Raw Japan
Slices of Japanese business, politics and life
Police, media get their suspect
Japan’s police can finally tear down the wanted posters for Tetsuya Ichihashi, after two-and-a-half years spent chasing down the 30-year-old suspected in the death of Briton Lindsay Hawker, whose body was found buried in a bath filled with sand.
Ichihashi is in custody, but Japan’s media are far from finished with the case, which has dominated news reports and daytime chat shows since police discovered recently he had changed his appearance with plastic surgery.
Video footage showed shouting police struggling through crowds of photographers to put Ichihashi on a train to Tokyo from Osaka, where he had been spotted waiting for a ferry to the southern island of Okinawa.
Media had already been hunting down details of Ichihashi’s life on the run, during which he concealed himself so effectively that many had speculated he must be dead. A TV Asahi news programme showed the tiny dormitory room where he had lived for 14 months while working as a building labourer, interviewing a colleague who noted that he focused on saving money and spent all his free time holed up in his room, we may well find out soon.
TV reporters chased down Ichihashi’s parents, who denied that they had provided any form of support for their son since Hawker, an English teacher, was found dead in the bathtub on his balcony.
It remains unclear how Ichihashi funded the remainder of his time on the run, including the extensive plastic surgery that rendered him unrecognisable for a while. But with the Japanese media’s reputation for tracking down clues, sometimes before the police, we will likely find out soon.
Japan struggles with puzzle of random killing
One year after a 25-year-old factory worker killed seven people in a stabbing spree in a crowded Tokyo shopping district, Japan is struggling again with the sinister puzzle of random killings following the arrest of a man on suspicion of causing the deaths of four people by setting fire to a “pachinko” pinball parlour.
“I was out of work, had no money and hated my life, and then I got the idea of killing anyone, like a random killer, and started a fire at a place where there were a lot of people,” the 41-year-old man was quoted by media as telling police after turning himself in on Monday evening.
Acquaintances and neighbours told Japanese media the man was a loner who lost his job last year. Reports said he had around $20,000 worth of debts. Among those killed in the fire was a 20-year-old female staffer who was going to night-school and had hoped to become a wedding planner.
Three days later, the story is still getting wide media play, jostling for attention with reports of ethnic violence in China and Prime Minister Taro Aso’s attendance at a G8 summit in Italy.
Japan’s crime rate is lower than that of many advanced countries, and strict gun laws mean shooting sprees are unheard of. But violent crimes grab media attention, especially as the economy struggles with recession and rising ranks of jobless.
Concerns about a breakdown in traditional community values and widening social and economic gaps also simmer, reflected in politicians’ calls to restore “fraternity” and repair frayed social bonds.
-
Resident Raw Japan Expert
-
