OSAKA -- A former manager of a steak restaurant here lost his appeal Thursday against a lower court ruling that sentenced him to 12 years in prison for raping a customer last year.

The Osaka High Court upheld the prison term handed down by the Osaka District Court on Daisuke Kitayama, 26, former manager of a restaurant in the Pepper Lunch chain in the Minami entertainment district of Osaka.

"It was an unprecedented incident in which a woman was confined and sexually assaulted in one of the most popular entertainment districts in Osaka. The lower court ruling is not too severe," Presiding Judge Masaki Wakahara said as he dismissed the defendant's appeal.

Kitayama conspired with Masanobu Miyake, 26, a former employee of the restaurant, to threaten a woman in her 20s with a stun gun in the early hours of May 9 as she dined there alone. They robbed her of 55,000 yen in cash, and forced her to take sleeping pills, according to the ruling.

They then drove her to a parking lot in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture, where they raped her, the court found.

In September last year, the district court sentenced Kitayama to 12-years in prison, despite prosecutors requesting a 10-year prison term. Miyake is serving a 10-year prison term.

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