Yokosuka murder update
Just realised a mistake in my previous post about this murder. My title was “possible murder on the mainland”. In retrospect, I don’t think there was any doubt about whether the taxi driver was dead. Usually having a kitchen knife through the neck & going into the lung, and having a lack of pulse would indicate a case of “death”! In fact, not too sure what I meant there, but I’ll put it down to being at the end of a week. With that in mind, I don’t know how this entry will turn out as I have been working all weekend too, but I’ll give it a go!
Well the US Navy sailor who appears to be a suspect in this case has been detained by the US military, but only on account of his desertion. Japanese authorities have not even asked the military to speak to him yet, nevermind him being turned over to them. US Navy Forces Japan Commander Rear Admiral James Kelly said that they would comply fully with the investigation though, and that access to the sailor would be given if requested. “There has been no request to my knowledge at this point but my response will be immediate…if and when police investigators ask”. He also added, “The sailor…is in custody for desertion… he is not under suspicion of anything attached to the murder at this point.” Whether that is just spin and PR I don’t know. It does seem a little suspicious that the usually trigger-happy police (especially when it comes to foreigners in Japan) has not even made a request to speak to this guy, when the news stories have all been giving the “Taxi driver murder - US sailor prime suspect” kind of spiel. The sailor in question had been missing and classed as deserting since March 8th, and has denied any involvement in the murder. Whether that’s the case or not, will hopefully come out in time.
In other news in Japan (and news that has made the international feeds, as opposed to this story above), is a man going on a bit of a frenzy with a knife in a shopping centre in Ibaraki. One person has been killed and 7 injured (including a police officer). The man, 24-year old Masahiro Kanagawa was arrested by police following the incident. He was already on Japan’s wanted list on suspicion of stabbing to death a 72-year old resident in the area last Wednesday. Knife attacks seem to be the fashionable thing at the moment in Japan. I was chatting with my friend yesterday about it, and tongue firmly in cheek, we pondered how this could be linked to the US military. “Inspired by recent violent acts committed by the barbarian round-eyes…” or such headlines were possible things we came up with!
More info on both of these stories when it comes in.
No rape! No base! No… sex shops?!?
Thought that might get you interested in this article! A story worth reporting from Okinawa today and which was featured on the Stars & Stripes website:
Okinawa sex shop made off-limits
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, March 22, 2008
OKINAWA CITY: A sex shop in one of this cityfs gred light districtsh has been declared off-limits for all personnel attached to the III Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Bases Japan.
The shop is called by the names gShampooh and gDianah and was in the news recently during the trial of a 22-year-old Air Force dependent who admitted he beat and raped a 22-year-old Japanese woman there Oct. 1.
gShampoo, located at 1-20-15 Misato, Okinawa City, Okinawa, Japan, is off-limits to all Status of Forces Agreement personnel attached to or accompanying III Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Bases Japan personnel,h the order by Lt. Gen. Richard Zilmer states. gThis includes all military members, civilian personnel (National Security Personnel System and contractor), and all dependents.h
Kevin Parks, the defendant in the rape case, pleaded guilty to rape involving an injury and faces a sentence of five years to life at hard labor in a Japanese prison. His defense is to present evidence during a hearing Monday in mitigation for sentencing, contending that Parks was mentally impaired.
During previous hearings Parks said he heard the devilfs voice in his head telling him to rape and kill the woman, but then heard the voice of God intervene to spare her life. He admitted that he hit the woman in the face with a beer bottle, punched her several times and then raped her.
The Marine order does not mention the Parks case by name.
gMarine Corps Bases Japan received credible information that eShampoof promulgates illicit sexual activity,h Zilmerfs order states. gSuch activities constitute a threat to the health, safety, and welfare of SOFA personnel.h
The shop is in a run-down section of Okinawa City that is home to dozens of small bars, called gSnacks.h At noon Thursday several cabs maneuvered through the narrow streets delivering customers to the few open shops, where women in tight clothes and heavy makeup posed in windows and doorways.
Many of the shops had English-language signs in the windows that read gSorry, Japanese Only.h
Zilmer stressed that the order was gpunitive in nature,h meaning military members violating the order could receive punishment under the Uniform Code of military Justice and civilians could face being barred from the bases or be forced to return to the U.S. It remains in effect indefinitely.
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Now first of all, is this shop called Shampoo or Diana? It’s not as if those words are easily mistaken in the English vocabulary! Unless it’s the even more cryptic Shampoo Diana, or Diana Shampoo. But regardless, it seems that this place has been made off-limits to SOFA status personnel in Okinawa, and even more shops in that seedy area are putting up the “No Foreigners” sign. With that in mind I’m considering rocking over there and seeing if they are classing all foreigners as military. I can actually envisage the ensuing conversation:
More trouble… possible murder on the mainland?
