Hooray…Ichihashi Arrested!!

This just in. Tatsuya Ichihashi is finally arrested!

At around 6:00pm today, November 10, 2009, Japanese police in Osaka have arrested the man they believe murdered British teacher Lindsay Hawker and left her naked body buried in a bathtub filled with sand after luring her to his flat for a private English lesson.

He was detained while attempting to board a ferry in Osaka, according to Japanese media. The suspect is believed to have been attempting to again avoid capture, with the ferry he was boarding headed for Okinawa.

Tatsuya Ichihashi was caught just hours after Linday’s mother appealed on television for him to turn himself in.  Mr Ichihashi’s mother earlier made an emotional plea on Japanese television on Tuesday, urging her fugitive son to turn himself in to police.

“It’s mom, Tatsuya,” said the woman in an audio message. “Dad and mom have decided to speak about our feelings, although we know you won’t like this.”

She said they felt happy when they heard their son had been working diligently and had told colleagues he wanted to be good to his parents.

“If so, please go to Gyotoku police station and tell them the truth. Please,” the woman said in a sobbing voice.

Police in Gyotoku on the outskirts of Tokyo are in charge of the case.

The arrest comes just days after police released new images of what they believed Ichihashi now looks like after undergoing a raft of cosmetic surgeries while a fugitive.

Police caught Ichihashi after discovering his alias and where he has been hiding out for the last month.

He has reportedly been working as a builder for the last year at a construction company in Ibaraki, Osaka and staying in a nearby company-owned dormitory, police sources told the Mainichi newspaper yesterday.

Ichihashi had been using the alias Kosuke Inoue and his fingerprints were discovered throughout the room he was staying in, police sources told the paper.

…HOPE HE GETS THE EXACT SAME TREATMENT AS HE DID TO LINDSAY.

Japanese Monsters Multiply

Evil does his job again here in Japan. What used to be known as one of the safest countries in the world is now clouded by fear and horrifying news these past months… Miyako Hiraoka. A teenager – gone forever…

Body parts, including a severed head, found scattered on a mountain here have been identified as those of a 19-year-old female college student who disappeared two weeks ago, police said Monday.

A test of a thighbone and torso discovered Saturday and Sunday, respectively, on Mount Garyuzan matched the DNA of Miyako Hiraoka, a first-year student at the University of Shimane in Hamada, Shimane Prefecture, police said.

Her head had been discovered on the same mountain, which is near the border of Shimane Prefecture, on Friday.

Hiraoka was last seen leaving an ice-cream shop in a shopping mall where she worked part time at 9:15 p.m. on Oct. 26. She was apparently walking to her university dormitory about 2.6 kilometers away.

Investigative sources said Hiraoka appears to have been strangled.

An autopsy showed that her head had been repeatedly struck hard and was likely severed with a sharp tool, they said.

The time of death was between Oct. 26 and 31.

There were no major external wounds to Hiraoka’s trunk, according to Shimane and Hiroshima prefectural police.

Because there were no signs of massive blood loss on the mountain, police suspect Hiraoka’s body was mutilated elsewhere and the parts transported by car to the mountain.

Hiraoka’s naked torso was found around 10 a.m. Sunday on a slope near a rest area for motorists at the eighth station of the mountain.

About 70 to 80 meters away across a mountain path, a man picking mushrooms discovered the head Friday.

The thighbone, 30 to 40 centimeters in length and holding little flesh, was discovered around 10 a.m. Saturday in a wooded area about 1.2 km from an entrance to the mountain path.

Police believe Hiraoka’s trunk was carried on foot down a moderate slope off the mountain path and discarded.

But they suspect Hiraoka’s head was thrown from the top of a steep slope. It was found about 10 meters below the rest area.

About 180 police officers were searching for clues Monday, especially on Mount Garyuzan and along Route 168, which leads from Hamada to northern Hiroshima Prefecture.

 

-Asahi Shimbun

The New Face of the Murderer

Japanese police have finally released a photo of Tatsuya Ichihashi’s post-cosmetic surgery face.
Several facial features have apparently changed — he now has double-fold eyelids, a higher nose and thin lips. Two moles that had been on his left cheek have disappeared as well, according to police.

