Woman Dies After Being Forced to Drink 32 Shots in 90 Minutes

A night out in Japan has turned into a courtroom battle over alcohol, consent, and motive.

Prosecutors say a 25-year-old woman was pushed to drink 32 shots of tequila in just 90 minutes. Weeks later, she was dead. Now, the man accused of getting her drunk insists he had no plan to sexually assault her.

The case unfolded this week inside the Nagoya District Court, where 44-year-old Itaya Hiroki stood before judges to answer for the 2023 death.

According to prosecutors, the two met at a bar in Nagoya’s busy Naka Ward on May 7, 2023. Hiroki was reportedly a regular there. Court documents allege he asked a staff member to introduce him to the woman, and the two began drinking together shortly after.

What followed, prosecutors say, was relentless.

Hiroki allegedly ordered tequila shot after tequila shot. Thirty-two in total. Ninety minutes. Surveillance footage and bar receipts are expected to play a key role in the trial.

“You can still drink, right?” he allegedly asked her during the session, according to courtroom testimony. Prosecutors say she nodded when first asked if she could drink alcohol, and that was enough for Hiroki to keep the orders coming.

The state argues that this was no harmless drinking game. They claim Hiroki intentionally got her heavily intoxicated with a specific goal: to take her to a hotel and have sex.

The woman reportedly refused his invitation to go to a hotel during the drinking session. Prosecutors also allege he touched her breasts over her clothing while she was intoxicated.

Despite that refusal, the two later traveled by taxi to a hotel in Naka Ward. That decision — and her physical state at the time — is central to the charges.

Hiroki has denied that he intended to sexually assault her.

“It is true I encouraged her to drink, but I didn’t have any sexual intent,” he told the court, according to local reports.

Court testimony indicates that once at the hotel, he allegedly abandoned his attempt at sex after realizing she was in serious condition due to the alcohol.

She was later found collapsed inside the hotel. She never recovered.

Medical officials determined she died from hypoxic encephalopathy caused by acute alcohol poisoning. Her death was confirmed on June 21, weeks after the drinking session.

Prosecutors have charged Hiroki with indecent assault causing death and kidnapping for indecent purposes. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

The case is raising difficult questions that echo far beyond Japan. In the United States, forced or coerced intoxication has increasingly become part of criminal prosecutions involving sexual assault. Courts have grappled with how consent can exist — or collapse — under extreme intoxication.

For this jury, the question is narrow but heavy: Was this a tragic case of excessive drinking between adults? Or was it a deliberate effort to incapacitate a woman who could no longer protect herself?

The answer could mean the difference between acquittal and decades behind bars.