Gender minister bodyguard accused of groping

TOKYO (Reuters) - A policeman assigned as a bodyguard for Japan's gender equality minister has been arrested on suspicion of molesting a female college student on a train, a police spokesman said on Thursday.

The 39-year-old bodyguard is suspected of touching the young woman's bottom on a train in Tokyo on Monday night, the spokesman said. He was turned over to police by fellow passengers.

The bodyguard was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying he was drunk and did not remember what happened.

"I am surprised and worried," Sanae Takaichi, the cabinet minister for gender equality, was quoted by her office as saying, adding that she did know details of the allegation.

Takaichi, one of three women in the cabinet, was known before taking up her post last September as an opponent of legislation to allow women to keep their family name after marriage.