Ichihashi, 30, is wanted in connection with the murder of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, an English teacher.

In another development Thursday, investigative sources said Ichihashi had attempted to undergo cosmetic surgery in Fukuoka Prefecture in mid-October before his Oct. 24 face-lift in Nagoya.

The man who appeared at the clinic in Fukuoka Prefecture used the same alias as that used at the Nagoya facility, the sources said, without revealing the alias.

Why the police would release the photo but not the alias is puzzling, as the name he has been using would probably be very useful to the public.

Prior to the release of the photo, an expert consulted by Fuji TV had advised people to pay attention to Ichihashi’s ears, since few people have plastic surgery to alter their ear shape.

-courtesy of Japan Probe

An English Teacher Murderer

Tatsuya Ichihashi. An asshole, wanted for the murder of an English teacher, a British woman in 2007, apparently underwent a face-lift last month in Nagoya and may have had other other cosmetic surgeries performed to alter his looks, investigative sources said Wednesday, adding police plan to soon release postoperative photo images.

Ichihashi, 30, allegedly murdered Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, who worked as an English-language teacher at a Nova language school, and left her naked corpse in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of his flat in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture.

Ichihashi’s eyelids and thick lower lip, as well as two vertical beauty marks on his left cheek, apparently don’t appear in recent images of him after plastic surgery, the sources said.

Ichihashi has been at large for 2 1/2 years, and this could be the first break in the case.

Chiba investigators have gone to Aichi to examine the first detailed information on the suspect since he went on the run in March 2007.

The Yomiuri Shimbun’s online edition reported Wednesday that Ichihashi may have had cosmetic surgery on his nose at a Nagoya clinic on Oct. 24, and also dropped by a cosmetic surgery clinic in Fukuoka Prefecture in mid-October. Chiba police suspect Ichihashi underwent plastic surgery several times, the report said.

The Asahi Shimbun said in its Wednesday morning edition that Chiba police concluded that Ichihashi had visited a hospital in Osaka, after analyzing the image of a man taken from a video camera and judging from the position of the eyes and other facial features, as well as his height. The Sankei Shimbun also reported he had had surgery in Osaka.

The acting head of the 1st Investigative Division of the Chiba Prefectural Police declined to confirm the media reports. He said investigators are dispatched whenever credible information about unsolved crimes is received, but was not able to comment on individual cases. An Osaka Prefectural Police spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny the contents of the reports.

It is not clear whether the security footage in Osaka showed the man before or after an operation. In the video, he was wearing a black knit cap and had a beard, the Asahi said.

He made an appointment for a postsurgery evaluation at the hospital for Oct. 31 but failed to show up and hasn’t appeared there since.

On March 26, 2007, Ichihashi fled barefoot from police who went to his apartment to question him after Hawker’s school reported her missing. Her roommates said Ichihashi had stalked her and even visited her apartment.

Hawker’s family has visited Japan several times to spur the hunt for Ichihashi, while the National Police Agency raised the reward for information leading to his arrest from ¥1 million to ¥10 million in June this year.

Police usually offer rewards of ¥1 million to ¥3 million for information leading to the arrest of suspects in serious crimes such as murder, kidnapping, rape and arson. The NPA said it raised Ichihashi’s bounty because of the widespread media coverage.

Swine Flu Outbreak Reached Yamaguchi Ken

The week that ended on Oct. 24 saw more than 1 million people come down with the new H1N1 influenza, the highest number of new cases since the virus was first reported in Japan, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Friday.

 

Particularly here  in Ube City,  nearby elementary schools have suspended classes due to swine  flu cases affecting 6th graders. One of the 7 cases of swine flu diagnosed children happen to be my neighbor, and last October 27, a hospital colleague was not able to show up for work and filed a 1-week leave because her son was diagnosed with the deadly flu.

Swine flu vaccinations were meanwhile started in three prefectures Friday targeting people other than medical workers deemed at high risk of catching the disease.

