The Misery Machine - The Story of Junko Furuta: The 44 Days of Hell | Concrete-Encased High School Girl Murder Case

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the tragic case of Junko Furuta, a Japanese high-school student who was abducted, tortured, raped, and murdered in the late 1980s. Her murder case was named "Concrete-Encased High School Girl Murder Case," due to her body being discovered in a concrete drum.  Approximately 100 people knew about Furuta's captivity, but either did nothing about it or themselves participated in the torture and murder. Most of the participants were friends of the teenage boys, who were low-ranking members of the Yakuza. We draw parallels between this case and the murder of Kitty Genovese regarding the many people who knew about what was going on and refused to act despite clear knowledge that somebody was suffering or dying. Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast #truecrime #documentary #mystery

And I'm your game. I normally would do our plugs here in the beginning, and I would normally give shoutouts to the Apple podcast reviews. I love you all very much, and I'm very sorry. I'm not reading them this week. I will read them again next week, but I don't feel it's appropriate to do any of these things when it comes to this case. I don't often feel compelled to do this,

but it's important that I give a content warning for this case, that we both give a content warning for this case. Yes. Because this is not your average case. There are themes of torture, sexual assault, and ultimately murder. I know we've covered cases like that before, but this is probably one of the worst single killings that I have ever come across. And kind of content warning as well with this. We're going to let you behind the curtain a little bit.

Often with podcast, it would seem like we're doing this all in one take, but we don't. It's usually different clips and we'll do it from time to time. I will say this intro is the last thing we're recording. And just as a content warning, if you are easily upset with people getting upset over things, just kind of be cautious with this because I could not keep it together for part of this episode. And I don't think we're editing that out. If you feel compelled to support us, the social media links are in the descriptions. you know where to find them.

But with all of that out of the way, this is the Junko Feruta case. Junko Feruta was a Japanese high school student who was abducted, tortured, raped, and murdered in the late 1980s. Her murder case was named Concrete-Incased High School Girl Murder Case. That's a mouthful. When you translate Japanese nicknames, they tend to be... A bit obnoxious. Yeah. I mean, I'm not hating.

I love the Japanese language, but it gets very well. wordy. It gets very wordy, but when you translate to English, it's almost kind of beautiful. I remember there's one Japanese MMA fighter. I can't remember her name. I think it was Emmy Fujita, and her name translated was Special Attack Angel. Oh my. And I was like, damn. Like they just always said like crazy names and stuff. So yeah, I'm just not surprised by this. You watch like any anime that's subtitled. And if you can get direct translations on things, it's like wacky names, especially their special. moves in action anime or something like that. I don't have any good examples right now.

But yeah, so this was due to her body being discovered in a concrete drum. The murder was mainly perpetrated by four teenage boys. Hiroshi Miyano, Joe Ogura. I thought it was Joe Wananabe. The other name is what he adopted. Ah, okay. It's like a pseudonym he took later. Okay.

Shinji Minado and Yasushi Wadhanabi. Approximately 100 people knew about Faruda's captivity, but either did nothing about it or themselves participated in the torture and murder. Most of the participants were friends of the teenage boys who were low-ranking members of the Yakuza, which is the Japanese mafia for those who are not aware. Ferruda was born in Masato-Saitama Prefecture. As a teenager, she attended Yoshio Minami High School and worked as a part-time employee during after-school hours. She lived with her parents, her elder brother, and her younger brother. Prior to her abduction, she had accepted a job at an electronics retailer where she planned on working after graduation. One of her schoolmates, Hiroshi Miyano, had a crush on her and asked her out on multiple occasions.

However, Faruda turned him down as she was not interested in a relationship. Miano was a member of the Yakuza and wanted revenge on her. So from what I understand after looking into this, some dispute that he had actually asked her out, But for those that believe that that's what happens, he apparently had never been turned down before. And basically, if that guy came up to you and said he was taking you on a date, you could not say no. And this was the first time somebody said no. So on November 25, 1988, Miyano and his friend Nobuharu Manado wandered around Massado with the intention of robbing and raping local women. At 8.30 p.m., they spotted Faruda cycling home after she finished her part-time job.

