In January 1992, Dewi Sukarno became involved in a much-publicised altercation at a party in
Aspen,
Colorado, United States with fellow international
socialite and
heiress, Minnie Osmeña. A granddaughter of former
Philippine President
Sergio Osmeña, she reportedly commented on Sukarno's past, and the spat culminated in Sukarno hitting Osmeña's face with a
champagne flute. Osmeña needed 37 stitches, while Sukarno was later detained for 34 days in Aspen for disorderly conduct. Sukarno and Osmeña had already been hostile to each other after an exchange at an earlier party months before, where Sukarno was heard to laugh at Osmeña's political plans (among which was to run for
Vice President of the Philippines). The following year, Sukarno posed for ''Madame d'Syuga: Dewi with Love'', a book of photography by
Hideki Fujii that was published in Japan in 1993. Many of the images feature her
semi-nude, with some showing what appeared to be
tattoo-like
body art. The
photo-book, while not distributed in Indonesia, was immediately banned by the
New Order government, and many Indonesians felt offended by what they perceived to be a disgrace of late President Sukarno's name and legacy. In 1997, the
New York Daily News published anonymous rumors that Sukarno had been involved in a "hair-pulling tiff" at a
Halloween party with Kaethe Schuchter, a companion of fraudulent money manager
Martin Frankel. Sukarno denied the allegations and after failing to make Schuchter publicly retract the claim, launched a
defamation lawsuit against her. Not long after, federal conspiracy and fraud charges were brought up against Frankel and Schuchter, who fled the United States in May 1999. This left Sukarno's lawsuit in limbo and it wasn't until 2009 that Schuchter was apprehended by Italian authorities. In the aftermath of the controversial launch of the
Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 satellite in April 2009, Sukarno was invited to comment by Japanese media, since her late husband had managed to
maintain favorable relations with
North Korea during his reign. In an interview, she commented that "Japan is making too much noise, it's only an artificial satellite", which outraged
Japanese right-wing groups. On the evening of April 19, one of their
sound trucks appeared at Sukarno's residence in affluent
Minato, Tokyo and staged a loud protest. In response, she threw two plant pots from her second-floor balcony and allegedly hit the van's mirrors. Immediately afterward, Sukarno came out to confront the protestors, which resulted in a heated argument. A nearby police officer stationed outside the home of
Tarō Asō prevented further escalation and the protesters left without seeking compensation for damages. The following day, Sukarno held a press conference in front of her home to voice her dissatisfaction with the police response. In July 2012, in response to a bullying incident at , which resulted in the suicide of a student, Sukarno published names and photos of a woman who was the supposed bully and people who appeared to be related to her in a blog post. It was soon revealed that the perpetrator had been misidentified, however, and Sukarno removed the entry from her blog. When a public apology from Sukarno was not forthcoming, the woman filed a lawsuit against her, demanding 11 million yen ( US$75,000) in damages. In February 2014, the
Kobe District Court deemed Sukarno's actions "extremely thoughtless" and ordered her to pay 1.65 million yen ( US$11,000). Sukarno claimed that the judgment was unfair and that she would fight it all the way to the
Supreme Court, but an undisclosed settlement was later reached at the
Osaka High Court. Tokyo police investigated a complaint against Sukarno in January 2014, following her appearance on the
TBS Television show
Okusama wa Monster 2 where she had allegedly slapped a fellow guest. Speaking to reporters, Sukarno expressed regret for "having caused an uproar" and said that she and the victim had resolved the incident during a phone call. In January 2017, Sukarno attracted Chinese criticism when she spoke out in support of
APA Group president
Toshio Motoya, who had come under fire for distributing political propaganda in the group's hotels, referring to
Japanese war crimes such as the
Nanjing massacre and
wartime sex slavery as "fabricated stories created to dishonor Japan". During a broadcast of
TV Asahi's
Abema Prime, Sukarno opinioned that Motoya's beliefs and actions fell under his right to
freedom of expression and redirected attention towards the issues of
Tibetan sovereignty and the
Senkaku Islands and
South China Sea disputes. On October 28, 2020, Sukarno issued an apology for remarks she had made on the
Kansai TV variety show
Mune-ippai Summit!, where she linked
female infertility to
abortions. Expressing support for an abortion ban, she had claimed that "the biggest reason for infertility is abortions by pregnant women who don't want to have children", adding that "it's best not to let women in Japan undergo
curettage". In July 2023, Sukarno defended the late
Johnny Kitagawa from child
sexual abuse allegations on Twitter, tweeting that he "loved the children from his agency as if they were his own" and that the criticism of him was "bringing disgrace to Japan." == Politics and activism ==