Man beats 10-year-old girl unconscious in Ibaraki

wtf is going on in this country recently?

Just when you think people could not be any sicker you read something like this. WTF is happening in this country?

Oh, c'mon! This is becoming a daily event! Also, if this attack happened in broad daylight in front of witnesses why didn't anybody stop it? What a wonderful society where a ten year old girl can be beaten to near death and ignored by onlookers.

When you can hit, punch and kick a little girl in the street a Sunny Sunday at 4pm, left her unconscious and nobody is doing anything so the guy can go and play bowling, I think something is really really wrong.. Hope that guy will be locked in Jail for long time.

I guess she resisted. In any case, I hope the key to this violent individual's jail cell gets lost.

As if that wasn't bad enough... there were eye witnesses...

Lock him up for life.

And what were the eye witnesses doing?

What disturbs me most about this is that people just stood by and did nothing.

Beaten unconscious!? And the eyewitnesses thought it was domestic matter or just a spectacle?! What a shame, what a tragedy...

This article doesn't tell the whole story.

The eyewitness chased this guy to the bowling alley where him and a bowling alley worker kept him in the bathroom until police arrived.

That's how he got caught at all.

Bertie,

Yeah, I mean, eywitnesses are sure to be scared by this lunatic as well but at some point people must react, right. Granted, we don't have all the details but this is bad.

Some of the highest summer temperatures in 50 years are bringing the truly crazy out of some people. But even then ,this kind of horror is just unfathomable. A 10-year-old child? WTF is wrong with Hiromi Noguchi? And how brazen and cocky would this piece of gutter trash be against someone his own size? Not very, I'd wager.

If she dies from this, then yes, I'll be the first to sign the petition for the permanent revocation of his right to breath the same air as the rest of the human race.

Sick! If I was the eye witness I would have flattened his head on the road.

While, (presumably like many of the posters above complaining about the eyewitnesses),

I too have seen my share of silently standing by doing nothing while someone collapses/ has an accident in jpn. The "don't get in yr neighbor's business" ethic is taken to a ridiculaous extreme here.

However, in this case I will say that it actually does not take that long to cause serious damage to someone's brains or organs in a beeat down. Especially when the weight ratio is presumably 3-1 in Noguchi's favor. All he has to do is flip out, and the kid is badly hurt, too late for bystanders, who are probably surprised and confirming their eyes' bizarre reports for 1-2 seconds. For the fast thinking ones, another two seconds or more to reach the conflict. Easy to imagine 5 seconds or more for Noguchi to do as he pleases, more than enough time to do all kinds of horrible damage.

And my supposition does seem to jar with ckg's version above.

Thankfully they caught the a**hole.

Wait. So he assaulted a girl in front of eye-witnesses to the point where she was rendered unconscious, causing a brain hemorrhage. Then, he tells the police he had the intention to assault her sexually? Question 1: WTF??? Question 2: Why would he add to his list of charges? Question 3: Why didn't anybody stop him before the girl was beaten to within an inch of her life??

Well, hopefully, the poor kid recovers soon, and Noguchi gets what he deserves in jail.

oh my god what in the world is going on in this country recently!? that poor little girl If it weren't for the people who chased him he may have killed her with a few more seconds of beating her. For god sake she is only 10 years old..trying to sexually assault her then beating her within an inch of her life..I hope he gets equal treatment in jail.

"Police say Noguchi punched and kicked the girl during the attack, causing her to suffer a brain hemorrhage. Doctors say the girl is alive but that she remains unconscious and in a serious condition.... Noguchi was quoted by police as saying that he had approached the girl with the intention of sexually assaulting her"

I hope the girl recovers. Obviously Noguchi cannot be allowed to walk the streets again for a long time, if ever. Poor taxpayers.

@Magnet

Your questions are based on the idea that the guy's sane. When he is, in fact, obviously out of his mind. hope the girl recovers and he gets the treatment he clearly needs.

And the wanna-be vigilantes should think a bit more about mental illness before they post....

That poor child and her family. Are folks going to stop saying that Japan is safe now because frankly between this, the kid who stabbed someone and all the other random violence being reported on a daily basis, I don't think folks can bury their head in the sand much longer.