Under Miyano's orders, Minato kicked Feruta off her bicycle and immediately fled the scene. Miano, using the pretense of it being a coincidence he was in the locale, approached Feruta and offered her walk her home safely. It is widely believed that Feruta rejected Miano's advances towards her. She was unaware that Miano was leading her to a nearby warehouse, where he revealed his Yakuza connections. Miano threatened to kill her as he raped her in the warehouse and once again in a nearby hotel. From the hotel, Miano called Minado and his other friends, Joe Ogura and Yasushi Wananabe, and bragged to them about the rape.

O'Gura reportedly asked Miano to keep her so they could all have a turn. The group had a history of gang rape and had recently kidnapped and raped another girl, although she was released afterward. It's kind of crazy to read this because rape is not a common crime in Japan. nor are there roving gangs of misfits. And usually if there are, it's somewhat linked to the yakuza, but I know the yakuza looks down on things like this. So I'm overall pretty surprised that this is a thing that's happening. It's a very rare thing for those that are wondering,

oh, are the roving gangs of rapists? No, they're really not. This is kind of like a one-off crazy thing. Yeah, Japan overall is a very safe place. Around 3 a.m. Miano took Feruta to a near- by park where Manato, Agura, and Watanabe were waiting. They told her that they knew where she lived from a notebook they found in her backpack, and that the Yakuza would kill her family if she attempted to escape.

She was easily overpowered by the four boys and taken to a house in the Ayyase district of Adachi where she was gang raped. The house, which was owned by Manado's parents soon became their regular gang hangout. So on the 27th of November, Farudas parents contacted the police, about their daughter's disappearance. In order to prevent the manhunt, the kidnappers coerced her into calling her mother. She was forced to say that she had run away but was safe and staying with a friend. She was also forced to ask her mother to stop the police investigation into her disappearance.

When Manado's parents were around, Feruta was forced to pose as the girlfriend of one of the kidnappers. They later dropped this pretext when it became clear that the Monados would not report them to the police. The Monado stated they did not intervene because they were aware of Mianna. Yuzuka connections and feared retaliation, and because their own son was increasingly violent towards them. Manato's brother was also aware of the situation, but did nothing to prevent it. So I read when I was researching this that there was two different accounts of his parents claiming that they had no idea it was going on, that they saw the girl and just thought it was one of their girlfriends, but thought nothing of it and said they never heard anything like that going on.

I didn't think that they had admitted to that yet. I don't think they ever. officially admitted to it but common sense says that they absolutely knew what was going on like I don't want to jump ahead we're going to talk about the sentencing and things like that later however I'm very surprised that the monados didn't get arrested themselves just because they were allowing this to go on in their home in the states you would get some sort of accessory for that pretty quickly yeah you would be accessory to murder in the very least yeah whether you did truly know it or not just in the states, like, they don't, they don't fuck around with shit like that. Because it would be impossible to not know.

Let's just be logical here. Yeah, for sure. Ferruda was held captive in the Monado residence for 44 days, during which time she was abused, raped, and tortured. They also invited and encouraged their other Yakuza friends to torment Faruta. Now, not all of them were Yakuza. Some of them were just his school friends. According to the trial statements, the four of them raped her over four. hundred times.

Beat her, starved her, hung her from the ceiling, and used her as a punching bag. They dropped barbells, like weight barbells, onto her stomach, forced her to eat live cockroaches and drink her own urine, and they forced her to masturbate in front of them. They inserted foreign objects into her vagina and anus, including a lit light bulb, like while still connected to a lamp and fireworks. They also put meat skewers into her too. Yeah. Yacotori ones.

