hopefully he will enjoy a better afterlife than the troubled one he had here.
NetNinja
WOAH, didn't JT feature an article on X-Japan not too long ago? Wasn't it like Picture of the Day? Now this guy is gone. Sad.
Bartholomew Harte
the story said "Former X Japan Bassist-He hadn't played with that group in years., All in all a sad way to go for anyone. As for X Japan they're still Rockin'!
cactusJack
And no mention of the drugs in his body? Sounds like a cover up.
chuckbello
Wow. I shocked. Big fan of X Japan back in the days. Why this is not on TV. Very sad indeed. After Hide, I thought the band hold pretty good and now this sad news.I can't believe it.
Elbuda Mexicano
This guys sounds like he was a real jerk! Fighting with a female passenger then also trying to abuse a female cabin attendant, kicking windows etc..on a plane? WTF was he thinking? Sorry folks, I do not feel sorry for this guy nor for any other wagama selfish cry babies.
Asy Asyy
Yeah! He called someone names then kicked a window! He deserved to die!
Uhh... riiiiight.
We all know it's big and clever to get all judgmental as if you're auditioning as a columnist for some 2-bit sensationalist tabloid, but please take your gutter press attitude and lack of critical thought (or any thought at all, for that matter) elsewhere.
TheTim
Medically speaking...I think the term is "Whacked out of his brain on drugs". Or something like that.
papasmurfinjapan
I guess the question remains, did he "burn out" or "fade away"?
papasmurfinjapan
I think the point that was trying to made was not that he "deserves to die" - everyone would be shocked if he was given the death penalty for his "crime" - just that washed-up glam rockers who act like total arses aren't going to find much sympathy for their actions from non-fans.