A 38-year-old man who drove his car onto the sidewalk in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district on June 24, 2014, killing one pedestrian and injuring six others, was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Tokyo District Court on Friday.
Prosecutors had sought 10 years in prison for the defendant, Keiji Nagura.
The car jumped the curb at about 8 p.m. and went along the sidewalk for about 20 meters, hitting seven people, before running into a telephone booth. One of the seven, a Chinese woman in her 20s, did not recover consciousness and died in hospital.
The court heard that Nagura, who is from Saitama Prefecture, was pulled from the front passenger's seat in a dazed condition, Fuji TV reported. He admitted to police that he had inhaled a hallucinogenic herb shortly before the incident.
The herb was one of the so-called “loophole drugs” which were quasi-legal at the time. Since then, the government has labeled them as “dangerous drugs,” with most of them now illegal.
© Japan Today
13 Comments
Login to comment
Hasan Az-Zaki Rahim
This was happened in June 2014. It seems that the sentence is not even enough! They should really sentence this man to death!
savethegaijin
8 years... for killing a young woman and injuring several others while intoxicated. I'm not sure I'll ever understand the Japanese legal system.
shallots
moral luck: what if this had happened because of looking at a cell phone? Or because of fatigue? Then would 8 years be enough?
to what purpose?
SimondB
A police inspector once told me if you want to kill someone, do it with a car. Sentence is always lighter
smithinjapan
Good to know life is so cheap in Japan! You get more prison time here if you have single joint of marijuana. Murder people? Nah! A couple of years is fine.
Yubaru
Meaning the loop hole still exists if there is even ONE that is legal, as the folks using these drugs will find a way to get their hands on them.
Christopher Khomeini Kohen
How can any sentence be fair; if the cause was due to using something that was believed to be legal? If anything thing this is a produce liability issue and the manufacturer should be jailed. The haze caused by subjective thinking always baffles me.
Mirai Hayashi
Cmon Japan! At least 25 to life! Think about the victims and their families and not the perpetrator!!!
bluenote1
OK, Young woman killed by drug-influenced driver. Let's say a young woman killed a man under similar circumstances, would there be the dame emotional response? I very much doubt it.
Citizen2012
What does "quasi-legal" mean ? It is either legal or not.
turbotsat
Not covered by specific laws banning them, but covered by generic laws forbidding Driving Under the Influence in general?
Steve Crichton
Should be atleast 15 years.
nath
Imagine the sentence if he'd been booked for drunk driving - he got off with far too little time.