Yeah, they put Yacotori meat skewers that I believe were hot off the grill. Yeah. They burned her vagina and clitoris with cigarettes and lighters and her eyelids with hot wax. They also tore off her left nipple with pliers and pierced her breasts with sewing needles. When her body was found, Oronam and C bottle, were stuck up her anus and her face was unrecognizable. She was also found to be pregnant despite the severe damage to her uterus. Some of the torturer's friends had been officially identified, including Tetsuo Nakamura and Koyichi, Ihara,

who were charged with a rape after their DNA was found on and in the victim's body. Ihara was allegedly bullied into raping Faruda. After he left the Manado household, he told his brother about the incident. incident. His brother subsequently told their parents who contacted the police. Two police officers were dispatched to the Monado house. However, they were informed that there was no girl inside. The police officers declined an invitation to look into the house, believing... Hold on. You okay? Yep. You want to talk about it? You sure? We can Patreon it. If you want to say what you're feeling. Just give me a second. I'll start. Okay. The police officers declined an invitation to look around the house,

believing that invitation alone was sufficient proof that there was no girl in the Monado house. Both officers faced considerable backlash from the community. Had they done their due diligence, Feruta's ordeal would have only lasted 16 days. I know this is a hard one. Okay, you'd do the rest. Okay, okay. Had they done their due diligence,

Ferruita's ordeal would have only lasted 16 days. and she may well have recovered from her injuries. The two officers were fired for failing to follow procedure. Do you want me to stop? Do you want me to keep going? At the beginning of December, Feruta attempted to call the police. However, she was discovered by Miyano before she could say anything. When the police phoned back, Miyano informed them it was a mistake.

As punishment, they doused her legs and feet in lighter fluid and set them on fire. They also pushed a large bottle into her anus causing severe bleeding. She reportedly went into convulsions. During their trial, they stated that they thought she was faking a seizure, so they set her on fire again. She survived these injuries and continued to be raped and tortured. Feruta's reported to have asked her captors on multiple occasions to kill her and get it over with, but they refused. Instead, they forced her to sleep outside on the balcony, and it was winter at the time. time. And winter in Japan can get into the negative degrees, even in the mainland. And they also

locked her in a freezer as if the parents didn't know. Of course they knew. One of the kidnappers told the court that her hands and legs were so badly damaged that it took her over an hour to drag herself downstairs to use the bathroom. Yeah, there's no way the parents didn't know. Due to the severity of the torture. She eventually lost bladder and bowel control and was beaten for soiling the carpets. She was also unable to drink water or consume food and would vomit after each attempt. She was also severely beaten for this. The brutality of the text drastically altered Fruda's appearance. Her face was so swollen that it was difficult to make out her features. Her body was also severely crippled, giving off a rotting smell that caused the four

boys to lose sexual interest in her. As a result, the boys kidnapped. As a result, the boys kidnapped, and gang raped a 19-year-old woman who, like Faruda, was on her way home from work. I believe that one they didn't capture, though. They just let her go. Right. On the 4th of January in 1989, after losing a game of Mahjong, Hiroshima decided to vent out his anger on Feruta. At this point, Feruta was barely live. Out of frustration, the boys beat her with an iron barbell, kicked and punched her and placed two short candles on her eyelids, burning them with the hot wax. They made her stand and struck her feet with a swinging stick.

At this point, she fell onto a stereo and collapsed in a fit of convulsions. Since she was bleeding profusely and pus was emerging from her infected burns, the four boys covered their hands in plastic bags, which were taped at the wrists. They continued to beat her and dropped an iron exercise ball onto her stomach several times. They poured lighter fluid onto her thighs, arms, face, and stomach, and once again set her on fire. Fruda allegedly made attempts to put out the fire but gradually became unresponsive. The attack reportedly lasted two hours. Fruda eventually succumbed to her wounds and died later that day.

