The Girl Who Was Tortured For 44 Days

In the eyes of Shinji Minato's parents, Junko Furuta was their son's significant other. The charming young girl frequented their son's company so frequently that it appeared as though she resided there.

They continued to believe everything was OK even after they started to worry that her constant presence wasn't always consenting. After all, they worried their son's propensity for violence and his friend's ties to the Yakuza, a significant Japanese organized criminal group.

However, Junko Furuta was their hostage, their sex slave, and their punching bag for 44 nonstop days in the eyes of Shinji Minato and his friends Hiroshi Miyano, J. Ogura, and Yasushi Watanabe. Tragically, she would be killed by them on the last day of her horrible torture.

The Abduction

Junko Furuta was born in 1971 in Misato, Saitama, Japan. She was a normal teenager until she was abducted at the age of 17. Furuta was well-liked at Yashio-Minami High School for her beauty, intelligence, and good grades. Despite her "good girl" reputation — she didn't drink, smoke, or use drugs — she was quite popular at school and appeared to have a promising future.

Everything changed in November, 1988.

Hiroshi Miyano, her future kidnapper, was known as the school bully at the time, frequently bragging about his Yakuza connections. According to some of their classmates, Miyano had a crush on Furuta and was furious when she turned him down. After all, no one had ever rejected him, especially after he told them about his Yakuza contacts.

Miyano and Minato were seen preying on innocent women in a Misato park a few days after the rejection. Miyano and Minato were experts at spotting potential targets as experienced gang rapists.

Junko Furuta was riding her bicycle when the boys noticed her. She was on her way home from work at the time. Minato knocked Furuta off her bike, causing a distraction, at which point Miyano intervened, posing as an innocent and concerned bystander. After assisting her, he asked if she wanted an escort home, which Furuta unwittingly agreed to.

She never saw her family again.

44 Days of Hell

Miyano led Furuta to an abandoned warehouse, where he raped her and threatened to kill her and her family if she made a sound. He then led her to a park, where Minato, Ogura, and Watanabe awaited. The other boys raped her there as well. They then smuggled her into a house belonging to Minato's family.

Despite the fact that Furuta's parents reported her missing to the police, the boys made sure they didn't go looking for her, forcing her to call home and say she had run away and was staying with a friend. Furuta was forced to pose as Minato's girlfriend whenever his parents were present, though they eventually realized something wasn't right.

Unfortunately, the threat of the Yakuza coming after them was enough to keep them quiet, and Minato's parents lived in alarming ignorance of the real-life horror story unfolding in their own home for 44 days.

Junko Furuta was raped over 400 times by Miyano and his friends, as well as other boys and men known to the four captors, over the course of 44 days. They tortured her by inserting different objects into her genitals, destroying her internal anatomy and rendering her unable to defecate or urinate properly.

The lads forced her to perform additional abhorrent acts, including as eating live cockroaches, touching herself in front of them, and drinking her own pee. Her body, which was still very much alive at that point, was thrashed with golf clubs, bamboo sticks, and iron rods while being suspended from the ceiling. Hot wax, cigarettes, and lighters were used to burn her body.

The torturing continued till Furuta passed away.

The Murder

The fact that Junko Furuta's excruciating torture and eventual death could have been stopped is one of the most sad aspects of it all. The police were informed of Furuta's situation twice, but both times they did nothing to help.

The first time, a youngster who had been invited by Miyano to the Minato residence returned home after encountering Furuta and informed his brother of the events. After making that decision, the sibling told his parents, who subsequently called the police. When the police arrived to the Minato home, the family gave them the assurance that there was no girl there. The cops never went back to the house, so the response was obviously adequate for them.

The second time, Furuta herself was the one who dialed 911, but the boys found her before she could say anything. Miyano told the police that the initial call had been a mistake when they returned the call.

The police abandoned all further investigation. When Furuta called the police, doused her legs in lighter fluid, and set herself on fire, the boys punished her.

The captors of Junko Furuta finally killed her on January 4, 1989. She apparently defeated the guys at a game of mahjong, which infuriated the boys, who then tortured her to death. They placed her body in a 55-gallon drum, loaded it with concrete, and dropped it on a cement truck out of fear of being accused of murder. They also believed for a long time that they would never be discovered.

The Aftermath

Two weeks later, Miyano and Ogura were taken into custody by the police on separate gang-rape charges. An ongoing murder inquiry was brought up by the police during Miyano's interrogation. Miyano told the police where they could discover Junko Furuta's body because he thought the authorities were talking about the murder of Furuta and that Ogura must have admitted to the deed.

Ultimately, it came out that the case the police had been referring to had nothing to do with Furuta, and Miyano had unintentionally turned himself in for her slaying. All four boys were in arrest in a matter of days.

The lads were given startlingly short sentences despite the overwhelming amount of evidence against them and the gruesome torture they inflicted on Junko Furuta.

Shinji Minato was given a sentence of five to nine years, Hiroshi Miyano was given a sentence of twenty years, J Ogura was given a sentence of five to ten years, and Yasushi Watanabe was given a sentence of five to seven years.

Although it is commonly thought that their ties to the Yakuza also played a role, their youth at the time of Junko Furuta's murder was a factor in why they received low sentences. The lads would have likely received the death penalty if the case had been heard somewhere else or if they had been a few years older.

Instead, all four of Furuta's murderers were ultimately let out of jail. Watanabe is thought to be the only one who hasn't committed another crime since his release. Many people in Japan still believe that justice has not been done in the Furuta case. Tragically, it doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.