Chinese actor Jiang Jinfu has turned himself in to Japanese police and admitted to charges of domestic abuse against Japanese model Haruka Nakaura, Japanese media reported.

Wearing a face mask and hat, Jiang was filmed entering a police station in Tokyo’s Sugamo neighbourhood on Wednesday by TBS News.

“Jiang Jinfu has contacted the Japanese police and is cooperating with the investigation. Please do not spread or create rumours until the investigation is over,” Jiang’s management office wrote on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.

The actor will be charged with assaulting Nakaura, his former girlfriend, according to the Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times. Under Japanese law, Jiang could face a jail term of up to 15 years or a fine of up to 500,000 yen (US$4,400).

Chinese actor Jiang Jinfu kicked my stomach until I miscarried his child, says Haruka Nakaura

Nakaura – known in China as Zhongpu Youhua – had last week posted images of bruises to her face and body on her Instagram account, which has since been deleted. Jiang issued an apology on Weibo in which he admitted to the abuse.

In a subsequent post from a new Instagram account, Nakaura then claimed that Jiang had kicked her stomach until she miscarried his child and that her bruises had required two weeks of hospital treatment to heal.

“The house was full of blood,” Nakaura said in an interview with Japanese television show Vivit on Tuesday. “He would hit me until he didn’t have the strength any more, then he would kick me. I thought I was going to be killed.

“He knocked out two of my teeth, and when it was particularly bad he used a hammer.”

Japanese police issue arrest warrant for Chinese actor Jiang Jinfu over abuse claims

Jiang has not responded to Nakaura’s latest allegations. Fellow Chinese celebrities including actor Hu Ge and singer Yu Haoming have written notes of support for him on Weibo, although Yu later apologised for saying that he “stands with” Jiang.

About 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner, according to the United Nations. But domestic violence has long been viewed as a private affair in both Japan and China, with Japan enacting a domestic violence law in 2001 and China in 2016.

Cases involving public figures are rarely exposed in this way, but Nakaura’s case echoes that of American citizen Kim Lee, who posted photographs of injuries inflicted by her millionaire Chinese husband Li Yang to social media in 2011. Lee received 50,000 yuan (US$7,200) in compensation in a landmark divorce case.

However, domestic violence mostly goes under-reported in Asia, with UN statistics suggesting that only 20 per cent of victims seek help for abuse.

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.