Less than 24 hours after her death, Nobuharu Minado's brother, called to tell him that Faruta appeared to be dead. Afraid of being caught for murder, they wrapped her body in blankets and shoved it into a travel bag. They then put her body in a 55-gallon drum and filled it with wet concrete. Around 8 p.m., they loaded and eventually disposed the drum into a cement truck in Koto, Tokyo. On 23rd January, 1989, Hiroshi Miano and Joe Agora were arrested for the gang rape of the 19-year-old woman who they kidnapped in December. On March 29, two police officers came to interrogate them, as women's underwear had been found at their addresses. During the interrogations, one of the officers led Miano into thinking he knew of Faruda's murder. What was going on here is they were interrogating them for a different disappearance,

but they thought it was about Faruda. So thinking that Joe Agora had already confessed to the crime, Miano told the police where to find Faruda's body. The police were initially puzzled by the confession as they had been talking about the murder of another woman and her seven-year-old son that had occurred nine days prior to Faruda's abduction, and that case remains unsolved to this day. I couldn't find anything about names of that case.

I really did try to look. The police found the drum containing Faruta's body the following day. She was identified via fingerprints. On April 1st, 1989, Joe Agora was arrested for another sexual assault and subsequently re-arrested for murder. The arrest of Yasushi Wadhanabi, Nobuharu Minado, and Manado's brother followed. Despite the shocking brutality for their crime, the identities of the boys were sealed by the court

since they were all considered to be juvenile at the time of the crime. Journalists from the Shukun Bunshun magazine discovered their identities, however, and published them. Good. They stated that given the severity of the crime, the accused did not deserve the right to have their anonymity upheld.

All four boys pled guilty to committing bodily injury that resulted in death rather than murder. I think it was one of them. I think it was Joe Agora was actually not a minor at the time. Right. Because when they published their pictures, they blurred all their eyes out except for his.

Yeah, he looked older. Yeah, he did. In July 1990, a lower court sentenced Hiroshi Miyano that alleged leader of the crime to 17 years in prison. Just 17 years in prison. That's all he got. He appealed his sentence, but Tokyo High Court judge Ryuzi Yanase sentenced him to an additional three years in prison. but still 20 years, 20 years for that. The 20-year sentence is the second highest sentence before life imprisonment.

He was 18 at the time of the murder. Miano's mother reportedly sent for Ruta's parents 50 million yen, the equivalent of $425,000 U.S. dollars at the time. So not by today's money, but $425,000 by 1989. And she got that money by selling the Miano family home. Miano was denied parole in 2004. In January 2013, Miano was re-arrested for fraud.

Due to insufficient evidence, he was released without charge later that month. So he's out and about. Nobuharu Minato, who originally received a 46-year sentence, was re-sentenced to five to nine years by Judge Riuichi Yanase upon appeal. Upon appeal.

I didn't know they could do that. I don't think that's something they can do in the state. No, but I love that they can do it there. I do love that they could do that. They should, well, I mean, you think. I don't care that they're kids. Well, I don't care either. I mean, there are many murders you can point to in the states where they've tried kids as adults.

I don't, nobody ever got the death penalty, but some of them got, someone did. Roderick Farrell got it as a minor. He got the death penalty in Florida. But his sentence was later changed to life. How old was he at the time of the murder? I think he was 17. Oh, okay. We'll definitely cover that case because it was one.

I'd studied a lot as a teenager. So there were some kids as young as 12, I think, that were, I have to look and see what the youngest ever tried as an adult. I swear 12, maybe even younger than that, been tried as an adult just for like murders and things like that. And these boys were not anywhere close to 12. They were like 16, 17, 18. You know what the great thing is about the death penalty in Japan? Yeah. They don't tell you when they're going to do it.

So you have to go to bed every day. wondering if they're going to do it to you the next day. I didn't know that. Yep. You go get your date. Like, Soutimo Miyazaki got the death penalty. Yeah, but it took years. It did.

