Japan is famous all over the world as a country of high technology and deep in this state is a fairly low crime rate. It is hard to believe that truly terrible crimes can be committed there. And yet, even in Japan, law enforcement officers sometimes have to investigate criminal cases that make normal people freeze their blood in their veins. The victim of one of the most brutal murders in the modern history of Japanese criminalistics was a schoolgirl Junko Furuta.

Beginning of a deadly nightmare

In the late autumn of 1988, four underage boys kidnapped a 16-year-old girl. Junko Furuta, a high school student, became the victim of the criminals. The oldest of her kidnappers was 17 years old at the time of the crime, his name is Hiroshi Miyano. Three of the organizer's friends were involved in the kidnapping: Jo Ogura, Shinji Minato, and Yasushi Watanabe. The perpetrators forcibly brought their victim to the home of Hiroshi Miyano's parents. From that moment on, Junko's life turned into an ongoing nightmare. The kidnappers forced the girl to call her relatives and say that she left her parents' house voluntarily and is in a safe place with friends. Junko Furuta was introduced to Miyano's parents as the girlfriend of one of his fellow accomplices.

life in hell

The abducted girl was kept by criminals in captivity from the end of November 1988 to January 4, 1989. Junko's prison was the Miyano family's home. The kidnapper's parents quickly realized that the girl was a prisoner. They were deterred from going to the police by the fact that Hiroshi was a member of the yakuza criminal group and promised to kill anyone who got into his affairs. From the very first day of her imprisonment, Furuta was subjected to regular rape, including in a particularly perverted form, beatings and physical torture. The girl was punished for any "misconduct", they were not allowed out of the house, they were kept for days without water and food. Junko Furuta begged Miyano's parents to help her escape or call the police. At times, she asked her abusers to simply kill her and "stop it all."

The Case of the Murdered and Cemented High School Girl

The condition of the captive, due to numerous injuries and ongoing bullying, steadily worsened. The last weeks of her life, Junko had difficulty moving around the house on her own. It took her about an hour to crawl to the bathroom. On January 4, 1989, Miyano and his friends once again severely beat the girl. After that, the attackers doused Junko with gasoline from a lighter and set it on fire. As forensic experts will later establish, the girl died from a painful shock. The next day, the decision was made to dispose of the body. The corpse was placed in a large barrel and filled with a solution of cement, after which it was taken to a construction site. The discovery of the body with signs of numerous sadistic tortures sparked a wide-ranging Furuta case was called "the case of the murder and cementation of a high school student." Quite quickly, law enforcement officers managed to calculate and

Shocking details of the crime

In Japan, during the events described, it acted. For this reason, representatives of official structures did not give detailed comments on the progress of the investigation and concealed the identities of the criminals. For the first time, the real names and surnames of the killers appeared in the newspaper Shkan Bunshun, whose correspondents stated that "the rights of people do not apply to livestock." It was in this edition that the biographies of the criminals and many of the shocking details of the murder committed were published. Hiroshi Miyano and his accomplices almost immediately began to cooperate with the investigation. Underage sadists told in detail how they tortured the girl. In their testimony, the defendants stated that the murder of Junko Furuta was not part of their plans. The perpetrators claimed that they did not realize until the moment of the victim's death how serious the damage was being done to her. According to the killers, until the last moment they thought that Junko was pretending that she was so hurt and ill.

Trial and sentence for murderers

At the time of the trial, all the offenders were minors. Despite this fact, they were tried as adults, to the fullest extent of local laws. The court found all four defendants guilty. For the torture and murder of Junko Furuta, the criminals received from 4 to 17 years in prison. The verdict seemed very lenient to the victims - the relatives of the murdered girl. Junko's parents even tried to appeal the court's decision. However, due to a number of circumstances, they failed to do so. The main criminal - Hiroshi Miyano (it was in his house that the victim was kept) - served 17 years in prison. The first thing he did after his release was to change his last name. So did his most active accomplice. Obviously, the criminals realized that the murders in Japan are committed, as in any other country, but their compatriots will never forget their atrocities.

References to Junko Furuta in popular art and culture

Furuta's story shocked the people of Japan and many people outside of this country to the core. The first feature film about the fate of the unfortunate girl was filmed in 1995 by her compatriot director Katsuya Matsumura. In 2004, a film called "Concrete" was dedicated to Junko by another master - Hiromu Nakamura. In both films, the torture and murder of a girl is shown rather harshly. Such a story cannot be forgotten or ignored, but still such a movie is not recommended for impressionable people to watch. In memory of Junko Furuta, a manga was created and a song was recorded. Murders in Japan are committed regularly, but the story of this girl will forever remain in the memory of every Japanese. This crime shocks with its inhumanity and unreasonable cruelty, as well as the lack of motive. It is hard to believe that this murder was committed by ordinary young people, whom the psychiatric examination recognized as sane.

A nightmarish tragedy that shook all of Japan - in November 1988, a group of underage boys, including Hiroshi Miyano, Jo Ogura, Shinji Minato and Yasushi Watanabe, kidnapped a 16-year-old Junko Furuta is a high school student in Misato City, Saitama Prefecture.

To avoid persecution, one of them forced Furuta to lie to her parents, saying that she had run away from home and was safe at her friend's house. In addition, she was ordered to lie that she was the girlfriend of one of the kidnappers. The boy's parents knew it was a lie, but there was nothing they could do, as one of the kidnappers was a member of the yakuza and threatened to use his connections against his parents if they told anyone the truth if they didn't tell anyone.

Hiroshi Miyano

Day 1: Kidnapped, forced to pose as girlfriend of one of the boys, raped over 400 times, denied food and water; forced to eat cockroaches and drink her own urine; forced to masturbate, to undress in the presence of others; burned with lighters and cigarettes, inserted various objects into the vagina / anus.

Nobuharu Minato

Day 11: Furuta was beaten countless times; she was hung up on the roof with her hands tied and her body used as a punching bag. The girl vomited when she tried to drink water, tried to run, for which she was punished with cigarette burns on her hands. Furute poured a flammable liquid on his feet and set them on fire. A broken bottle was inserted into her anus, as a result of which the girl received numerous injuries.

Yasushi Watanabe

Day 20: Unable to walk due to severe burns on legs; beaten with bamboo sticks; fireworks were inserted into the girl's anus and then set on fire; hands crushed, cracked nails, beaten with a golf bat; lit cigarettes were inserted into the vagina; beaten with iron rods, the needles of a red-hot chicken grill were inserted into the vagina and anus, as a result of which the girl bled to death.

Jo Ogura (Yuzuru Ogura)

Day 30: Hot wax is poured on her face, eyelids are burned with a lighter, needles are inserted into her breasts, nipples are pulled together with pliers, a hot light bulb is inserted into her vagina, scissors are inserted into her vagina, causing severe bleeding. Because of her injuries, it took her an hour to crawl to the toilet. Seriously damaged eardrums, a radical reduction in the size of the brain.

Day 40: The girl asked her tormentors the following: "Kill me and be done with this quickly."
Day 44: Four young men mutilated her body with an iron rod, burned her face and eyes with a candle, then poured liquid from lighters on her legs, arms, face and stomach, burned them too. The last torture lasted two hours.
Furuta died as a result of a painful shock on the same day. In a psychiatric hospital, the young men arrested for the murder of Furuta told the doctors that they did not know how much the victim was in pain, thinking that the girl was pretending.
They hid the body in a cylinder filled with 55 gallons of cement. The perpetrators pleaded partially guilty to "causing bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim."
The criminals refused to admit their guilt in committing a premeditated murder.

The same place where the dead body of Junko Furuta was found

In July 1990, the criminals were sentenced, which included imprisonment for a term of 4 to 17 years in prison. Their identities have been kept secret from the public thanks to Japan's juvenile delinquency law.

Taking into account all the circumstances of the case and the provisions of the penal code of Japan, in July 1990 the court sentenced the criminals to terms ranging from 4 to 17 years in prison.

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The girl's parents were unhappy with the decision of the judges, as it seemed to them not tough enough and tried to challenge it.
Unfortunately, they did not succeed due to conflicting evidence.

Hiroshi Miyano was recognized as the main villain and he served 17 years, later changing his name to Hiroshi Yokoyama after leaving prison.
Dze Ogura was recognized as his first assistant and spent eight years in a juvenile prison.

He was released in August 1999 and changed his name to Jo Kamisaka.

However, Kamisaku did not manage to stay at large for a long time and in 2004 he again sat down for 7 years for beating his friend, who allegedly took away his girlfriend.

In 1995, Japanese filmmaker Katsuya Matsumura (en: Katsuya Matsumura (English)) made a feature film in the genre of exploitation film Concrete-Encased High School Girl Murder Case (Joshikōsei konkurīto-zume satsujin-jiken).

In 2004, a film was made on the same subject called "Concrete" ("Schoolgirl in Cement"); Directed by Hiromu Nakamura.

Also in 2004, a manga by Waita Ujigi was released under the title Shin Gendai Ryōkiden (真現代猟奇伝 Modern-Day True-to-Life Stories of the Bizarre).