The second story of today comes from Japan Today, and could be a pretty serious one. For those of you who are not aware, Yokosuka is a town and a place in mainland Japan with a huge US Navy base. Right - background info out of the way. Onto the story…
Personal belongings of missing U.S. serviceman found in slain driver’s taxi at Yokosuka
Friday, March 21, 2008 at 06:11 EST
YOKOHAMA: The U.S. military in Japan have found items which apparently belong to a missing U.S. serviceman in the taxi of a driver who was fatally stabbed in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Wednesday night, U.S. Navy sources said Thursday.
Masaaki Takahashi, 61, was found dead on the driver’s seat with stab wounds to his neck in a parked taxi on a road in Yokosuka, police said.
The owner of the personal belongings is believed to be a crew member of the U.S. 7th Fleet’s warship based in Yokosuka, the sources told Kyodo News, and criminal investigators of the U.S. Navy are looking for the serviceman as a deserter.
Takahashi, an employee at the Shinagawa office of Tokyo-based taxi operator Anzen Group, was found slain with a 20-cm-long kitchen knife stuck deeply in his neck in the taxi parked on a road in Yokosuka’s town of Shioiri around 9:20 p.m.
An autopsy shows he died from blood loss.
Police found about 62,000 yen in cash in a bag left on the driver’s seat and tens of thousands of yen in a pocket of Takahashi’s clothes, according to investigations.
Police suspect the last passenger of Takahashi’s taxi stabbed him and fled after a payment dispute.
The scene is in a residential area about 1 kilometer from the main gate of the Yokosuka U.S. Navy Base.
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Well I really hope these suspicions about who has murdered this driver is wrong, for a number of reasons. Not least because it shows the US Military in Japan, and therefore all foreigners in a very bad light once again. My usual sceptical self comes to the fore again with a few comments about this story. Firstly, if you had deserted the US military (a very serious offence), would you firstly stay within 1km of the main entrance to the Yokosuka base? Possible if you’re a couple of sticks short of a bundle, but a little strange. Secondly, if you had deserted the military, would you do something like this which you know is going to draw a huge amount of media and police attention, especially with recent events involving the military in Japan. One possible story of what has happened could go like this: Suspect gets taxi from Tokyo to Yokosuka. Taxi reaches destination and finds that suspect doesn’t have enough case. It’s at night so the ATMs are closed. Suspect wants to pay with credit card but taxi driver doesn’t accept it. Argument ensues and victim gets stabbed while suspect escapes. It is definitely not a robbery gone wrong as a large amount of money was left in the car. So what has happened?
I mentioned a credit card in my view of possible events as there are couple of rumours regarding what was found in the taxi of the victim. One says a credit card with this guy’s name was found, and another says his wallet was found. If they found his credit card, I am very surprised that a name hasn’t been put out to the public straight away (as it was in the Hadnott alleged rape case). He may very well have left his credit card/wallet in the taxi, but surely people have watched America’s Dumbest Criminals to know not to do that by now! Next thing is the weapon of choice. The taxi driver died after being attacked with a kitchen knife. Why the hell would anyone at all be wandering around with a kitchen knife in the possession? Are they concerned they might get pulled into a restaurant and asked to carve up a steak?! Seems very strange.
Also, it says that the main suspect is this American guy, although let’s realise that the only evidence so far is that his credit card/wallet was found in the same taxi, which could mean anything. If it is this guy, I sincerely hope he’s caught and sentenced to the fullest extreme if the case is as clear-cut as it initially seems.
EDIT: Another report is stating that the taxi driver was stabbed so deeply and hard into his neck that it ended up puncturing one of his lungs. Just for a second, imagine the force that it would take to do that, and then imagine the space inside a taxi. Something doesn’t seem to add up. If the suspect got out of the car, then surely he would have just run rather than turn, get a kitchen knife out and stab the driver who was in the taxi at the time. Think there is more to come out of the story than we know at the moment.
Ex-police officer guilty of forcing confessions from suspects
Today’s Japanese news story comes from Kyodo News, who provide us with a rather interesting piece. You can read it below and then I’ll give my comments:
Ex-police officer found guilty of forcing confessions
FUKUOKA - The Fukuoka District Court on Tuesday sentenced a former senior police officer to 10 months in prison, suspended for three years, for forcing a suspect into confessing during investigations by having him trample documents with the names of his relatives on it.
Takahiro Hamada, 45, was accused of relying on “fumiji,” derived from the “fumie” technique that was used by the Tokugawa shogunate government in the 17th century to smoke out Christians, in questioning a suspect over an election fraud case in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Fumie forced suspected Christians to step on an effigy of Jesus or Mary to prove that they were not believers of Christianity, which was banned at that time.
