A Metropolitan Police Department sign is seen in this file photo. (Mainichi/Kenji Yoneda)

       TOKYO -- A Japanese ballet dancer who won a prize at the Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a girl in 2019 while knowing that she was a minor -- under 18 in Japan.

       The Metropolitan Police Department's Himonya Police Station announced on Aug. 16 that it had arrested Mitsuru Ito, 25, of Ageo, Saitama Prefecture, on suspicion of violating the Child Welfare Act, specifically inciting a child to commit an obscene act.

       Ito came in third at the Prix de Lausanne, which is known as a gateway to success for ballet dancers, in 2015.

       Ito allegedly had sex with a then 16-year-old girl at a hotel in Tokyo's Kabukicho district on the evening of Aug. 9, 2019. He has reportedly admitted to the allegations, and was quoted as telling investigators, "We got to know each other through a dating app. It's true that I invited the girl to a hotel and had sex with her."

       According to the police station, the two came to know each other around September 2018. As the girl was taking ballet lessons, Ito apparently occasionally gave her advice. The incident surfaced when the girl consulted the police station through her family.

       (Japanese original by Takuya Suzuki, Tokyo City News Department)

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