Yeah, there's just not enough detail here to draw any conclusion or on which to base an opinion. But some people here don't want to miss an opportunity to explain to us all how they would have saved the day or to advance their preconceptions.

LFRAgain, it had nothing to do with summer temperatures. I agree with most of your post but the summer temperatures is just giving an excuse. When I was young and there was not air conditioning in those days, the summers were hot. Here you use Celsius so the summers were 37-42 degrees Celsius and people did not do those things. He wanted to sexually molest her which shows he is perverted. But Japan does not have laws against child pornography because the ones in office like it. Japan promotes women looking like little girls and thus promotes sexual abuse of minors. This man is not just sick, he is a menace to everyone who loves and he has no heart. Just incarceration is not enough. He needs to pay every day for the rest of his life, He needs to do watched community service, work and all of his money go to support the child and support the innocent victims of crimes committed such as his own crime. Every dime he ever makes goes to help the innocent children who have been abused by a crazy person. I think prison is too easy on people that commit horrific crimes, let them live with the horribleness of their crimes until they die. I am appalled that there were eye witnesses and no one helped. What is wrong with the Japanese people that they do not help an innocent victim when they see it happening? I called the police so I did my part? The police are only an hour away. The child could be dead, Don't watch, do something.

"When he is, in fact, obviously out of his mind. hope the girl recovers and he gets the treatment he clearly needs. And the wanna-be vigilantes should think a bit more about mental illness before they post...."

@Lucabrasi. Can I assume from your post that you are a trained mental health professional? Your compassion is admirable and your call against vigilantes is fair but your tendency to brandish anyone who committs an act of violence as "mentally ill" does two things; 1) it gives a pass to anyone who hurts another human being and 2) puts a stigma on those who truly are mentally ill and contributes to society shunning them. I challenge you to ask a licensed mental health professional how many truly mentally ill people committ crimes. I have asked three and their answers are the vast, vast majority of the mentally ill are passive. And one doctor said something to me that I will never forget; "Directing personal anger at the weak because of personal failure does not equal mental illness."

we pray for the kid to get her health back soon, when this kind of attack happen, the whole society gets affected, the children gets afraid in the streets. This creates mistrust and suspicion among the people who are stranger for each other. the people do not say hello to each other even when they are standing close to each other, ignoring each other and do not answer if one's says hello. more and more communication gap and mistrust.

As a human being, the eyewitness should use all the possible ways to prevent the attack or the damage, some people do want to help but they do not know how to response. in some societies the eyewitness jump and stop such attacks through their hands and then every body follow such example which become a natural response in that particular society, these people also know that the law or the police will support them. in most of these societies the people and the families or more close to each others.

in some societies, the eyewitness do want to help but they do not know how to react and there are no social examples for them which provide them guidance for their natural reaction. more over in some societies the people are afraid of the legal implications, for example how the police will react to them while present on the scene/spot.

Many years ago I chanced upon a man and a woman in a parked car just as the guy was giving the woman a powerful smack across the face. I had a hard time believing I was seeing what I saw but the way he was screaming at her and the way that she was cowering and crying, I knew I hadn't imagined it. I walked over towards the car to let him know that someone was watching him but at the same time I was aware of the distance and where I could run to in the event that he came after me because he was considerably larger than I was and I probably couldn't have put up much of a fight against him. I made a point of writing down the license plate number and tried asking her if she wanted to come with me, which she was clearly too scared to do and then quickly went into a business and called the police who, fortunately, arrived within minutes and arrested the guy. This was before cell phones and like I said, being smaller than him and having no weapon with which to defend myself, I was hesitant to do more than what I did. Fortunately it turned out to be enough but I shudder to think of what would have happened had he just decided to keep hitting her despite my presence.

I don't want to defend people who were in a position to do something but didn't but at the same time, I think it's really easy to say what you would or wouldn't have done when in reality, you can't really be sure until you are in the situation and every situation is different so it's almost a moot point anyway. I would only hope that at the very least and assuming it were possible, someone would have called the police, recorded the incident so there was definite proof or at least shouted out to the guy to distract him long enough to have allowed the girl to escape or for someone else to have stepped in to help her. I don't know if anyone attempted any of those things or if the incident was over before anyone had a chance but, to the best of my knowledge, neither does anyone else here (save for the post on how an eyewitness chased the suspect into a bowling alley).