The estimated number of new patients, most of whom are believed to be infected with the H1N1 strain, was 1.14 million, up from 830,000 the week before, bringing the cumulative total to 4.31 million since early July, when the weekly tally began to rise as the epidemic took hold.

The number of flu patients reported during the week by roughly 5,000 designated medical institutions jumped to 118,570 from 84,976 the week before.

In Kumamoto Prefecture, a man in his 20s became the 38th person to die of H1N1 in Japan, the prefecture said Friday.

The man was found dead Thursday evening at his home by a family member, and it was confirmed Friday that he had been infected with H1N1.

Gifu, Wakayama and Yamaguchi prefectures on Friday became the first to begin vaccinating pregnant women and people with chronic diseases against swine flu. Other prefectures will begin vaccinations next month.

These two groups, considered at high risk of developing severe symptoms, were placed second on the government’s priority list to receive the vaccines.

Doctors and other health care workers top the list; vaccinations for them started nationwide last Oct. 19.

There are currently about 3,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine available in Yamaguchi Prefecture, while Gifu has doses for 8,000 people and Wakayama for 6,000. Hospital patients were the first group to be vaccinated Friday morning in the three prefectures.

Yamaguchi had initially planned to begin vaccinations in early November for pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses such as diabetes. But a recent government decision to limit the doses given to medical staff to one instead of two allowed the schedule to be moved up.

 

Separately, medical institutes began testing combined flu vaccines on children to determine if the dosage is appropriate.

Concerns have been expressed that the amount normally given to toddlers may not be sufficient to prevent the disease.

The test vaccines are being given to 360 children from 6 months to 13 years old at eight medical institutes around the country. The vaccines are manufactured by four Japanese pharmaceutical companies and are designed to prevent H1N1 and seasonal flu.

//

Wrong Conviction

This issue has been roaring all over Japan…

     Tape recordings of the interrogations of Toshikazu Sugaya, a man believed to have been wrongly convicted of the 1990 kidnapping and murder of a 4-year-old girl, reveal the process that led Sugaya to make a false confession, his lawyers said. The Utsunomiya District Public Prosecutors Office earlier this week released audiotapes containing the recorded interrogations of Sugaya to his lawyers at their request. The lawyers agreed with prosecutors not to publicly release the tapes. On Thursday, Sugaya and the lawyers explained the content of the tapes at a press conference in Tokyo. The tapes in question were recorded Dec. 7 and 8, 1992–after the first public hearing of the case at the district court and about two weeks before Sugaya denied the murder charge in court for the first time.

     The prosecutor at the Utsunomiya District Public Prosecutors Office who was in charge of his case at the time questioned Sugaya at the detention center where Sugaya was being held. In the recordings, Sugaya denied involvement in the murder, but the prosecutor pressed him to confess, citing the DNA test results. The lawyers plan to demand the prosecutor testify at the retrial. On Dec. 7, the prosecutor said, “I want to know the truth.” Sugaya denied the charge, saying, “I didn’t do it.” On the following day, the prosecutor said the DNA from the semen on the girl’s shirt matched Sugaya’s, adding, “How many people are there who have the same semen as you?” Then the prosecutor said: “You’re trying to trick me, aren’t you? Why don’t you look me in the eye when you speak?” Further pressed, Sugaya started to cry loudly and made the confession, saying: “Please give me a break. I’m sorry.” The prosecutor said: “When you take someone’s life, you have to face up to it. Otherwise you’re no good as a human being.” Sugaya said, “I understand.”

     At the press conference, Sugaya said: “I can’t forgive that prosecutor. I want him to apologize.” Chief lawyer Hiroshi Sato said, “If [the court] had listened to the tapes, it’d have been clear he was innocent.” Masaru Wakasa, a lawyer who served as head of the public safety department of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, said: “A defendant who has been indicted is a party in a trial who faces prosecutors in the court, and not a subject of interrogation. Prosecutors may question a defendant even after indictment, but it should only be in exceptional circumstances. Unless prosecutors can prove a defendant has agreed [to such questioning], there’s no way of denying that there were problems with the interrogation process.” Yoshitomo Ode, a professor at Tokyo Keizai University who is an expert in criminal procedure, said: “Despite the fact the trial had already begun, the prosecutor interrogated the defendant behind closed doors, asking questions he should have posed in front of the judge.