The suspect, Sachio Kawabata, 62, and others were arrested over a vote-buying incident involving Shinichi Nakayama, who won the Kagoshima prefectural assembly election in April 2003.
While Kawabata was not indicted, all others indicted for the election fraud, including Nakayama, were acquitted in February 2007, shedding light on the forcible investigative technique in a closed room and giving impetus to a public debate over the introduction of video recording during questioning.
According to the indictment of Hamada, he forced Kawabata to trample on three pieces of paper, on which the names of his father and grandson as well as their wish “Please become an honest man” were printed, when he questioned Kawabata on a voluntary basis shortly after the election.
Kawabata later filed an accusation against Hamada with prosecutors, who indicted the former police officer for violating a Penal Code provision against any acts of assault and physical cruelty by public officers and sought a 10-month imprisonment.
During the court hearings, Hamada pleaded not guilty of the criminal charges.
Kawabata won a damages suit against the Kagoshima prefectural government in January 2007, in which he said he had suffered mental distress brought about by the trampling incident, while the acquitted individuals have filed a lawsuit against the state and Kagoshima Prefecture seeking 280 million yen in compensation over the investigation.
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Now regardless of the country, a suspended sentence is a bit of a joke. It’s like the judge is saying, “Well we’re going to punish you, but only if you do it again”. As the guy is now an ex-police officer, it’s unlikely that he’s going to force a confession out of anyone in his everyday life. Errr… yup, have just spent a couple of minutes trying to think of a situation where he could do that and I would really be scraping the barrel. I suppose the most shocking part of this was that I had heard numerous stories of this happening in Okinawa and throughout Japan before, but they had always been second hand and I took them as being a bit of a joke. It hasn’t really surprised me that he pleaded not guilty, nor that he received the suspended sentence. I suppose sentencing him would mean there would be accountability in the future if this action happened again. Much better to give him a slap on the wrists, a “Don’t do it again!” and let him go, thereby restoring the wa and karma in Japanese society.
That’s about all the news I have for today. Stay tuned tomorrow when I’ll be doing a recap of the Lindsay Hawker story, the English teacher who was murdered in Tokyo on March 26th 2007, and will feature a video of Tatsuya Ichihashi, the main suspect who famously eluded 10-15 “properly positioned” police officers when they went to his apartment, by running past them in his bare feet. Take care out there
Three foreigners “allegedly” rob taxi driver in Okinawa
Yes folks, here we go once again! The top crime story on Japan Today, seemingly more important than a man arrested for strangling his wife, more important than a man getting the death penalty for killing 2 of his relatives and more important than 2 women dying in yet another murder-suicide in Japan, police in Okinawa are on the hunt for 3 foreign men who robbed a taxi driver of Y8,000.
3 foreigners rob, assault taxi driver in Okinawa
Three foreign men robbed a taxi driver in Okinawa early Monday morning. The taxi driver, 55, suffered slight head injuries, police said, adding they suspect the trio were U.S. military personnel and have asked U.S. authorities for cooperation.
According to police, the three men hailed the taxi around 12:20 a.m. about 300 meters away from the gate of Kadena base. They pointed to the trunk and told the driver to have a look. When he got out, they punched him. The driver managed to get away, and when he returned to his taxi, he found his money box, containing 8,000 yen, gone.
The driver told police two of the men had Asian features and the third looked African-American. He said they spoke only English.
Police say the driver hesitated to report the incident to them because he didn’t want to get involved in any possible trouble with the U.S. military. But his company called police about 6:45 a.m.
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I will make it clear here that, it is unknown if the people had SOFA status or not. Maybe the police have much more information than they are releasing, but just being near a military base and being a foreigner doesn’t make you SOFA status.
Now, let’s have a quick look at this story. First, it says that 2 of the men had Asian features and the 3rd “looked” African-American. So it could have feasibly been 2 Japanese guys (some of whom can speak English!) and an American/Brit/Australian/South African etc. The only thing that is really confusing about the story is why the taxi driver didn’t report this. I’m sorry but I just don’t buy the “didn’t want to get involved in any possible trouble with the U.S. military” story. I would be more inclined to believe that the driver wanted to finish his shift before doing anything about it. Surely, if you had been assaulted and robbed, the first thing you would do would be to go to police? Or did he radio in to the dispatcher at the taxi company and get told they had to stay out there until they finished their shift. “Time is money”, as the Japanese are very fond of saying.
Anyway, if this crime has occurred then the men in question are absolute idiots. Firstly, for doing something like this when they know the spotlight of Japan is on every foreigner at the moment. And secondly, for robbing a taxi driver who they know only carry a little money at the best of times. If you’re going to do a robbery (which I am not condoning here!), doing it for under a six-figure sum in pounds or dollars is just pathetic.
More on this story as information comes to light.