@sam

Your post is very fair and you make a good case. But I really would suggest that any adult who attacks a child like this is clearly sick. I'm not trying to make excuses, I'm trying to explain. Crazy people are crazy by definition, whereas”society" has traditionally tried to criminalise their actions.

It's a quick fix of chewy, vigilante hatred, but it does nothing to solve the real problem.

@luca. I agree with your stance on vigilante hatred 100% but you have no evidence that proves or even suggests that mental illness is at play. And your statement "crazy people are crazy by definition...society has traditionally tried to criminalize their actions" chills me. I may be misreading your statement but I am understanding your statement to mean that if society simply stopped labelling criminal activity as criminal then there would be no crime. But here is why I don't buy into the mentally ill answer; these "mentally ill" people always attack someone weaker. They never seem to go after a stronger person who could fight back one way or another. This is a conscious choice and pretty much destroys the mentally ill theory. Read the last line of the article, "...approached the girl with the INTENTION of sexually assaulting her..."

"wtf is going on in this country recently?" "WTF is happening in this country?"

... happened in the past and will continue to happen in the future because the nasty cycles are repeated every nano second.

we all know that profanities, hate, and the lynch mob attitudes simply prolong the cycle.

to date... most of us humans on earth have directly experienced hurt that results in social/psychological damage- some more so than others.

let's focus our energy on the little girl... that she may fully recover. kudos to the guy-on-the-bicycle and another who helped apprehend the culprit. as to the violent attacker- maybe my research can help provide an explanation http://www.globalgestalt.com/#!narcissism/cswn Let us truly share learning so we can all be balanced and be happier. Aloha! ET

@sam

You're making a common mistake by assuming that a "conscious choice" implies sanity. Mentally ill people are quite capable of deciding the best option for themselves, as far as they see it. The problem is how their choice affects other people. Once you're mad then everything from then on is equally mad ....

"You're making a common mistake by assuming that a "conscious choice" implies sanity." @Luca. Can you give me any evidence that suggests otherwise? Like I wrote earlier, I am not a mental health expert but I have spoken with three and what they have said generally contradicts your position.

"Mentally ill people are quite capable of deciding the best option for themselves, as far as they see it. The problem is how their choice affects other people. Once you're mad then everything from then on is equally mad ...." @Luca. So I can assume by this answer that anyone who makes a bad choice and hurts other people is mentally ill and they are not responsible for their actions. I disagree but appreciate your frankness and willingness to debate the topic. Thanks, Sam.

Okay, I'm going to wade in on the direction this thread is taking with suggestions that popular fascination with AKB48-type pop culture only natural compels men to rape -- or want to rape.

This logic is no different from stating that girls who dress like pop idols are asking to be raped -- Which is only a hop, skip, and jump from, "She was begging for it, your honor. Look how she was dressed."* Horse puckey. How women dress -- celebrity or not -- is not the issue here, nor is it, for all it's intellectually lazy convenience, a sufficient explanation as to why people rape others.

Also, I think a bit of self-reflection is necessary for anyone who would suggest that the violent retribution of "Western jail justice" is the ideal punishment for rape. Rape of any variety is equally morally reprehensible.

@lucabrasi, while I applaud your desire to see those with mental illnesses treated, your use of this argument, that they are mentally ill, in this case is absurd. Pedophiles and rapists are mentally ill people. I agree with you on that. Does that justify what they did and warrant any form of sympathy? Absolutely not. Do they earn the hatred and loathing so-called wannabe-vigilantes feel towards them? 100%! You may call people who feel this way "wannabe-vigilantes" all you want, but to sympathize with monsters who abuse and sexually assault little children, that to me is also a form of mental illness.

Furthermore @wipeout, while I agree, the article didn't mention anything about proximity, and that most people will be scared if put in a similar situation, and most probably won't step in immediately to intervene, there are those of us with the presence of mind and general care for the well-being of others that will in fact step in and do something about it if they can (in this case, the witness apparently did do all he could given the scenario (which the article didn't fully state, but was later clarified by other posts). This isn't because they want to or are seeking to be a hero. Nobody wants to be in that situation. This is just called human decency and compassion. Not doing anything just because you're scared doesn't make you any worse as a person. Fear is a normal emotion and can be paralyzing. That said, doing nothing accomplishes nothing. Just saying...