Yeah, it did. It took like 20 years for him to be executed. You needed to kill kids. It's just so crazy to me. So Nobohiro Minato was 16 at the time of the murder. Noboharu's parents and brother were not charged. Farudas parents were dismayed by the sentences received by their daughter's killers and won a civil suit against the parents of Noboharu Minato.

in whose home the crimes were committed. After his release, Minato moved in with his mother. He has not been able to find work since. Yesushi Watanabe, who was originally sentenced to three to four years in prison. Jesus Christ. An upgraded sentence to five to seven years. It really looks like these guys shouldn't have been pushing their luck with this judge because he gives no fucks. He was 17 at the time with a murder.

After his release, he married a Romanian woman. For his participation in the crime, Joe Agorri. served eight years in juvenile prison before he was released in August 1999. He was 17 at the time of the murder. After his release, he is said to have boasted about his role in the kidnap. This guy is one of the worst ones. After his release, he's said to have boasted about his role in the kidnapping, rape, and torture of Faruda. In July 2004, he was arrested for assaulting Takatoshi Isono, an acquaintance he thought

his girlfriend may have been evolved with. Agora tracked Asano down, beat him, and shoved him into his truck. He drove him from Adachi to his mother's bar in Masato, where he allegedly beat Esono for four hours. During that time, Agora repeatedly threatened to kill the man, telling him that he had killed before and knew how to get away with it. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for the assault and has since been released. Agora's mother allegedly vandalized Faruda's grave, stating that she had ruined her son's life. It has also been reported that O'Gura had run through his father's savings, money which was originally meant for Faruda's family, buying and consuming a number of luxury goods. The sentences were largely regarded as being far too light for the crimes committed.

You don't fucking say. Yeah. All four individuals were protected by special provisions applied to individual. 18 years old and younger. During the sentencing, the judge commented that exceptionally grave and atrocious violence had been inflicted upon the victim and that Junco Feruta had been murdered so brutally at the young age of 17 that her soul must be wandering and torment. Hearing the details of the brutal rape and torture, a spectator in the gallery fainted.

Feruta's mother also reportedly had a mental breakdown which required psychiatric treatment. Junco Feruta's funeral was held on April 2nd, 1989. One of her friend's memorial address stated, Jun Shan, welcome back. I have never dreamed that we would see you again in this way. You must have been in so much pain, so much suffering. The happy we all made for the school festival looked really good on you. We will never forget you.

I have heard that the headmaster had presented you with a graduation certificate, so we graduated together, all of us. us. Jun Chan, there is no more pain, no more suffering. Please rest in peace. Feruta's part-time employer, whom she worked for prior to her kidnapping and murder, presented her parents with the uniform she would have worn as a full-time employee. She was working as an employee for an electronic store, if I remember correctly. The uniform was placed in her casket. The location nearer of Faruda's body was discovered has been developed since and is now Wakasu Park.

People around Hiroshi Miyano remember that he never forbade other. from asking him about this murder. While talking about it, he was always playful and exultant. And acted as if it was none of his business. Thus, Shukin Bunchin criticized him for being completely unrepentant. And unfortunately, I agree with them.

This is one of the most brutal, single murders I've ever come across, maybe even the most brutal, more brutal than strings of murders I've read about. Right. And clearly I have a hard time with it. So. And I watch a lot of really fucked up shit. Yeah. I think the thing about this is it's not just abducting somebody and killing them in a brutal way. It's torturing them for that long. If she didn't succumb, they would have kept torturing her. This never would have ended. It never would have ended.

Killing her was not intentional. It was an accident. Let that sink in for a second. second, the intentions, just how evil you have to be to do this. And somebody's literally begging you for death. And it's just unrecognizable. Their body's broken beyond any sort of repair. It's just so hard to just fathom just what that takes in a person to do. Just what kind of a human you have to be to do something like that. And I really, I don't believe that the parents had no idea about this.

How do you have no idea about this? Obviously you're going to hear a girl screaming in the house, especially when all that's happening, when you have several boys gang raping her and beating her and just abusing her in so many different ways. And it wasn't just those boys either. They did stay in multiple sources

that the 400 rapes, there was over 100 men that raped her. Jesus Christ. So there was like a lot of, line of people going in and out of the house. Because they knew what was, yeah. What was going on. Just think about that.

Just how evil are we as humans? How many people would just do something like this because the opportunity was there? How many people have a hand in this and are still alive today and have that on their conscience? Probably all of them. It's just crazy to think about how many people are walking free now that never stood trial. were never implicated. They probably got to go and lead normal lives.

Well, I know you wanted to touch a little bit on bystand or apathy. Yeah. So this case reminded me of the Kitty Genevice case. And for those that don't know, it was a woman who was attacked just a random act of violence by somebody who was arguably a serial killer. Killed, well, admitted to killing two other people, but the police refused to convict him. So he just saw her. walking down a street in Queens, New York, he parked his car. He ran over to her and started stabbing her. And she was screaming for help in a busy neighborhood. And nobody really did anything. One person yelled,

leave that woman alone. Nobody called the cops. Nobody did anything. He left the scene, came back with a wide-brimmed hat, found her. She had crawled into an alleyway and was trying to get somebody to let her in and nobody would let her in. and he stabbed her a lot, raped her, and mugged her, and she died later. And at the time, they had thought there was about 38 witnesses that did nothing. In 2016, after revisiting the case in New York Times said that was grossly overstated, but they couldn't, from what I read, couldn't name the amount of witnesses there actually were. However, it is to say that there were witnesses that definitely heard but didn't do anything. Because this is just a thing. People don't want to get involved in conflict.

People feel like it's their place and people have a hard time acting. It was more than just that, though. There were people who literally pulled chairs up to their windows and watched. There was some sort of elevator operator who saw everything and rather than doing anything, just went downstairs and went to bed. Yes, that is true. It's been a while since I've looked into this case. I'm going off of memory right now.

Yeah, there were other people who claimed they didn't do anything about it because they didn't want to be inconvenienced with going down to the station to do any paperwork. Yeah. And like she was pounding on people's doors. Yeah. And there was someone, I guess, in the hallway or an entryway kind of like we have at the apartment here who wouldn't let her in. Yeah, I heard about that. And finally, when somebody did let her in, she was basically dead at that point. And she died in that person's arms.

Or I'm sorry, she died on the way to the hospital. hospital and ambulance finally came, but she was already unconscious by that point. And this was the case that established 911 in New York City. And I'm not sure if that's where 911 originated, but I know that 911 did not exist in New York City up until then. I think where the Junko Ferruda case is different is that a lot of people could claim bystander apathy due to fear because the yakuza are very feared entity in Japan. Japan is a safe place, but it's expected that you stay out of the yakuza's way. You can usually see a yakuza walking a mile away,

or so I've read from people who've lived there again. Like I've never lived there, but a yakuza has much different body language. They have body language more like people here in America do. Somebody that would be walking very boisterous, and they wear very flashy clothes. whereas your average citizen will be walking with closed body posture, eyes averted, things of that nature. And they're very tattooed generally. Yes.

Which is also very annoying because due to that fact, there's a very big stigma about foreign people going to the springs and bathhouses in Japan. Because tattoos mean gangs. Mean gangs are the Yakuza. So poor Yergi is going to have a hard time with that. So unless you're like maybe a Japanese punk, I think I've seen tattoos. tattoos on Japanese punk rockers and stuff, but in general, the vast majority of Japanese citizens do not have tattoos. Right.

But the Yakuza, there's just such this aspect that you don't mess with them, stay out of their way. You don't want to get involved with that because it's not just you. It's your entire family that could go down for it. So knowing that these boys had connection to the Yakuza, you can see why some people felt like they could not do anything. I think that's different than the Kitty Genovese case where people just did nothing. Yeah, people were safe in their own home. This was not a thing like, oh, no, it's the Italian mob.

I can't do anything about this. It wasn't like that at all. The Italian mob wouldn't have done that. Right, the Italian. I'm just giving an example. Because what's the equivalent to the Yakuza at that period of time? Probably be the Italian mob. As much as I understand people's fear for something like this,

You would think there's a way to anonymously report it. And then ultimately what got them in trouble was one of the boys told his brother and his brother told the cops. He was like the only one and they got arrested and caught on it on circumstance. They were investigating another murder. Since she was forced to call and say, stop looking for me, I'm happy. She could have gone missing forever. Yeah, she could have. Once one of those oil drums are disposed of,

done nobody ever would have known and you stopped to think how many people go that way and like due to the fact that that place is developed now yes it could have went right to the bottom of the lake or have been buried and just yeah developed over and nobody would have known absolutely absolutely you know we have this horrible case of junco feruta how many other women in countries and places that is conducive to things of this nature how many of them go missing Aaron ever seen from again. How many people get away with that? I just don't know.

That happens in Maine. So if you think about the James Hicks cases, which we're eventually going to cover at one point, it's the case up in Carmel, Maine. Yes, yes. He got away with two murders for a very long time because they couldn't pin it on him and they couldn't find the bodies.

And because Maine, especially at North, is so vast and pretty much undeveloped. Yeah. You know, how many people are just out in the woods here? We still have uncharted territories. Yeah. Driving around since I've driven out in that area, even in the daytime, it's kind of eerie in its own way.

For every Junkal Furuda, how many, you would like to think that Junkal Feruta is a sign that if you do something like this, you will inevitably be caught. But the way I think of it is, is that for every Junko Feruta that's discovered, how many more are not discovered in places that are conducive to this. And maybe that's hard to wrap your head around if you didn't grow up in a place like we did. Yeah, and that happens in Tokyo. You mean this happened in Tokyo? Right, and they basically almost got away with it.

Yeah, Saitama, yeah, basically in the greater Tokyo area. Yeah, that's true. It wasn't like this was in more rural Japan. This was in one of the most major metropolitan cities in the world. Now, granted, it was in a more suburban area, but still, it's just crazy to think how many people had to have known and did absolutely nothing. and how many times is something like this happened? In a neighborhood like this, you hear girls screaming or crying or what have you. And to think of how Japan has developed.

Now, I don't know how this particular street was, how the houses were, or anything like that. But Japan is known for being very overdeveloped and overcrowded, especially in the greater Tokyo area. And even in the suburban areas, the houses are kind of one on top of the other. Right. So with that sense. how in the hell do you not hear a woman screaming in a situation like that? I will try to research addresses and what it looked like then, but it wasn't like this was the 50s.

It was the late 80s. It was all, it was 1989. I just don't believe that nobody could have known. I believe that a lot of people knew. And sure, a lot of them were good people that just were scared for their own families. But if it went this way, how often did that happen? not just there, but in places like that. I can't even begin to imagine.

I could only speculate on the answer. I think that's the part that really scares me. Okay. I did a little bit of research here, and I'm going to just hand over the phone. That's where it happens. It's in a pretty populated city-looking area. Yeah.

I mean, geez, this looked like downtown. It looks like downtown Boston to me, or downtown like Chinatown and Boston. I was going to say, that's what the buildings looked like. Well, there was in downtown New Orleans, there were some buildings like that too. Yeah, and to think that this was a $425,000 house in 1989 money.

So obviously this was expensive. It didn't look like it was in the middle of nowhere. I totally failed to consider that part of it. I don't know. When I always visualize this in my head, for some reason, though it wasn't in city Tokyo, I always just thought of it in some sort of weird high-rise, which clearly, you know, now looking at the picture,

that's not the case. I thought it was this rural suburban area. I always pictured it. This house down a side street or something like that. Kind of in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how to explain it without somebody being familiar what some suburbs in Japan look like. I thought it to be a more rural area, but it clearly was not.

