Murder of Junko Furuta

Junko Furuta
古田 順子
Born	(1971-01-18)18 January 1971 Misato, Saitama, Japan
Died	4 January 1989(1989-01-04) (aged 17) Adachi, Tokyo, Japan
Cause of death	Murder (traumatic shock)
Body discovered	29 March 1989 Kōtō City, Tokyo, Japan

Junko Furuta (Japanese: 古田 順子, Hepburn: Furuta Junko, 18 January 1971 – 4 January 1989) was a 17-year-old Japanese high school student who was abducted, raped, tortured and murdered. Her abuse was mainly perpetrated by four teenagers: Hiroshi Miyano (18), Jō Ogura (17), Nobuharu Minato (16), and Yasushi Watanabe (17), and occurred over a period of 40 days from 25 November 1988. In Japan, Furuta's case is known as the "concrete-encased high school girl murder case" (女子高生コンクリート詰め殺人事件, joshikōsei konkurīto-zume satsujin jiken), as her body was discovered inside of a concrete-filled drum. The prison sentences served by the perpetrators ranged from seven to 20 years. The brutality of the case shocked Japan, and it is said to be the worst case of juvenile criminality in the country's post-war history.

Background

Furuta was born in 1971 and grew up in Misato, Saitama Prefecture. She lived with her parents, her older brother, and her younger brother. She attended Yashio-Minami High School, and worked a part-time job at a plastic molding factory from October 1988 in order to save up money for a planned graduation trip. Furuta also accepted a job at an electronics retailer, where she planned on working after graduation. At high school, Furuta was well-liked by her classmates, and had high grades and infrequent absences. She was a popular girl who had dreams of becoming an idol singer. Furuta was 17 at the time of her murder.

The perpetrators of the crime were four male teenagers: Hiroshi Miyano (宮野裕史, Miyano Hiroshi, 18 years old), Jō Ogura (小倉譲, Ogura Jō, 17), Nobuharu Minato (湊伸のぶはる, Minato Nobuharu, 16), and Yasushi Watanabe (渡邊恭史, Watanabe Yasushi, 17), who in court documents were referred to as "A", "B", "C", and "D", respectively. Two others, Tetsuo Nakamura and Koichi Ihara, were known as "G" and "L". The four members of the group had all dropped out of high school in summer 1988, and became involved in organized crime as chinpira (low-ranking yakuza). They began using Minato's family home in Adachi, Tokyo, as a hangout. Beginning in October, they engaged in various crimes including theft (purse snatching and car theft), assault, and rape. On 8 November, the group abducted a 19-year-old woman in Adachi and gang raped her in a hotel there. On 27 December, during Furuta's confinement, the group abducted another 19-year-old woman in Adachi and gang raped her in a hotel.

Kidnapping and abuse

Murder of Junko Furuta
Location	Adachi, Tokyo, Japan
Date	25 November 1988 – 4 January 1989 (1989-01-04)
Attack type	Kidnapping, child abduction, gang rape, child rape, torture murder, child murder
Victim	Junko Furuta
Perpetrators	Hiroshi Miyano (now Hiroshi Yokoyama) Jō Ogura (now Jō Kamisaku) Nobuharu Minato (now Shinji Minato) Yasushi Watanabe
Convictions	All defendants found guilty of: Abduction for the purpose of sexual assault Confinement Rape Murder Abandonment of a corpse
Sentence	Miyano: 20 years in prison Ogura: 8 years in prison Minato: 5 to 9 years in prison Watanabe: 5 to 7 years in prison
Compensation	Miyano's parents pay ¥50 million (about US$350,000; $800,000 today) to Furuta's parents

On the evening of 25 November 1988, Miyano and Minato rode around Misato on their motorcycles with the intention of robbing and raping local women, and spotted Furuta, who was on her way home from her part-time job. Acting on Miyano's orders, Minato kicked Furuta off her bicycle and fled the scene. Miyano, under the pretense of witnessing the attack by coincidence, approached Furuta and offered to walk her home. Upon gaining her trust, Miyano took Furuta to a nearby warehouse and threatened her, claiming to be a member of the yakuza and saying that he would spare her life only if she followed his orders.

That night, Miyano took Furuta by taxi to a hotel in Adachi, where he raped her. He later called Minato's house and bragged to Ogura about the rape, after which Ogura told him not to let Furuta leave. In the early morning hours of 26 November, Miyano took Furuta to a park near the hotel, where Ogura, Minato, and Watanabe were waiting. They told her they knew where she lived, and that the yakuza would kill her family if she attempted to escape. Minato agreed to allow Furuta to be confined in a room on the second floor of his house in Adachi for the purpose of gang raping her. Furuta was held captive for the next 39 days.

On 27 November, Furuta's parents contacted the police about her disappearance. To discourage further investigation, the kidnappers forced Furuta to call her mother three times to convince her that she had run away but was safe and staying with friends. When Minato's parents were present at the house where she was being confined, Furuta was forced to act as his girlfriend. The group dropped this pretense when it became clear that Minato's parents would not report them to the police, and they later claimed that they did not intervene because they were afraid of their own son, who had been increasingly violent toward them.

