Austria Vs. Japan: Odds and Ends

It’s been a few weeks so I figured I’d just sort of catch up on a few recent happenings in Japan as well as one abroad. That and I’m feeling lazy this week.

First off, notorious child serial killer, Tsutomu Miyazaki (aka The Otaku Murderer, aka The Little Girl Murderer, aka Dracula, aka Yoko Imada) was hanged on Tuesday. Miyazaki was convicted of kidnapping, molesting, and murdering four elementary-aged girls back in the late eighties. He was also accused of mutilating the young girls’ bodies and taunting the victims’ families with repeated phone calls, post cards describing the girls’ deaths, and in one case sent a box with their daughter’s remains in it.

You can check two different articles about the hanging here and here. It’s of interest to note the vastly different tones between the first article, which is Japanese, verses the second one, which is British.

Recent police reports are stating that the Akihabara rampage killer stabbed all twelve of his victims within thirty seconds.

And speaking of stabbings . . . .

Finally, while this is neither Austria nor Japan, it’s still disturbing. There are reports coming from the Czech Republic that two young boys were discovered being held captive in a closet for several months. The youngest of the two had parts of him cut off and was consumed by their family, which they claimed was for a cult they were a part of. Read more here.

Don’t worry, it’ll be Austria’s turn next time.

Austria Vs. Japan: Akibara Massacre and Other Sharp Objects

If you haven’t heard already, a 25-year-old Japanese man was arrested after driving his van into a crowd of pedestrians and then proceeded to knife those he struck and those standing nearby. As it just happened yesterday and more information is coming to light, I’ll let you read more on it here, here, or here rather than rehashing it all here. But as many news sources are pointing out, there has been a strange rash of knife attacks which have occurred this year. This taken from the Mainichi Daily News:

Japan’s crime rate is low compared to other industrialized nations and Tokyo, with 12.7 million people, is considered relatively safe. But stabbings, once rare in the country, have become more frequent in recent years.

In March, one person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man with two knives outside a shopping mall in eastern Japan. In January a 16-year-old boy attacked five people in a shopping area, injuring two. (source)

Well, yet another knife attack can be added since just yesterday afternoon. According to Mainichi Daily News, Sunday evening, a man in his forties attempted to stab a thirteen-year-old girl in the waist. She escaped with only her shirt and purse being slashed.

Well, aside from the knife attacks from this year, here are two other slashings/massacres of from Japan in the last few years .

Osaka School Massacre: (2001)

A 37-year-old man entered an elementary school and began randomly stabbing students and teachers. Eight students were killed with twelve more students and two teachers being injured. In the past, he had been caught attempting to poison the tea of teachers at another school at which he had been employed. At that time he had been released after being diagnosed as mentally ill.

It seems as if even then knife attacks were nothing new as noted from a 2001 CNN article.

the latest in a series of fatal slashings in a country that has strict gun laws and has prided itself on a low crime rate.A family of four was murdered in their Tokyo home in December, just four months after a 15-year-old newspaper delivery boy was arrested in southwestern Japan on suspicion of stabbing three neighbors to death as they slept. Two other fatal stabbings over the past year and a half have occurred in schoolyards. (source)

Coincidentally enough (or perhaps not), Sunday was the seventh anniversary of the Osaka School Massacre.

Saesbo Slashing (2004)

While this case is not a random massacre, it did occur at a middle school and a sharp object (a box cutter) was used. An 11-year-old girl student lured a 12-year-old classmate into an empty classroom, where she then slashed the older girl in the neck and arms, leaving her to bleed to death. Just last month, after four years in a rehabilitation center for children, “freedom restrictions” had been lifted on her. What that means, I’m not sure, but it sounds as if she will remain at the rehabilitation center.

And in more news on shortened sentences for murders, I came across this article just recently from Mainichi Daily Express.

A 23-year-old man accused of murdering his younger sister and mutilating her body was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in a ruling at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.

