More body parts found, man arrested
This news is just coming through the Japanese news feeds. It is a follow-up to the story I posted a few days ago about the torso of a Philippino woman being found mutilated in Tokyo. Well it looks like the police have got off their behinds and possibly found the guy who did it. This, from Kyodo News:
Man held over death of woman whose mutilated body was found in Tokyo condo
Police arrested a 48-year-old man Monday over the death of a woman, a part of whose mutilated body was found in a high-rise condo unit in the Odaiba waterfront area of Tokyofs Minato Ward last Thursday. Hiroshi Nozaki was held on suspicion of damaging the body of the woman, who the police identified as Honiefaith Ratilia Kamiosawa, 22, a food service worker of Philippines nationality.
Nozaki, who in 2000 was arrested and later sentenced to three years and six months for mutilating and abandoning the body of another Filipina, has kept silent during questioning, police said. Before his arrest, Nozaki was taken to hospital after attempting to commit suicide Sunday night by slashing his wrist in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, about 15 kilometers north of central Tokyo. Police later found more than 10 body parts of the Filipina in a suitcase in a locker at another building in Minato Ward, based on a note he handed to the ambulance crew. The head of the body has not yet been found.
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Now here I must commend the police for their speedy work in catching this guy, although you’d like to think that they were already considering him (as he has form of doing it). That is, unless, there was one of those foreign savages within distance that could have done it! Hopefully Nozaki will tell police where the rest of the body is so that the family of Ms Kamiosawa can have some closure. Shocking story, although it seems to be a bit of a trend with Jane Wilkinson commenting that body parts have been found on a UK beach too.
Mutilated torso found in Tokyo apartment
As outrage sparks in the Yokosuka area about a US Sailor (still, strangely, without a name) being arrested on suspicion of murdering a taxi driver on March 19th, a more gruesome crime is coming to light. And it’s not the fact that 2 sons of US soldiers have been arrested for stealing Y8,000/$80 from a taxi driver, which seems to be the main headline on Japan Today. It is that a mutilated body part, believed to be the torso of a Philippino woman has been found in a Tokyo apartment. This story comes from Kyodo news here in Japan:
Mutilated body part thought to be of Filipina found in Tokyo condo
Friday 04th April, 09:27 AM JST
A paper bag containing a mutilated body part suspected of belonging to a Filipino woman was found in a unit of a high-rise condominium building in Tokyofs Minato Ward on Thursday night, police said Friday.
The unit on the 26th floor of the building in the Odaiba district is shared by a Japanese man and several Filipina women who work in the same location in the Roppongi district, according to police.
One of the women, in her 20s, failed to report to work Thursday night, so another woman, 20, returned home at around 7:30 p.m. and encountered the man carrying a mutilated body with him, police said. The 20-year-old woman reported to a nearby police box at around 9:55 p.m., police said.
Police said they suspect the mutilated parts belong to the woman in her 20s and are looking for the man, who is in his 40s, who later disappeared after the 20-year-old woman returned from the police box.
The woman in her 20s was sleeping when the other women left the condo at around 8 a.m. Thursday, according to police.
Police officers found in the bag a square chunk measuring around 30 centimeters each side believed to be a human waist apparently severed by a knife. Blood-stained futon bedding was found in the kitchen of the unit that also has three rooms and a living room, they said.
A male employee at the same workplace as the women said, eeShe never failed to call whenever she takes a day off, but she didnft on April 3.ff
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Petrol prices drop dramatically in Japan
Petrol, gas, the stuff that powers most of our cars… whatever you want to call it, in Japan it has gone down in price in the past couple of days. Now is definitely the time to fill your tank in Japan as the price for a litre of regular unleaded has dropped by around Y20/$0.20 to around Y120/$1.20. The reason for this is that the government’s “temporary” fuel tax period has expired, and opposition parties didn’t let the tax continue. This ruling can be overruled on April 29th (when Prime Minister Fukuda takes the vote to the House of Representatives, where I think the government holds a majority), but at the moment drivers are filling their boots, and their cars. This seems to be one of the first things I have seen in Japanese politics in over 3 and a half years that has actually got people excited and happy.
Government officials are not as impressed though. They claim that this lack of a tax will cost the national budget Y1.7 trillion, and will cost local governments Y900bn. Now that’s a lot of massage chairs and baseball gloves! “It is quite deplorable that the tax surcharge expired,” said the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. “We need to get relevant tax legislation enacted as soon as possible.”
Me, along with countless other drivers in Japan, will beg to differ. That reminds me - I must go to fill up my car with petrol after work today…
New recruitment drive for female police officers in Japan?
Well, it seems that the National Police Association (the police in Japan) have become tired of constant criticism of their actions. Frustrated of being accused of being chain-smoking, inefficient old men who just sit in their Kobans (police boxes) all day, they have decided to make some changes to the police force. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the new face of law enforcement in Japan…
April 1st - Earth tremors, bombs or ghosts?
Here’s one for you people in Okinawa. In the late afternoon and evening of April 1st, did your apartment experience some random banging going on? Mine certainly did and I wasn’t alone it would seem. At first I put it down to the wind, but then I realised that the wardrobe door was also making random bangs every now and then. Next thought was an earthquake, but the number of tremors must have been very high, with each one just lasting long enough for the doors in my apartment to rattle once before stopping. Could have been bombs/explosive training somewhere in Okinawa, although I am on the south coast and (as far as I know) quite a way from most military training areas, Japanese or American.
The only other explanation would be that the Okinawan ghosts decided to play some April Fools’ joke on everyone by knocking on the doors. As many people in Japan know, Okinawa is probably the most haunted place in the country due to many of the things that happened during WWII. Almost every Okinawan you see has said they have seen a ghost, with students reporting that they have seen the ghost of a child around the school dormitory at night. My explanation that it might have just been another student didn’t go down too well! Indeed, there are a couple of places in Okinawa that Okinawans simply will not go to through fear of ghosts.
So, did any of you folks in Okinawa hear or feel it on Tuesday night, and if so, what do you think caused it?