Torturing her Severely the Culprits Did Not Oblige her Death Wish.

Junko Furuta was a 17 years old Japanese high school student who was abducted, raped, and tortured for a period of 44 days. Her murder was called the ‘concrete-encased high school girl murder case’ and is believed to be the worst juvenile delinquency case in post-war Japan.

Junko Furuta attended a high school in Misato, in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. She lived with her parents, a younger and an elder brother, and worked part-time at a plastic molding factory. As she was a good-looking teenager she attracted lots of attention, but she never smoked and drank alcohol, unlike other students who were brats.

One of them Hiroshi Miyano was a bully and involved with Yakuza (criminal organization) so no one dared to say no to him. He had a crush on Junko, but she had the guts and courage to say no to his proposal.

Events

On 25th November 1988, at 8:30 p.m. Hiroshi Miyano and Shinji Minato were wandering in Misato when they spotted Junko Furuta riding her bike. On Miyano’s orders, Minato kicked Firuta off her bike and fled the place. Miyano acted as if he had arrived there by coincidence and pretended to be concerned for Furuta.

He offered to escort her home, which she accepted. But she was unaware that he was leading her to a warehouse where he revealed his Yakuza connections. He raped her in the warehouse and again in a hotel and bragged this to his friends Minato, Jo Ogura, and Yasushi Watanabe.

Miyano took Furuta to a park at 3:00 a.m. where his other three friends were waiting. They threatened her that they were Yakuza members, would kill her family if she tried to escape, and then took her to a house in Ayase district of Adachi which belonged to Minoto’s parents. She was repeatedly gang-raped there.

On 27th November, Furuta’s parents reported to the police her disappearance. The kidnappers came to learn of this and to discourage further investigation, they forced her to call her parents and say that she had run away and was staying with her friend. The investigation was thus stopped.

Whenever Minato’s parents visited the house they forced Furuta to act as his girlfriend and later dropped this pretext when it became clear to them that they would not report to the police. Later when his parents were asked about this they said that they were afraid of their son’s yakuza connections and he had been violent towards them on many occasions.

Junko Furuta was subjected to the worst possible torture

During her 44 days in captivity, Furuta was subjected to repeated rape and torture. Her sufferings would numb any civilized man. The group forced her to dance to music fully naked and masturbate in front of them. She was raped both in the vagina and anus.

The boys had connections to yakuza and more than 100 men are believed to have raped her during her captivity. She is reported to have gone through 500 rapes, and at one point was raped by 12 men in a day. These men often enjoyed urinating on her.

Furuta was often beaten with golf sticks. Various objects were forced into her vagina and anus; like a bottle, iron bar, scissors, roasting needles, and she was forced to smoke multiple cigarettes at a time. They forced her to inhale paint thinner and drink large amounts of alcohol and milk. Angry with her over an incident Miyano burned Firuta’s arms and legs with lighter fluid.

In a month of her confinement, Furuta had become malnourished as she was being fed with only a small amount of food. Due to the severity of the injuries and burns inflicted on her, she was confined to Minato’s room and became very weak.

The other tortures inflicted on her was that they ripped off her left nipple with pliers and she was often hung up from the ceiling and used as a boxing bag. They inserted a hot bulb in her vagina and rubbed it until it exploded.

Soon Furuta could not breathe through her nose due to the accumulation of blood in her cavities, as she had received severe beatings. Her damaged internal organs refused to accept food and many times she vomited, which enraged her perpetrators for soiling the carpet, and as a result, they used to beat her more severely. Junko Furuta begged her captors many a time to kill her and it was the only thing they did not do.

On January 4, 1989, the boys challenged her to a game of Mahjong Solitaire which she won and the boys were literally pissed off. They kicked and punched her, ignited and dripped hot wax on her face, placed two short candles on her eyelids, and kicked her.

Due to the impact, she fell on a stereo unit and collapsed. Since lots of pus was coming from her infections the boys covered their hands with plastic so their hands would not get dirty. They continued to beat her and dropped the iron exercise ball on her stomach.

After this, they poured lighter fluid on her body and set her on fire. Furuta attempted to put off the fire, but after a while fell and became unresponsive. This was the last time she resisted and died after a few hours.

The boys were now afraid that they would be penalized for murder. The group wrapped her body in blankets and shoved it in a travel bag. They put the body in a 208-liter drum and filled it with wet concrete. In the thick darkness, they loaded the drum in a concrete truck in Koto, Tokyo.

On January 23rd, 1989, Miyano and Ogura were arrested for the gang rape of a 19-year-old girl whom they had kidnapped in December. The police again began investigating their case in March end. Miyano thought that one of the officers was aware of his involvement in Firuta’s murder and his companion had blurted out everything.

He confessed to having killed Furuta and told them where to find her body. The police were puzzled as they were trying to solve another case and based on the confession, they found a drum containing Furuta’s body the following day.

On 1st April 1989, Jo Ogura, Shinji Minato, Yasushi Watanabe, and Minato’s brother were arrested. Several other persons who had participated in the crime were caught and charged with rape.

Prosecution and Sentences

The crime was a very brutal one, but still, the judges sealed the identities of the boys as they were juveniles. The journalists of one of the newspapers discovered their true identities and published them. They were of the view that the crime was so severe that the accused did not have the right to remain anonymous.

In the year 1990, the lower court sentenced the leader of the crime Hiroshi Miyano to 17 years in prison, and on his appeal to the Tokyo High court, the judge sentenced him to additional three years in prison. Miyano’s mother paid 50 million yen in compensation as ordered by the civil court.

Nobuharu Minato who was sixteen years at the time of the crime was sentenced to four-to-six years in prison and upon his repeal was sentenced to five-to-nine years. Furuta’s parents were not happy with the sentence and won a civil suit against the parents of Nobuharu Minato as the crime was committed in their house.

Yasushi Watanabe was 17 years at the time of the murder and sentenced to three to four years in prison which was later upgraded to five to seven years.

Jo Ogura was 17 years at the time of the murder and served eight years in the juvenile prison.

As the four individuals were younger than 18 years the sentences were regarded as too light for the crime committed. On hearing the details of the brutality of the case one of the spectators fainted in the court gallery. Furuta’s mother too had a mental breakdown and had to be given psychiatric treatment.

The torture and murder of Junko Furuta sparked international outrage and has since inspired several movies. At least three books have been written on the whole case.

Junko Furuta’s funeral was held on 2nd April 1989, and the location where her body was discovered has been developed and is now the Wakasu park.

References

https://www.notonlyhollywood.com/concrete-encased-high-school-girl-murder-case-1995-english-review/

https://www.ranker.com/list/junko-furuta-facts/amandasedlakhevener