The defendant, Yuki Muto, was convicted of murdering his 20-year-old sister Azumi at their home in Tokyo’s Shibuya-ku in 2006, but was found not guilty of the crime of mutilating her body.

During the trial, a doctor who conducted a psychiatric evaluation on the defendant said that at the time of the killing he was mentally weak, and was insane when he mutilated the body. (source)

The prosecutors were trying for seventeen years, but due to being mentally ill, he received a reduced sentence of seven years. Though I’m not sure how a REDUCED sentence in PRISON for a criminally insane person is supposed to benefit anyone.

Ryan

Austria Vs Japan: 女子高生コンクリート詰め殺人事件

With Matt questioning my AvJ theory, I thought I should respond with a crime from Japan.

I present: 女子高生コンクリート詰め殺人事件 (or Concrete-Encased High School Girl murder)

Unfortunately, other than Wikipedia and one recent article in the Japan Times , I wasn’t able to find much on the case, and there wasn’t much citation in the Wikipedia article, so I can only hope all of the facts are correct. Also, as a warning, I do list the graphic brutalities to which the victim, Junko Furuta, was submitted.

This awkwardly named case (and a bit of a spoiler for those unfamiliar with it) shocked Japan nearly twenty years ago. On November 22nd (the day before Japan’s Thanksgiving), three Japanese teenage boys abducted, tortured, and raped the high school aged Jukno Furuta. She was held at one of the teenagers house for the entirety of the hellish ordeal. The three individuals were able to avoid suspicion by forcing Junko to call her parents and tell them she had runaway, but not to worry because she was safe with a friend. Futhermore, Junko posed as girlfriend to one of the teens to avoid questions from the parents of the household. This guise did not last long as Junko eventually pleaded with the parents of the household on several occasions to call the police or help her escape. They ignored these pleas and would go on later to defend their actions by claiming one of the teenagers was supposedly a low-level member of the Yakuza and would have them killed.

Over the course of the next forty-four days the three teens reportedly forced Junko to consume her own urine, to perform sexual acts on herself, burned her with a lighter and cigarettes, and inserted various objects (such as an iron rod and lit fireworks) into her vagina and anus. Finally, on January 4th, following the loss of a mah-jonng game, the teens attacked Junko with a barbell and then proceeded to douse her in lighter fluid and set her ablaze. A few hours later, she died from the shock and was disposed in a concrete filled 55-gallon drum.

As for the aftermath, the details are not completely clear. The teens were not charged with murder, but instead pled guilty to a lesser charge of “committing bodily injury that resulted in death.” While they were charged as adults, the time was served in a juvenile prison, and the one teen whom was considered the leader of the three, Jo Kamisaku, was sentenced to serve between five and ten years. As the Japan Times reported, upon turning twenty six, which was the maximum age for juvenile prison, he was released after serving eight years. I’m unsure about the other two, but one would assume the sentencing was equal if not less.

For Kamisaku, after his release, he kept a relatively low profile, until May of 2004, when he found himself in court again.

“…[P]rosecutors alleged that Kamisaku picked a fight with Takatoshi Isono, a 27-year-old acquaintance, on May 19, beat him, shoved him into the trunk of his car and drove him to a bar in [the city of] Misato owned by his mother, where he beat the victim for another four hours.

Kamisaku had believed that a woman he was attracted to had taken a fancy to Isono, the prosecutors said. (Japan Times)

Prosecutors also reported that he had bragged to Isono that as he had previously killed Junko, he knew how to deal with the police and would avoid being arrested. In court, Kamisaku admitted to beating Isono but denied bragging about Junko. Kamisaku was sentenced to four years in prison.

While it would seem as no surprise that an individual such as Kamisaku would be thrown back into the system, the Japan Times article expresses otherwise:

Experts noted how the 1988 slaying and the latest crime were both cases of confinement and violence at locations linked to the offender. They wondered why eight years behind bars had failed to rehabilitate the defendant.

