Well, many people may remember the news about Lindsay Hawker, the English teacher working here in Japan. Hailing from England, she had joined one of the major Eikaiwa here in Japan, Nova. One of the students she taught (Not her student, that was not how Nova organised their classes) was a 28 year old man, by the name of Tatsuya Ichihashi.
One day, seeing her on the train, he went to talk to her, and finally managed to persuade her to give him private English classes at his apartment. Should he pay her, then technically, that is in breach of her visa, but hey! All of us teachers do that sort of thing whilst here!
So, off she went, to his apartment building, where she met a very violent end. After tying her with tape, he proceeded to beat her with a blunt object, and finally strangling her. Once dead, he proceeded to stuff her body into a bathtub full of sand on his balcony. He cut off her hair as it takes too long to decompose, and had treated her body with chemicals to try to speed the decomposition process up.
A lot of forward planning here! What a horrible man.
As police arrived to investigate Lindsays disappearance, Ichihashi proceeded to bolt for freedom, without shoes, and went on the run.
The police said that they did not stop him because at the time they did not know at the time it was going to be a murder investigation. Of course, many people figure he should have been nabbed simply because it is his apartment where they are looking, so should be held, pending a search, to see if there is anything about Lindsay. Of course, there was.
Whilst on the run, Ichihashi was believed to have escaped Tokyo by dressing as a woman. This may sound kinda odd, but in Japan, a lot of men have better legs and a better walk than a woman!
He spent 2 years on the run, and during that time, the Hawker family criticised the Police for being too lax in hunting for him, for not treating the case with the right amount of urgency. There may well be a grain of truth in their accusation. Unfortunately, the Police in Japan do not have the best of reputation.
OK, in Kashiwazaki they tend to leave us alone, but they either leave you alone, or hound you for the smallest of things, such as a bike light that might be out of a battery. In Japan, the Police is highly secretive, and in many ways, seen as being above the law. Japan has a 99% conviction rate. A lot of it is from confessions from interrogations. And no-one knows what goes on in those rooms, as the interrogation sessions are not videoed to prevent mis-treatment. Recently, a few cases have been overturned after the victim has proved that the confession was "coerced" and not willingly supplied.
However, they did raise the reward for information to the eye popping sum of 10,000,000 yen.
So, Ichihashi went on the run.
Where did he go?
Well, recently, he reappeared on the scene, after a company manager spotted a poster of him, and realised it looked like an ex-worker. Part of Ichihashi's escape was to live in a company dormitory in Osaka and work fr a construction company. Saving large amounts of money by never going out, and always working overtime when it was offered.
How had he disappeared? And why had it taken so long o find him?
Well, looks like a lot of the money he saved had been used to go through several rounds of plastic surgery.
This leads me to ask, why did the clinic not spot him before the operation? After all, his face has been on posters plastered on pretty much every surface right across Japan!
Anyway. These are all questions to be answered later.
Ichihashi had 2 courses of plastic surgery, the first in Fukuoka, all the way in the south, and the second in Nagoya.
It also came to light that he had asked a colleague at the construction company to get a passport application pack. It seems that his ultimate plan was to save enough for surgery, and then flee the country. Where, we dont know.
However, once the manager had seen his picture, he called the Police, and told them that whilst he was fairly confident, he was not 100% because of the surgery. Thus the Police released the new picture which was then splashed over pretty much every newspaper, and TV channel for at least a week! For a Japanese person to not have seen the new picture, they would have had to been living in a cave!
Also, we have seen a very emotional plea from his family for Ichihashi to turn himself in to the Police, to explain what went on, and basically, be a man.
Very soon, the Police had been contacted, and now had well over a thousand leads to follow!
And the good news is, today, in Osaka, the Police have announced his arrest. Soon he will head back to Tokyo for questioning, and within a few weeks, if not days, we will see charges brought, and his trial started.
In Japan, this has been something of a bit of an embarrassment for them. The Hawkers have been quite vocal in their pleas, and occasional criticism. The Police have not enjoyed it, and for Japanese society at large, it does not sit well. Foreigners on the receiving end is not something the society concerns itself with. However, a foreigner working in Japan, murdered by a Japanese guy, in a very safe nation? It has caused a little bit of consternation!
For the family of Lindsay, I only hope this brings a measure of peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment