TOKYO, May 15, 2007
Japanese Teen Admits To Beheading Mother
Police Say 17-Year-Old Carried Head To Station, Then Led Them Back To House
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(AP / CBS)
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The 17-year-old suspect led officers to his house in northern Fukushima prefecture (state) and pointed out his headless mother on her futon mattress, with a frank, "It's in here," Kyodo News reported.
He told police he beheaded his mother on the eve of her 47th birthday while she slept, and added, "It didn't matter who I killed," Kyodo reported. Police confirmed the arrest.
Japan has long prided itself on safe streets and low incidents of violent crime. But the latest killing triggered soul searching about what some worry is a disturbing new trend — particularly with its mix of youthful aggression and icy remorselessness.
"If true, it's horrifying," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said.
Last year, a jobless man allegedly cut up his mother and entombed her body parts in concrete-filled buckets left abandoned in a yard.
In January, Tokyo was on put edge on when a woman confessed to dismembering her husband with a saw and dumping the parts around the capital.
Then just weeks ago, the nation was riveted by a high-profile verdict in the death of a British hostess whose body was also dismembered and stashed in a seaside cave.
While dismemberment crimes are not unique to Japan, experts say such cases are on the rise as Japan grapples with the fallout of a decade of economic malaise. Alienation and a trend toward objectifying fellow humans is also fueling the violence.
"There have been a high number of incidents involving dismembered bodies and I certainly think there is a chain reaction going on," said Susumu Oda, an expert in criminal psychology at Japan's Tezukayamagakuin University.
Tuesday's case recalls a 1997 slaying in which a 14-year-old boy beheaded an 11-year-old and left his head at a school gate with a sinister note stuffed in his mouth.
That case spurred widespread debate about tougher laws against juvenile offenders.
But dismemberments made headlines again last year, when a man in western Japan reportedly cut up his mother's body and encased the remains in concrete buckets.
The 37-year-old suspect also roasted some of the parts on an electric grill before throwing them in the garbage, apparently to delay decomposition and hide the odor.
In the January case, a woman confessed to bludgeoning her husband with a wine bottle, sawing the corpse in pieces and dumping his body parts around Tokyo.
The confession ended a murder mystery that began the previous month when a man's torso was found in a garbage bag on a Tokyo street.
The man's legs were later found at a separate location in Tokyo and his head was discovered in a suburban park weeks later. That woman told them that the husband had physically and emotionally abused her, local media reported.
Late last month, a serial rapist was sentenced to life in prison for nine attacks, but was cleared of raping and dismembering a British woman after a six-year trial that detailed one of Japan's most disturbing sex crimes.
The British victim, Lucie Blackman, worked at a hostess bar frequented by the suspected, and her body was discovered in a cave near his house — her head also encased in concrete. While the suspected was convicted on other charges, the court said there was no solid evidence linking him to the Briton's death.
While such gruesome killings have outraged the nation, some experts caution that the dismembering of victims is not always a symptom of deeper social disfunction.
"In many cases, they killed in a desperate situation and carried or hid the body by dismembering it to avoid being caught for homicide," said Yoshikazu Yuuma, expert in criminal psychology at Saitama Institute of Technology outside Tokyo.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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They are without a doubt the strongest threat to USA military dominance. They will get Chinese as foot soldiers and conquer the world. Along with South Korea's manufacturing superiority,
Posted by t-o_doubled at 01:27 PM : May 15, 2007
Are you retarded? Japan and China are mortal enemies and have been so for the past 500 years. As for Korea--they also have a huge bone to pick with Japan, due to the treatment they received in the past 100 years and all the abductions of children and women for sexual slavery and servitude. China had over 40 million people killed in WWII in Japanese death camps. The Japanese do not even consider themselves to be the same race as the chinese and refer to the Chinese as savages and monkeys. China still feels they owe Japan for the last war. If any body would be working for the other, it will be the Japanese working for the almost billion Chinese.
Sorry to ruin your Armageddon fantasy. I can see China marching to war--but not with Japan.
Dear God, I hope this is sarcasm!?!?
Posted by t-o_doubled at 01:27 PM : May 15, 2007
Where did you find your factual basis for the %u201CFELON%u201D?
Sarcasm,? Ppossibly, however you are also mighty close to Section 3 Sedition Act of 1918
Read closley
Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026%u2026. United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or the imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both: or utters any unpatriotic or disloyal language, ..abusive and violent manner criticizes the Army or Navy or the flag of the United States shall be at once dismissed from the service...
Don%u2019t let your mouth overload your *** %u201Cdoubled dumb%u201D
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 04:03 PM : May 15, 2007
Well yeah you'd have to be pretty dumb to legally buy a machine gun and use it for murder...That's why I gets mine on the black market ;)
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 04:03 PM : May 15, 2007
Well yeah you would have to be pretty dumb to legally buy a machine gun and use it for murder...That's why I buy mine on the black market ;)
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
- Plato (427-347 B.C.)
Guns still make it very (too) easy to kill. VA Tech didn't happen with a sword, couldn't have happened with a sword or knife.
They are without a doubt the strongest threat to USA military dominance. They will get Chinese as foot soldiers and conquer the world. Along with South Korea's manufacturing superiority, they could rule the world in 90 days. GW Bush GAVE away our manufacturing expertise!! to China!!! for Commission!!!!
Japan makes our electronics now for our most sophistocated weapons. And if they don't, we are at a disadvantage.
USA is DOOMED, because Dems aren't smart enough to eject a FELON from the Administration without a majority in Congress. Doomed I say!
Dear God, I hope this is sarcasm!?!?
gunnerv1 : The difference is that you can kill much more efficiently with a gun than with a knife. Therefore, one reason to limit guns, particularly automatic weapons, is to decrease the number of victims. If that does not make sense to you, than I wonder how you are different from the loonies.
But why is the recent spate depicting person's of Asian descent? Do the feel left out of all the world's current carnage? *** is going on here?
...
- by rushman71 May 15, 2007 1:02 PM EDT
- "It didn't matter who I killed," Kyodo reported. Uhhh, yeah it does. That was your mother, you idiot.
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