Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of assault and murder. Reader discretion is advised.
In November 1988, Junko Furuta was reported missing by her family. Someone had abducted her on her way back from a part-time job. Investigation revealed that two teenagers kidnapped two others joined Furuta and took Furuta to a residence. They held her there for 44 days, during which they raped, sodomized, and brutally tortured her. The four of them then reportedly set her on fire, and she died on January 4, 1988, according to the Tokyo Reporter.
The boys reportedly wrapped her body in blankets and left it in an oil drum with concrete. The case became a widely talked about one considering the brutality of it. The police caught the four suspected youth in the case when they arrested two of them on an unrelated rape case. During their time in custody, the police joined some dots and connected them to the Junko Furuta case. One of the men in custody revealed to the police, the location of Furuta’s remains. Until then, the case remained a missing person investigation.
The place where authorities found Junko Furuta’s body is where Wakasu Park is currently located. The case continues to garner media attention even today as the convicted criminals have been released and got back into legal trouble for other reasons.
Who were the suspects convicted of Junko Furuta’s murder?
15-year-old Nobuharu Minato and 18-year-old Hiroshi Miyano were convicted of the murder of Junko Furuta. Jo Ogura who was 17 and Yashusi Watanabe who was 16 at that time were also found guilty. All four were convicted in relation to the murder and sentenced to what was then considered a rather light sentence for their crimes. The court sentenced Nobuharu Minato to five to nine years, while Miyano received a twenty-year sentence. The court sentenced Jo Ogura to a term between five and ten years. Watanabe received a sentence of between five and seven years.
As per another report by the Tokyo Reporter, although the names of juvenile defendants are typically not released to the public, the names in this case were made public. Another reason that widely criticized the light sentences was that most of the convicted criminals in the Junko Furuta case were released from prison and then committed other heinous crimes, bringing them back on the radar.
What happened to the killers after their release?
In 2018, one of the convicts in the Junko Furuta case, Minato, who now goes by the name Shinji Minato, allegedly assaulted a company employee. He used a metal baton to beat him in the right shoulder. He then used a knife to slash the person’s throat. The incident took place on August 16, on the Kawaguchi Road. Authorities rushed the victim to the hospital. He was still slightly conscious, making for an attempt to murder case against the defendant.
Prior to this, in 1999, Jo Ogura had been out of prison for five years when he was arrested for assault and confinement of the manager of a “snack” hostess club. He was given a prison time of four years and was released in 2009 again. Hiroshi Miyano who now goes by the name Yokohama was a suspect in a fraud case. This was about four years after his release. Yashusi Watanabe is reportedly the only one of the convicted in the Junko Furuta case who did not get into legal hassles after his release.