How horrifying and how terrible that he was even allowed to walk to jail and get free meals. In this case when there is clear and evident intent to cause serious harm to a child, death penality is a good solution., Such a person no matter whether sane or not is a threat to society and has lost their rights. I am sorry but too many years of rampant liberalism have made the modern world weak and given this kind of sick criminal free rein. All the debate over mental illness is totaly meaningless, it only serves to support the "rights" of evil people to hurt, harm and injure others for their own needs and desire. IT has nothing at all to do with popular culture, music idols or anything else. It is a clear case of a very evil person commiting a terrible crime.

thank you for your couragous sharing of more of the facts and there was no reason to remove your post. none at all. Editors please keep your hands off of our freedom to share relevant information.

darnnameJul. 15, 2013 - 10:58PM JST

I posted about what was on the news last night, but it's been removed by the moderators. I'll say it again before it gets removed again:

An eyewitness did chase the guy off, checked on the girl and ran to a local business and had them call an ambulance and the police, then chased the guy to the bowling alley where he was in the bathroom washing blood off his arms.

People reacted quickly and no one was just standing around letting this happened. It happened in a flash in an area not easily seen from the road because of weeds as high as corn between the road and the sidewalk.

I guess this will be removed, too. Can't have the truth standing in the way of hysterical falsehoods about how cowardly Japanese are.

-_-.... Japan something is seriously wrong with you, news like this I see everyday on this site. I hope the girl is okay.

Sorry,......knee jerk reaction on my part,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but I wish tomorrow's headline could read " techall beats 30 year old jackass into coma".

Disgusting idiot. He needs to be sexually assaulted by an 800 pound gorilla.

Part of the misunderstanding about eyewitnesses is in the wording of the article. The following passage: "According to police, eyewitnesses reported that the girl was being attacked on a road near a karaoke establishment in Ryugasaki at around 4 p.m. Sunday" can have two interpretations.

You can see this as eyewitnesses who came forward later to confirm what they had seen although they had done nothing about it at the time.

Or you can see what actually happened, ie that the police later confirmed that eyewitnesses had phoned in at the time to report that a girl was being attacked.

We also know as many readers spotted that one of the eyewitnesses chased the guy and helped make the arrest. Go bystanders!

Apparently he had deliberately chosen a relatively 'safe' and secluded place to attack her, which sounds like premeditation to me. Glad they got him off the streets.

samwattersJul. 15, 2013 - 09:45PM JST I challenge you to ask a licensed mental health professional how many truly mentally ill people committ crimes. I have asked three and their answers are the vast, vast majority of the mentally ill are passive. And one doctor said something to me that I will never forget; "Directing personal anger at the weak because of personal failure does not equal mental illness."

You asked the wrong question. The vast number of "mentally ill" are passive, as are the vast number of normal people. Violent crime is a small percentage of crime in total, and criminals are a small percentage of the population in total, so you're actually doing what you claim to oppose, you're starting from the assumption that all mentally ill people are criminals.

Instead a better question would be, "What percentage of violent criminals are mentally ill?". If the percentage of violent criminals who are mentally ill is greater than the general level of mental illness in normal society then we can say that more violent criminals are mentally ill than is normal (not that mental illness causes crime, just that relative to the general population the mentally ill have a larger percentage of violent offenders).

Of course then we run into the old problem of how we define "mental illness", which is that it by definition includes those who's actions are sufficiently far from socially accepted behaviour to fall outside of the "normal" range. Criminal behaviour almost automatically falls into this category, therefore you're going to have a skewed sample.

Drug users are often criminal (but again this falls into the vicious circle trap since drug use is illegal, therefore they're automatically criminals) so let's rephrase, certain drugs, such as PCP, lead to violent crime. These individuals suffer from physical and mental addiction, and as such are mentally ill, and they're also violent criminals.

Urgh, the entire thing is a self-referential spiral that isn't going to yield any meaningful answer.