The article goes on to quote a professor whom states disbelief at the leniency Kamisaku and his two cohorts received. The professor believest had they been adults they ” probably would have been sentenced to death,” (Japan Times). While I easily share this sentiment, it’s hard to comment on the sentencing as it seems ludicrous that there was no public outcry back in ‘88, however I was unable to find any mention of it.

Again, my resources were limited, but there were a lot of things not touched upon. For starters, what was the motive for the crime (or wasn’t there one?), did the lenient sentencing bring about changes in the criminal system, what was the general reaction to the case, etc. I suppose for now, the questions will remain unanswered. However, here is a “court document” I came across that is in Japanese, so if anyone can translate it, it could provide a few more answers. Or maybe it’s someone’s grocery list.

Ryan

Austria Vs. Japan: The Reinhard Steinbauer Case

By now, I’m sure you are all aware of the Fritzl incest case that is currently under investigation in Austria. It’s messed up for a number of reasons (rape, incest, and kidnapping just to name a few). The Fritzl case reminded me of the Natascha Kampusch case, where a 10-year-old was kidnapped and held captive for 8 years, finally managing to escape in August of ‘06. Much like Elizabeth Fritzl and her children, Kampusch was held in a small cellar, though perhaps calling it that is being too generous as the space was no more than 54 square feet.

What struck me about these two tragic cases were how they seemed very Japanese to me. You see, Japan seems to have a history of just plain weird ( i.e. fucked up) occurrences (suicides, kidnappings, murders/deaths, etc). That is not to say that these two countries are the only ones with weirdos, but something about Japan just strikes me as country of the bizarre crimes. They appear to take that extra step to make it fucked up. Well, with these two Austrian kidnapping cases, I thought perhaps they were making a run to lay claim to Japan’s title.

Then earlier last week I read about the Austrian man whom brutally murdered his family, 5 people in all.

Reinhard S[teinbauer], first killed his wife, Barbara, 42, and his daughter, Natalie, 7 in their family home in a prosperous Vienna district. By his own admission, he repeatedly struck them on the head with an axe that he had bought at a DIY store.

He then drove 170 kilometres (105 miles) to his parents’ house in the city of Linz. He then killed them with repeated blows of the axe as they slept in front of the television in their living room. They were identified as Engelbert and Gabrielle S.

The next stop was Ansfeld, a town near Linz, and home of his father-in-law. The old man, identified as Heinrich R, was felled as he opened his front door. LINK

(Source timeonline.co.uk)

The part I find most disturbing about this case is that Steinbauer had to drive nearly two hour to complete his murders. Keep in mind, this is after he murdered his wife and daughter. I have always found premeditated murders (to which he did confess it was) like this quite unsettling. The idea that a man can rationalize killing his wife, daughter, parents, and father-in-law just to spare them the embarrassment of a failed business venture and then turn himself in immediately afterwards (the article notes that his clothing was stained with blood when he surrendered to police) shows there was at least a small part of him that realized his crime.

It’s been about a week now since the crime occurred and in the few articles I have read since then, it seems as if the case is fairly open and shut. Steinbauer confessed to the crimes and one article even states that he had been planning the murders for several weeks. I assume we won’t hear anything more about this until a year from now when the sentencing is finally handed down (which I’ve heard with Austria’s lenient sentencing, may not be more than 15-25 years).

Next time: It’s Japan’s turn.

Ryan

Postscript: After writing this article, my brother mentioned of a case similar to that of Steinbauer’s, which occurred in Iowa City, Ia on March 28th of this year. Once again it was a case of the father, Steven Sueppel, feeling his family could not withstand the shame of his alleged greed (he was about to stand trail for embezzlement of over a half-million dollars from the Hills Bank and Trust Company of which he was Vice President), bludgeoned his wife and three kids (though not before attempting to kill his kids by carbon monoxide poisoning, finding that not to work, marched his kids back into the house where he proceeded with the murders). After calling 911 to report what he had done, he then drove his van into a concrete barrier, where he died. I have a sad feeling that this is simply going to turn into “Fucked Up People VS. The World” and the world is going to lose. goddammit.