Murder-Suicide In Nakamura Ward

Local Coverage On TV

The bodies of a man and a woman were found in an apartment in Nagoya in an apparent murder-suicide, police said Friday.  The location is in Nakamura Ward, Nagoya Shi.

The body of a woman identified as Tomoka Matsuyama, 27, a restaurant employee, was found in the apartment on Thursday night, police reported. Police said she had strangulation marks on her neck.

The body of her boyfriend, a man in his 20s who worked at the same restaurant, was found hanging from the balcony railing. Police said they believe the man killed Matsuyama and then hanged himself.

The bodies were discovered at around 6:35 p.m. after a colleague of the couple came looking for them when they didn’t show up for work. The apartment belongs to the company that operates the restaurant.  

Charles Gannon translation from Chunichi

Ceantrair Airport Island To Get Comic-con Convention Center

Chubu Centrair International Airport

The 2020 Olympics has thrown the future of Comic Market (or Comiket), Japan's biggest dōjinshi convention, into doubt. Tokyo Big Sight and Makuhari Messe, Tokyo's biggest convention centers, have been earmarked to hold Olympics events. There is a scarcity of other suitable events spaces in the Tokyo area. A Comiket questionnaire recently asked dōjin circles whether they would attend a Comiket held in Osaka or Nagoya. 

On February 3, Aichi Prefecture (where Nagoya is located) announced that it would build a convention center on the artificial island in Tokoname where Nagoya's airport, Chūbu Centrair International Airport, is located. The building will take up 60,000 m² (645,835 square feet) and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. In a tweet, Aichi's governor, Hideaki Ohmura, wrote that the building will provide space for events displaced by the Olympics and that the prefecture would provide 360 million yen ($3.06 million) this year for its initial construction. The total cost of construction, including neighboring facilities, is estimated at 35 billion yen ($298 million). 

Meanwhile, Nagoya has already been planning to build a convention center within the city itself — specifically, at its port, and 2 km (1.24 miles) away from another convention center, Portmesse Nagoya. That event space would cover 50,000 m², (538,196 square feet) compared to Portmesse Nagoya's 33,000 m² (355,209 square feet). It is unclear how Aichi Prefecture's plan will affect this project.

Comiket has always been held in the Tokyo area since its founding in 1975 and has used Tokyo Big Sight as its event space since that building opened in 1996. Tokyo Big Sight boasts roughly 80,000 m² (861,113 square feet) of exhibition space, while Makuhari Messe offers 72,000 m² (775,002 square feet). Intex Osaka, with its roughly 70,000 m² (753,474 square feet) of exhibition space, has also been suggested as an alternative convention center for Comiket. 

J. Stimson, ANN

Classmates Knew About Suicide Victim's Bullying

Boy's father talks about son's bullying

A boy who killed himself by jumping in front of a subway train in Nagoya was being bullied at school — and at least 20 students knew about it.

A survey by the Nagoya city education board showed Friday that the pupils at a municipal junior high school were witnesses to the 12-year-old’s ordeal, and some admitted that he had asked them for help.

Meanwhile, the boy’s family have expressed their grief.

“I don’t want to single out particular bullies, but I hope efforts will be focused on investigating why this happened so as to prevent someone else from becoming a victim,” the boy’s father told a news conference on Thursday.

The boy died last Sunday when he was hit by a train after jumping from a platform at a subway station in Nagoya. He left a note at home saying he had killed himself because he could no longer stand being bullied.

The emergency questionnaire was conducted at the school where the boy was enrolled as a first-grader. Nine of the 20 students saw bullying taking place during an extracurricular club the student took part in.

In the anonymous survey conducted on Wednesday, 494 of 528 students at the school gave replies. Other than the direct witnesses, three said they heard about the bullying or that the victim had asked them for advice. Fifty-seven replied that they heard about it from people other than the student.

Of the witnesses, 13 said they saw the student being ridiculed or slandered, and six said he was ostracized or ignored.

A separate interview-based survey conducted by the education board with members of the extracurricular club revealed that the student had consulted a fellow club member and reported feeling he was at the end of his tether, it was learned Thursday.

The junior high school was unaware of the bullying, according to the education board. The board is expected to conduct detailed investigations.

Jiji Press