Category: Crime

Crime Disability Japan Niigata Sexual abuse

Former Niigata NPO employee sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman with a disability

Takuya Hosokai (44), a former employee of an NPO that supports people with disabilities, was charged with sexually assaulting and filming women with disabilities while transporting them between 2019 and the year before last. Among these incidents, he was specifically charged for sexually assaulting and injuring a woman in a parking lot in Sanjo City in December 2023.

Crime Film Japan Sexual abuse Shiori Ito

Japan Oscar-nominated film to be reedited amid legal concerns

Japanese journalist Shiori Ito, who directed an Academy Award-nominated documentary about her own sexual assault case, said Thursday that she will reedit part of the film to address allegations that the film includes unauthorized content. The documentary, “Black Box Diaries,” has been screened in over 50 overseas countries and regions since its world premiere at a film festival in January last year but not yet in Japan due to legal concerns.

Crime Disability Intellectual disabilities Japan Podcast

78-year-old Chiba father pleads guilty to murder of disabled 44-year-old son saying “I did nothing wrong” [Podcast Episode]

At the first hearing of the lay judge trial held at the Chiba District Court on February 17th, the defendant admitted to the charges, saying, “I did nothing wrong.” The defense responded by arguing that the father had reached his limit with caring for his son, and that the sentence should be considered in light of the circumstances leading up to the incident.

Crime Disability Intellectual disabilities Japan

78-year-old Chiba father pleads guilty to murder of disabled 44-year-old son saying “I did nothing wrong”

At the first hearing of the lay judge trial held at the Chiba District Court on the 17th, the defendant admitted to the charges, saying, “I did nothing wrong.” The defense responded by arguing that the father had reached his limit with caring for his son, and that the sentence should be considered in light of the circumstances leading up to the incident.

Crime Japan

Man sentenced to 10 years for pipe bomb attack on former PM Kishida

A Japanese court sentenced a man to 10 years in prison on Wednesday for the attempted murder in 2023 of then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in a pipe bomb attack at an election event. In the trial at the Wakayama District Court, prosecutors sought 15 years in prison for Ryuji Kimura, 25, for attempting to kill Kishida and others when he hurled a homemade explosive device at the premier as he approached a crowd for a stump speech in the western Japan city of Wakayama in April 2023.

Crime Hospitals Japan

Ex-head of Japan hospital suspected of covering up murder in hospital

A former head of a hospital in northeastern Japan and his doctor brother were sent to prosecutors on Saturday for allegedly covering up the murder of a patient by another patient in 2023, police said. Takashi Ishiyama, 61, and Tetsu Ishiyama, 60, the primary physician of the victim who was killed at Michinoku Memorial Hospital in Aomori Prefecture, were arrested Friday on suspicion of fabricating a death certificate that stated the cause of death as pneumonia. The murderer has already been sentenced to 17 years in prison for fatally stabbing Seietsu Takahashi, 73, in the face with a toothbrush. The assailant had been hospitalized for alcohol addiction and was sharing a room with Takahashi, according to a court ruling. The Ishiyamas were allegedly aware of the murder but tried to hide it, including by providing the false death certificate to Takahashi’s family.

Crime Disability Japan Sexual abuse

‘Black Box Diaries’ About Sexual Assault in Japan, Directed by Shiori Ito, Becomes First Japanese Oscar Nominee for Best Documentary Film

Black Box Diaries,” a documentary film directed by Japanese journalist Shiori Ito, received an Academy Awards nomination for documentary feature film Thursday. Ito, a symbolic figure in the #MeToo movement in Japan, is the first Japanese nominee in the category.

Children Crime Japan

Arrested man faces murder charge over Japan McDonald’s stabbings

A 43-year-old man arrested over the stabbing of a boy at a McDonald’s restaurant in southwestern Japan last month was newly charged on Thursday 9th January with the murder of a 15-year-old girl who was also a victim of the attack, police said. The arrested man told the police he targeted the pair for a specific reason, and the attacks were not random, adding that the victims are “not at fault.”