Officers of Tokyo's Azabu Police Station have to deal with unsavory characters from the Roppongi entertainment district night after night.

And so it was, with a sense of disbelief, that they encountered drunken Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Kazuyoshi Nakanishi in the early hours of Thursday after a 22-year-old woman complained he had indecently assaulted her in the street.

Nakanishi, 40, mumbled something about having special immunity from arrest. But the officers had no idea what he was talking about.

Under Japanese law, Diet members cannot be arrested while the Diet is in session-unless they are caught in the ``act of a crime.''

Nakanishi, an LDP Lower House member, allegedly grabbed the woman, put his hand inside her clothes and fondled her breast. The incident occurred at 2:05 a.m., police said. Nakanishi was arrested soon after in a bar nearby.

Officers escorted Nakanishi to the Azabu Police Station, where he insisted he had done nothing wrong. During questioning, he looked displeased and said he had immunity from arrest.

Bewildered investigators asked him to write his name.

He wrote: ``Kazuyoshi Nakanishi, Lower House member.''

But none of the officers had ever heard of him. Moreover, Nakanishi was not wearing his lawmaker's badge or carrying any form of identity.

Officers then started surfing the Internet and came up with his name and photo on a Web site.

Comparing the photo with Nakanishi, one officer said in a loud voice, ``It's him, for real.''

At that point, officers had to hand over the case to higher authorities. Still, it ended with Nakanishi's arrest.(IHT/Asahi: March 12,2005)