Tomoko Mori's Killer Took Pictures Of Death

Investigators at suspect's apartment

A 19-year-old female student of Nagoya University who confessed to killing a 77-year-old woman, Tomoko Mori, last month has told police that she felt fulfilled after the killing.

Japan Times reports that the student (name must be withheld - accused under 20) was arrested on Tuesday for killing Mori with a hatchet on the 7th of December, 2014.

The Aichi Prefectural Police on Friday said the student used her phone to take pictures of the victim's corpse.  Investigators discovered the pictures in a secret data file on the phone needing a code to unlock.

During investigations, police found Mori’s body in the student's house in Showa Ku, a ward here in Nagoya.

The suspect told investigators that she felt 'fulfilled' after killing Mori because she had owned the hatchet since she was in Junior Secondary School and had always wanted to kill someone.

She also revealed that she had once poisoned her classmates while studying at a private high school in Miyagi Prefecture.

The victim did not die but lost his sight permanently.

Investigations have revealed that Mori met her killer at a religious gathering on the same day she was murdered.

According to a member of the religious group, the student left the venue with Mori who was trying to persuade her to join them.

The suspect however told police that she was annoyed by the deceased who tried to convert her.

Investigations led officers to her apartment where they found the deceased’s corpse.

Air Asia X Ends Nagoya Flights

Nagoya has been removed from locations on planes

Flights to Nagoya from Malaysia will be scrubbed and Sydney trips will be less frequent as the airline slows its expansion to end losses in 2015, Group Chief Executive Officer Kamarudin Meranun said in an interview Wednesday. The long-haul budget airline racked up net losses of more than 650 million ringgit (18 billion yen) since the last quarter of 2013 after “massive” capacity growth, he said. 

The airline, whose shares sank to a record low yesterday, was hemorrhaging cash even before Malaysia-related carriers lost three aircraft in accidents last year, emptying seats and denting the confidence of travelers. A plane belonging to a unit of AirAsia Bhd., AirAsia X’s second-largest shareholder, crashed in Indonesia in December killing 162 people. 

“The timing wasn’t right,” said Kamarudin, referring to the company’s expansion. “Who can tell the challenges that we had in 2014. For now, we are managing it by cutting some of these routes so we will be able to handle that growth.” 

AirAsia X has announced plans to replenish capital and Kamarudin, co-founder of the broader AirAsia group, is bringing in a new set of managers to aid the turnaround. He said he is “fairly confident” of returning the Kuala Lumpur-based carrier to profit in 2015. 

Malaysian Airline System Bhd. lost two aircraft last year - - MH370 in March and MH17 in July -- and an AirAsia Indonesia single-aisle jet plunged into the sea on Dec. 28 in the worst year for Asian aviation in decades. 

Bloomberg Business Weekly

Grisly Murders By Juveniles Say Something About Society

Aichi Police Gather Evidence Bags Outside Station

 

A spate of grisly murders by teenage girls has galvanized public attention. In December, a first-year university student was taken into custody over the slaying of a 77-year-old woman in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. The two cases are under investigation. Last summer, a first-year senior high school student in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, killed a classmate. 

Both girls reportedly told police they "wanted to know what it feels like to kill someone." Their stated motive brings to mind a 1997 case in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, where a 14-year-old boy murdered two elementary school pupils.

In all these killings, I glimpse "the darkness of the human heart," if you will forgive the cliche.

Obviously, one would be extremely naive to lament a loss of sanity among teenage girls today based only on what those two have done.

In fact, statistics show that crimes by juveniles have been on the decline in recent years. Specific cases should always be distinguished from the overall trend.

In the Sasebo case, a local child guidance center was blamed for not dealing properly with the girl, who has since undergone psychiatric evaluation. Her trial is scheduled to start soon in juvenile court. The Nagoya girl was placed in confinement recently for psychiatric evaluation. To prevent similar tragedies from occurring, we must not think these girls are merely aberrations who have nothing to do with us.

Retired judge Yasuhiro Igaki, who presided over the 1997 Kobe case, commented last October in The Asahi Shimbun's opinion section that the public should be fully informed about the reasons some young people are driven to murder. No child must be made to feel abandoned, he emphasized.

This is the hard lesson he learned from the about 6,000 cases he handled during his career.

Illegal Casino In Sakae Raided

 

Aichi Prefectural Police on Wednesday busted a baccarat casino operating illegally in Naka Ward, reports the Mainichi Shimbun. 

In the morning, officers raided casino Daikichi, located in the Nishiki entertainment district, and arrested Satoru Ogura, the 33-year-old manager, and nine male and female dealers for operating a wagering facility for profit. 

Police also seized six baccarat tables, an unspecified number of slot machines and four million yen in cash, according to Chunichi Shimbun. Six customers were also taken into custody on charges of illegal gambling. 

Ogura has refused to comment on the allegations.

A memo found on the premises by police at the time of the raid revealed that Daikichi collects approximately 70 million yen in revenue every 15 days. Police suspect that the operation is being used to fund organized crime. 

Tokyo Reporter

Local Teenager Exploited For Fukushima Clean Up

Clean up work in Fukushima Prefecture

Police arrested a businessman on Wednesday for sending a 15-year-old boy to help clean up radioactive waste outside the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Aichi prefectural police said the boy, from Kita-Nagoya, was sent to Fukushima to cut contaminated leaves and scrape up dirt in the disaster zone last July.

Japan’s labor law prohibits people under 18 from working in radioactive areas.

The boy told the Asahi newspaper that he was introduced to his former boss through a government-run employment agency and ordered to lie about his age.

He said his former employer eventually lowered his wages to just 3,000 yen a day and hit him when he did not do well at his job.

Workers cleaning up villages in Fukushima are supposed to receive a special hazard allowance equivalent to about 10,000 yen a day from the government in addition to their wages.

An earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plant,  sparking triple nuclear meltdowns, forcing more than 160,000 residents to flee nearby towns and contaminating water, food and air.

Thousands of workers have been clearing waste from towns closest to the plant in the past four years.

A Reuters investigation showed how Japan’s traditional subcontracting structure in the construction industry opened up lucrative clean-up contracts in Fukushima to multiple layers of small companies that regularly skim workers’ pay. 

Thomson Reuters