And I always forget it was in the greater Tokyo area. Do you want to talk about why this case in particular gets you so upset? I guess I could touch a little bit about it. I'll try to keep it together. Okay. So being someone who's gone through multiple sexual assaults myself, things like this kind of set me off a little bit. Although we've covered many, many cases in the past where people have been sexually assaulted and it hasn't really affected me, for some reason this one does. I don't know if it's how things were done or because I am. am a vagina-owning person, I start visualizing this in my head and start getting rather empathetic.

Yeah, I assume you're brutally tortured. It's like when a guy gets hit in the balls, you're just like, ugh, you feel for him. And that was a crude example, but. Well, right, but a decent parallel, I guess. But thinking about it and then I start visualizing, it starts, like, overwhelming me. Yeah. I think of what makes me sick to my stomach, Because again, it's one thing to be tortured and killed, but to be tortured and kept for the sake of continually being tortured. That's just so evil to me. That's just so evil. You're just literally, like, they would have kept going for as long as they could with her.

I don't think they thought in their head that what they were doing could kill her. You know, I've mentioned before, I watch a lot of fucked up shit. I listen to a lot of fucked up shit. For lack of a better term, have been watching, like, snuff-related stuff. things, you know, since I was a teenager, or at least true death stuff. And nothing has ever affected me like this case does. Yeah. I get the same reaction any time I listen to the case. And you look at pictures of her. This is a girl very young, just about to graduate high school, seemed beloved by her peers. And all she did was allegedly turn someone down. And even if she

didn't. Some guy just looked at her and said, I'm going to kidnap her and do all these evil things. And I'm sure she wasn't even mean about it. No, I'm sure she wasn't. It's just you don't turn down Yakuza, or at least that guy. That's what people said about him is that you don't say no to him. He was a known bully and he had connections and he was used to getting his way. I've met a lot of people that are used to getting their way. I've never known anyone close to that. I don't know. I don't even know you think to do any of these things. And I find myself pretty depraved at times, but just to the level of where they took it is like pretty insane.

They took it to places where most people wouldn't even have the capability of imagining. If you were to take an average person and told them you have to torture somebody, what would you do to them? I'm sure most of them would not think of the things that they did. It's crazy. It's crazy to me. Is there anything else you want to say? I think I've said all I really can with it.

I don't want to go too far into my experiences just because that could be another social episode that we do. And obviously, I don't want to take away from the depravity of this with my own things that were not this crazy, obviously. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, that's all I have. And I'm glad we got through it. Yeah. Oh, I also want to say. that this is one of the rare cases where the case is known by the victim's name and not the perpetrators.

And I don't know if that's due the severity of things. I know there was a group of them, but usually they'll give a name to the group, the media will. It's just unfortunate that something like this has to happen in order for us to start memorializing the victim and not the perpetrators, which true crime has a propensity to do. It has a fetish almost. Yes. And I don't want to go too far into this because I feel it would be crude of me to go on this tangent in a case like this. But I feel like a lot of people in true crime have such fetishes for gory details and perpetrators but are ready to just rip other people apart or podcasters apart that act in the way, which they secretly do. This genre gets pretty sick at times.

It can. It really can. 10. Okay, well, let's try to end this on not such a sour note. I just feel like I'm not doing it justice. If you find interest in this case, I would say go and look up a picture of Junco Feruta. She has a few pictures online, just so you can, just so you can appreciate somebody in the prime of their life that seemed happy and seemed to have everything going for them. Yeah, I don't think even, I don't think anybody can do justice to this case. I don't think that's possible. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. But if there's if there's one step in the

right direction that you can do that most people do not do when they ingest true crime, go look at the victim and just just take time to remember the victim and not the perpetrator. I think if there's any case that you'd want to do that for, it's this one. So if you've gotten this far, thank you for listening. Yes, yes, thank you. I'm not going to plug the social media. I feel it's appropriate. We will be back next week. So we love you. We love you very much. Bye. Bye. Bye.