On 28 November, Miyano and the others, along with Nakamura and Ihara, gang raped Furuta for the first time. The group shaved her pubic hair, forced her to dance to music while naked and masturbate in front of them, and left her on the balcony in the middle of the night with little clothing. They inserted objects into her vagina and anus, including a lit match, a metal rod, and a bottle, and forced her to drink alcohol and large amounts of milk and water. She was also forced to smoke two cigarettes at once and inhale paint thinner. In one incident in the middle of the month, Miyano burned Furuta's thighs and hands with lighter fluid.

By the end of December, Furuta was severely malnourished after being fed only small amounts of food and eventually only milk. Due to her injuries and burns, she became unable to go to the downstairs toilet, and was thereafter confined to the floor of the room in a state of extreme physical and mental weakness. Her appearance had been drastically altered after several brutal beatings, with her face becoming so swollen that it was difficult to make out her features, and her infected wounds had started to emit a foul odor.

Murder and investigation

On 4 January 1989, after losing money in a game of mahjong the night before, Miyano decided to take his anger out on Furuta. He ignited a candle and dripped hot wax on her face, placed two shortened candles on her eyelids, and forced her to drink her own urine. Furuta was lifted and kicked, fell onto a stereo unit, and began a fit of convulsions. To prevent them from being stained with blood, the group covered their hands in plastic bags before beating her with their fists and an iron exercise ball, and dropped the ball on her abdomen several times. Miyano poured lighter fluid on Furuta and lit her on fire; she at first made an attempt to put it out, but eventually stopped moving. The assault lasted for about two hours, after which Furuta died at 10 a.m.

Less than 24 hours after her death, Minato's brother called to tell him that Furuta appeared to be dead. Afraid that their crime would be discovered, the group wrapped Furuta's body in a blanket and placed it in a large travel bag, then put the bag in a metal drum and filled it with wet concrete. At around 8:00 p.m. on the same day, the group drove to a vacant lot near a construction site on Wakasu island in Kōtō, Tokyo, and dumped the drum there.

In early 1989, Miyano and Ogura were arrested for their kidnapping and gang rape of a 19-year-old woman in December 1988. When police interrogated Miyano, he thought Ogura had already confessed to Furuta's murder and that the police were already aware of his culpability, so he told them where to find her body. The police were initially puzzled by his confession, as they were questioning him on the murder of a different woman and her seven-year-old son which had occurred nine days prior to Furuta's abduction, a case which remains unsolved. The metal drum containing Furuta's body was recovered on 29 March, and she was identified via fingerprints. Minato, Watanabe, Minato's brother, Nakamura, and Ihara were also arrested.

Prosecution

The identities of the defendants were sealed by the court, as they were all juveniles at the time of the crime. Journalists from the Shūkan Bunshun tabloid uncovered their identities and published them, arguing that the accused did not deserve to have their right to anonymity upheld, given the severity of the crime. In July 1990, all four were found guilty and sentenced by the Tokyo District Court for "abduction for the purpose of sexual assault, confinement, rape, murder, and abandonment of a corpse". All four appealed, and in July 1991, three were re-sentenced to longer terms by the Tokyo High Court.

• Hiroshi Miyano was originally sentenced to 17 years in prison, and re-sentenced to 20 years, the longest sentence typically given in Japan short of life imprisonment. The results of a expert psychiatric evaluation presented by the defense during his first trial established that he suffered from mild microcephaly, which "did not impair his brain function, but delayed his emotional development". After Miyano's release in 2009, he changed his last name to "Yokoyama". He reportedly boasted of his yakuza connections and about making money in pyramid schemes. In 2013, Miyano was arrested on suspicion of bank fraud as part of a group suspected of placing scam telephone calls, but he remained silent and the charges were dropped.

• Jō Ogura was sentenced to five to ten years in prison; he was released in 1999 and has changed his last name to "Kamisaki". He worked in IT jobs after his release, but turned to organized crime after his past became known to those around him. In 2004, he was arrested for assaulting Takatoshi Isono, an acquaintance who he thought his girlfriend was involved with. Ogura shoved Isono into the trunk of his car, and drove him to his mother's bar in Misato, where he assaulted him for five hours. Ogura was sentenced to four years in prison for the crime, and was released in 2009.

• Nobuharu Minato was originally sentenced to five to six years in prison, and re-sentenced to five to nine years. Minato's parents and brother were not charged. After his release, Minato moved in with his mother and changed his first name to "Shinji". In 2018, Minato was arrested again on suspicion of attempted murder after beating a 32-year-old man on a road in Kawaguchi, Saitama, with a metal rod and slashing his throat with a knife.

• Yasushi Watanabe was originally sentenced to three to four years in prison, and re-sentenced to five to seven years. He was released in 1996, and left his hometown to move in with his mother. It is presumed that Watanabe changed his name like the other defendants, though it is unknown.

Miyano's parents sold their family home and payed Furuta's parents ¥50 million (about US$350,000; $800,000 today) in compensation, which their son's defense had presented as mitigating evidence. This was a factor in preventing him from receiving a life sentence, which the prosecution had sought.

See also

• Concrete – 2004 Japanese film based on the case
• List of kidnappings
• List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000
• Hello Kitty murder case
• Murder of Suzanne Capper
• Murder of Sylvia Likens