Tokyo court holds second appeals hearing over Blackman's death

Friday 23rd May, 08:51 AM JST

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7 Comments

timorborder at 10:13 AM JST - 23rd May

It is good to see that they are still trying to pin this guy to the wall for these horrendous crimes. Reading the crime section of JT, it is rather easy to get depressed about the way things are heading in this country. It is also rather easy to loose track of cases like this one. Let's hope that this time they get a guilty verdict.
faulkmore at 01:16 PM JST - 23rd May

I thought the Japanese police just torture the suspect into signing a confession. So the conviction rate in Japan stands at ~97%.

Why hasn't this guy gotten similiar treatment?
nigelboy at 01:21 PM JST - 23rd May

I thought the Japanese police just torture the suspect into signing a confession

You thought wrong. But don't let me stop ya.
franz75 at 07:42 PM JST - 23rd May

faulkmore:

Joji Obara, a ["wealthy"] former property developer in his mid-50s,
minkaboo at 12:42 AM JST - 24th May

Why would a wealthy former property develop in his mid-50s do something like this? I'm a foreigner and think there's something very disturbing about this case. In the U.S. when you hear of cases like this, it's usually people who are poor, uneducated, stupid, and have abnormal childhood history (ie death of parents). How could someone like this guy do something like this??
buggerlugs at 12:54 AM JST - 25th May

He was doing it for years...A serial screw up. They will not prosocute him because there is a "lack of evidence" jcops screwed that one up... and a small problem of the case involving a Foreign victim. I am British and angry at this #$&%. When a Chinese woman killed some guy down south and ran upto Tokyo she "hid" near my station, I counted 7 helicopters, 17 cars and many foot plodders... Yet When a British citizen is killed the local jcops can't even catch a barefoot man (suppose how much of a head start they gave him) or collect evidence properly from a rich real estate guy. The silly Truckers.
Notginger at 12:10 PM JST - 26th May

They women he raped and the two he murdered were either foreign or working as hostesses or both - which means, as far as the Japanese middles classes are concerned, that they were fair game for rich perverts like Obara.