22-yr-old man dies after being found bound, unconscious outside Tokyo park
TOKYO —
A 22-year-old man was found dead with his wrists taped together outside a park in Kokubunji City on Monday morning, police said Tuesday.
A passer-by called for an ambulance just before 6 a.m. after finding the man on the ground just outside an entrance to the park. Blood was coming from his nose and ears and he was rushed to hospital, but was pronounced dead shortly after.
The man, identified as Kota Nakagawa, appeared to have been struck on the top of his head several times with a blunt weapon. Police said an autopsy will be carried out Tuesday.
Police said that in addition to his wrists being taped together in front, Nakagawa’s mouth was also taped over, his jacket was undone, one of his shoes was missing as were any personal belongings he may have been carrying.
Nakagawa’s parents told police their son mentioned to them several days ago that he had a problem at work.
Police are also investigating if there is any connection to an incident which took place several hours earlier near JR Nishi Kunitachi station, some four kilometers away. Two men were attacked by a group of men, and one of the two men was dragged into a white van before being driven away in it.
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37 Comments
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caffeinebuzz
Poor bugger... If only he'd said something. Without trying to speculate too much it appears that he'd gotten into something pretty damn pressing. What an awful way to go:(
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Beelzebub
That's scary -- kind of like the stuff you see by those Mexican drug cartels (but without the machine guns).
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tkoind2
Peaceful, serene and safe Japan. No crime. No pesky criminals.
Japan needs to wake up to the growing violent crime here. The thugs have realized that the authorities are not up to keeping order. Just hope that more deadly types don't arrive at the same conclusion.
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UnagiDon
tkoind2;
While I'm sure "Japan" appreciates your unsolicited advice, you're operating from a false premise. Japan's violent crime rate is shrinking, not growing - murder rate has been going down for years.
Media hype, as evidenced by JT, is going up. Have any unsolicited advice for Japanese media on that?
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geronimo2006
My bet is money problems from gambling / loans. Too organized to be the usual random attack by a nutter. The Jcops should be able to find someone who can talk and they have the body. Lets see how long it takes them.
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kujiranikusuki
Wow. Straight out of a movie. This dude probably borrowed a lot money from the wrong people. Worse... he may have stolen it.
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Molenir
Hope they catch the guys who did this. Catch em, and hang em.
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bamboohat
Jeez, that's horrible. Not only did this poor guy die in apparent agony, but his last days were probably spent in fear and terror as well. Although, I wonder if they actually intended to kill him.
Was he alive when they found him, and died at the hospital, or was he dead when the passerby saw him?
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combinibento
So there is an unsolved kidnapping here? So many Japanese news stories are fine just up until the last sentence and then they either perplex me or leave me hanging.
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Nessie
What work? What company?
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Nessie
I hear ya, Conbini.
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my2sense
money owed. unsolved crime.... trouble at work... I guess he had a job or maybe lied about it... hardcore crime here only seems to happen at night. Japan needs a Batman.
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gogogo
Yakuza
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KyokoSmile
tkoind2,combini..as usual I agree with you guys but then I wonder...who knows..maybe the keystones are in the look out for a group of suspicious foreigners since they so strongly believe japanese people wouldn't do such thing...HA!
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Gurukun
If it was because he owed money, it shows you how stupid criminals are. Now how are they supposed to get thier money from him?
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LostinNagoya
Gurukun, it should something related to respect and pride, other than money. Or so I think.
RIP...
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dolphingirl
Poor guy. And so young. Sure doesn't sound like a random crime but who knows...I hope they get to the bottom of this and find the men who did it.
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jonobugs
Don't you watch movies? If they figure he isn't good for the money, they (criminals who lend the money) bump him off as an example to the other people they loaned money to.
This is all assuming that he was there because he was in money trouble. It could have been any one of a dozen possibilities.
It looks like whoever did that to him was at least trying to make it look like a mugging (stripped him of his ID) but the interesting part is that his shoe was missing. That being the case it seems that he was trussed up somewhere else and dumped in the park.
I can just imagine a mysterious van pulling up to the park, the side door opening and this poor man was unceremoniously dumped out onto the ground.
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smithinjapan
Awful stuff.
Doesn't sound like this should be too tough to solve if there was indeed a 'problem' at work (or otherwise), but given that we are dealing with the J-police, and possibly the Yaks, you never know.
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genkicat
this is very tragic.. i wonder what the guy did to end up this way..?
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goddog
Problem at work? Appears to be more than a problem.
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taj
Perhaps. IF, that is, anyone has any idea of where he actually worked. He may well have told his parents he had a night shift at a convenie, when he was actually doing something a bit closer to the dark side of life. The side that doesn't file tax returns and enroll employees in social insurance schemes...
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taj
Dumping him in a public park entrance, rather than burying him along some mountain logging road would indicate that this poor kid is meant to be a warning. A very visible warning.
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Midnightpromise
Maybe not him, but I bet whomeevr else owes them money is trying to find some, really, really hard about now.......
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Kapuna
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elbudamexicano
YAKUZA! This is the JAPANESE YAKUZA style or revenge. Too bad for this young man and Kokubunji is way too close to my house here in Tokyo. I hope the police find the scum yakuza bastards that killed this 22 year old. RIP 22 year old with the bad fortune to have himself with this kind of scum.
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3RENSHO
Police have arrested 6 suspects...
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kawaiitenshi
ugh, clearly no one knows yakuza here.If it was them, do you think you would be reading about it NOW? no, you would be reading about a decomposed body being found months later, or no body found at all. I think this is a sloppy case of someone being rough to scare the poor guy, realising they have gone too far (thus leaving him at a park, a place someone would surely find him and seek help) never fear though elbudamexicano... the culprit will be confessing any day now ;)
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noborito
"Having trouble at work..." what kind of work was he involved?
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bazjapan
Is there any proof this happened? Where's the source?
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CandleStickPark
WOw, what to say other than I hope there is some connection to some crime or shady activity Nakagawa was involved in. If this was simply a random attack....yikes!
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Nessie
Still no word on the company or the line of work? Why could that be?
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