This lunatic confesses intent to sexual assualt, then proceeds to battery and this is the statement the local authorities releases? No sign if this maniac is a repeated child offender?! No comments from the witness on bike!!

I hope the girl makes a full recovery, the guy needs a jail room with hardened criminals who have daughters themselves

Let's stop blaming on the "eye witness" - here is what actually happened. There were 2 men who actually witnessed the assault (not from the beginning, but while the guy was assaulting the girl, these 2 men passed by), the moment they saw the assault, the guy ran away and one of the witnesses got on his bike and chased him (and actually caught him in the bathroom of the bowling center nearby) while the other eye witness immediately called the police and emergency service. You all are making it sound like these 2 eye witnesses just stood there doing nothing but that is totally not true. It's easy to make assumptions and blame on whoever is easy to blame on.. but get the fact first.

Disillusioned: "Oh, c'mon! This is becoming a daily event!"

Nope, it's become a three times a day event, at least. This is yesterday's news, and there was also the girl who led her friend up the mountain, etc. We've also got a woman being held for burying a baby in a baseball field and other stabbings today, including one yakuza involved stabbing. Petty theft may be a lot lower in Japan than in other nations, but the people who pretend this nation is safe had better glue eyes to the back of their heads -- it seems people just randomly snap here more than ever of late.

Sick sick sick. Life without parole.

I hope the little girl recovers, mentally and physically, though I think the former scars will take longer to heal. As for the piece of scum who did it to her... feed him to the sharks.

@Magnet

Pedophiles and rapists are mentally ill people. I agree with you on that. Does that justify what they did and warrant any form of sympathy? Absolutely not.

Why not? If they had cancer or dementia, you'd feel sympathy. Mental illness is no different to any other illness... it strikes people at random or genetically and causes horrible symptoms.

The actions of people like this cause revulsion and horror among sane people, but that doesn't make them any less ill or in need of care.

@zichi

Pedophiles and rapists are NOT mentally ill people.

With all respect, I'd ask you to reconsider. Sane people don't go out and abuse children or rape women. Crazy people do.

Luca... they know what they're doing... they are sane.

@Thunderbird & zichi

I like both your comments usually; lots of thumbs up! This time we have to disagree, though.

I'd say 99% of criminality is down to mental problems, mostly due to a poor upbringing. And the psychologists' stats bear me out.

I'd say 99% of criminality is down to mental problems, mostly due to a poor upbringing. And the psychologists' stats bear me out.

I'd like to put it another way, if I may -- completely agreeing with you:

No psychologically healthy individual would ever act out an impulse to cause undue harm to another person. It is the very ability to sublimate those impulses that is the standard of mental health.

The very fact of undue harm being caused is all the proof needed of a severe psychological problem.

@zichi Agreed. None of them should ever be tried in a court of law. They need help. And they can be "cured", at least according to psychologists/psychiatrists; it just takes an awful lot of time and an awful lot of money.

Whether or not a particular society is willing to invest such time and money depends very much on the level of civilisation of that society. Personally, I'm quite happy to see my taxes spent on the rehabilitation of people who need help, criminals or not....

Personally, I'm quite happy to see my taxes spent on the rehabilitation of people who need help, criminals or not....

Some of the rehab costs next to nothing...

For your consideration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA8XFEyeMi8

@yabits

No psychologically healthy individual would ever act out an impulse to cause undue harm to another person. It is the very ability to sublimate those impulses that is the standard of mental health.

Thank you. You put it better than I ever did.

Jan is a safe country!!! Ya right! It used to be, but I am starting to think its not!!

Dear god, that's pretty terrible.

Lucky the bystander helped out to catch the guy. Hopefully the country doesn't descend into chaos like the US or China or something.

Sad incident, but what is a 10yo doing out alone at 4am, especially in what sounds like an entertainment district?

AEROCASTER ... not 4am, this happened at 4pm.. afternoon (and it was not an entertainment district for your information).

'If I were there I would have.....' Thats right you would have done exactly what every one else did, nothing except write 'If I were..' on the next blog entry or twitter or what ever.

What the hell!? People like him should be in jail for the rest of their life!

umm....parents of girl? conveniently mia

what a maniac, he better pray she lives.