Category: Crime

by Michael Gillan Peckitt August 21, 2026 Number of comments0
Crime Disability Intellectual disabilities Japan

Criminal Psychologist Says Defendant in Assault Trial Has “mild intellectual disability”

Late on the night of October 25, 2024, a 20-year-old university student was assaulted by a group of people in a park in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, and lost his life. For approximately two hours, he was punched and kicked more than 100 times. He was stripped naked, and his hair was even set on fire. Most of the six men and women involved in the attack were teenagers. Moreover, many of them did not even know the victim. The alleged ringleader, defendant Yuto Kawaguchi, was 18 at the time of the crime. In court, testimony focused on his upbringing. A medical expert who assessed him testified that he had “an IQ of 58, indicating a mild intellectual disability, and mild hearing impairment.”

by Michael Gillan Peckitt August 14, 2026 Number of comments0
Abuse Care Crime Disability Hokkaido Japan

Prosecutors seek 18 months for ex Kushiro care worker accused of assaulting 4 residents

The defendant, 29-year-old Kai Takahashi, a former employee of the Kushiro disability support facility Tsurugaoka Gakuen, is accused of assaulting four residents by kicking them around the waist and face and slapping them in the face, among other acts, up until March 2026. One of the victims was a 58-year-old male resident at the time.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt August 14, 2026 Number of comments0
Crime Disability Japan Welfare

Matsuyama disability welfare operator referred to prosecutors over unpaid wages for 10 of 11 months

On the 12th, the Matsuyama Labour Standards Inspection Office referred a 63-year-old woman, the de facto representative of Godo Kaisha Slow, a company operating a disability welfare service facility in Nishi-Ishii, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, to the Matsuyama District Public Prosecutors Office. The company and the woman are suspected of violating Japan’s Minimum Wage Act by failing to pay an employee’s wages.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt July 17, 2026 Number of comments0
Crime Hospitals Japan

Chiba Tainted-IV Murder Suspect Seen Entering Patient’s Room

At a press conference on Thursday, Tomonobu Hasegawa, director of Kashiwa Tanaka Hospital, said, “We deeply apologize” over the murder. “We will thoroughly educate all employees on ethics again,” he added. According to the hospital in the city of Kashiwa, an assistant nurse who worked the night shift with the suspect saw her several times entering and leaving the hospital room of Eiji Aita, 75, who later died.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt July 8, 2026 Number of comments0
Care Crime Disability Elderly Japan

Ex-Care Worker Gets 20 Years for Killing Elderly Home Resident

A local court on Tuesday sentenced a former worker at an elderly care home in the city of Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, east of Tokyo, to 20 years in prison for murdering a resident of the facility six years ago.  Public prosecutors charged Megumi Akama, 40, with murdering two residents of the elderly home by injecting air into their intravenous drip tubes while she was working at the facility in 2020.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt July 1, 2026 Number of comments0
Crime developmental disabilities Disability Japan Podcast Welfare

Woman arrested for 19 million Yen fraud targeting parent of child with suspected developmental disorder [Podcast Episode]

A 57-year-old company employee has been arrested on suspicion of defrauding the parents of a child suspected of having a developmental disorder out of approximately ¥19 million (about US$130,000) by recommending the child study abroad. Police believe the suspect may have used the same scheme to defraud multiple victims of more than ¥50 million in total and are continuing their investigation.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt June 28, 2026 Number of comments0
Children Crime developmental disabilities Disability Japan

Woman arrested for ¥19 million fraud targeting parent of child with suspected developmental disorder

A 57-year-old company employee has been arrested on suspicion of defrauding the parents of a child suspected of having a developmental disorder out of approximately ¥19 million (about US$130,000) by recommending the child study abroad. Police believe the suspect may have used the same scheme to defraud multiple victims of more than ¥50 million in total and are continuing their investigation.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt June 19, 2026 1
Children Crime Disability Japan Nagoya

Driver sentenced for killing pregnant woman leaving unborn child with disability

After prosecutors indicted Chigono in June last year on charges of negligent driving resulting in death, Sayaka Togitani’s husband Yudai Togitani, 34, and her father Atsushi Mizukawa, 62, asked prosecutors in September to recognize Hinami as a victim and also charge the suspect with negligent driving resulting in injury of the daughter.