    

This is unacceptable. Denying the confession in court in front of the same prosecutor who interrogated him must have put huge psychological pressure on [Sugaya], likely affecting his testimony afterward.” Sugaya repeatedly switched between confessing and denying the charge during the trial. Sugaya initially confessed to the murder in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, following his arrest in December 1991. In his first hearing at the Utsunomiya District Court in February 1992, Sugaya admitted all the allegations presented in the indictment. But he then denied the charges at the sixth hearing on Dec. 22 that year. Sugaya, 62, served 17 years of a life sentence for the Ashikaga murder, before being released in June after fresh DNA tests revealed it was highly unlikely he committed the crime.

 

-The Daily Yomiuri

On Being Filipina

     Everyday is the same. Wake up at 6am, prepare breakfast and separate bento boxes for me and my son. While the laundry spins, I’d take my shower. The alarm clock goes off and my son walks out of the bedroom and greets me Ohayo in a voice too low for a 5-year-old. I’d look at the pictures on my wall and tell myself  Yosh! I’ll survive. 

     I will surely sound very hypocritical if I’d say I already got used to Japanese lifestyle. Though I have easily adapted everyday living for almost 10 years, homesickness still strike me every now and then. Being away from my kids and my mom kills me.

     Series of discrimination have been very often. More often than not these keep me from maintaining my usual smile. I always ask myself why these things have to happen too frequently. Getting the sharp looks at supermarkets by old ladies as if I have done something really terrible to them, and I was even wearing jeans and shirts to be looked at as if I wasn’t wear anything at all.  I just tell myself maybe where I am at is where I shouldn’t be.

     …then I just shrug my shoulders and wear a smile.

He got tired of looking after his bedridden wife?!

YAMAGUCHI — A man accused of trying to kill his bedridden wife after becoming tired of looking after her was handed a suspended sentence on Wednesday in a lay judge trial.

The man, Masashi Iwasaki, 63, a resident of Shunan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, was sentenced by the Yamaguchi District Court to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for four years with probation.

Iwasaki stabbed his 60-year-old wife once in the neck in the predawn hours of May 15, leaving her with injuries requiring about 10 days’ treatment, according to the ruling.

In giving a reason for the probation sentence, Presiding Judge Tsuyoshi Mukuno said, “Instructional support through probation is needed to rebuild the relationship between the defendant and his wife and a living arrangement between the two parties.”

The judge later added the opinions of citizen judges who said: “You have put in 13 years of effort, so please find a reason for living and take it easy.” He added: “Support your wife by cooperating with the people around you, and make sure you never give her grief again.”

In a news conference after the court closed, a citizen judge said that Presiding Judge Mukuno had asked them to write down their opinions on the case. Several citizen judges reportedly agreed to present written opinions, and some of the citizen judges commented that it was a good method of stating their opinions and that it was easier for them because they were not eloquent speakers.

“I’m not very good at speaking, but I was able to write down a lot of things I wanted to say,” said one male lay judge.

A total of four lay judges, and one supplementary citizen judge took part in the news conference after the court closed. The five said that there was a need for regions and governmental bodies to seriously consider problems relating to home care.

When asked if the ruling had made them think about nursing, one man in his 20s who attended the lay judge news conference said, “It made me think that fundamental issues like cooperation of regional communities and legal provisions need to be addressed.”

Another citizen judge who said his wife had looked after her parents said that he had thought seriously about the issue in his own way.

“As society grows older, it’s a serious issue, and the citizen judges also took it seriously,” he said.

Another participant in his 50s who attended a supplementary news conference commented, “The sad thing is that if local people and administrative bodies had taken notice, the incident probably could have been prevented.”

Some citizen judges commented that they were “tired” and “relieved” that the case was over.

Iwasaki was released on Wednesday evening. At 4:57 p.m. a vehicle arrived at Yamaguchi Prison, and about 10 minutes later, Iwasaki left in the vehicle.