r/interesting • u/wafumet • 4h ago
Intriguing Justice has been served
This man paid $145,000 in rent for an apartment he didn't live in just to freeze time and catch his wife's killer.
In 1999, Satoru Takaba's wife, Namiko, had her life taken in their apartment.
The police had no solid leads, and the case went cold.
Usually, families move out and try to forget. But Satoru refused.
He believed that one day, technology would catch up to the killer.
So, he kept the lease.
For 26 years, he paid the rent every single month on that empty, silent apartment.
He kept the bloodstains on the floor. He kept the footprints. He turned the room into a time capsule, waiting for science to improve.
And in late 2025, his investment finally paid off.
Police returned to the apartment and used modern DNA technology to analyze the preserved bloodstains that had been sitting there for two decades.
They found a match.
The DNA belong to Kumiko Yasufuku, Satoru’s own high school classmate.
It turns out, she had held a grudge for decades because Satoru had rejected her romantic advances back in school.
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u/DeadZeppelin_ 4h ago
Wow. What happened to the murderer?
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u/Lopsided-Weather6469 4h ago
Not much yet, it's only been a few months since she was arrested, but if she's convicted then probably death by hanging.
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u/scguy555 3h ago
Almost certainly not, the death penalty for a murderer who kills solely one victim is extremely rare in Japan, it’s mostly reserved for serial and mass killers, you can find a list of Japanese death row inmates here
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u/Lingroll 2h ago
This is insanely interesting. Thank you.
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u/IotaBTC 1h ago
Fun fact, Japan didn't have any kind of jury system until 2009. Before then, each case was argued in front of a panel of 3-5 judges. Now it's a hybrid of 6 citizens and 3 judges but even then that's for more severe crimes like kidnapping and murder. Assault, theft, or vandalism would still typically only be presented to 1-3 judges.
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u/FinancialRip2008 44m ago
as i understand it, their justice system is just totally different. like, you don't go to trial at all unless it's a solved problem that needs a stamp.
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u/Masterkid1230 23m ago
People always bring up the 99% conviction rate and make a false analogy to the US system, but in reality, you're extremely unlikely to get to that stage if you don't have a clear and cut case that can be easily won. Many many cases are dropped before that.
There is a precedent of forced confessions and very long detentions by the police, but the way the system is presented abroad also has a lot of bad faith arguments.
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u/TheMireAngel 2h ago
tbf in the usa doesnt have a crazy amount of executions either, were roughly 3x the population of japan with WILDLY higher crime rates but we only put down 20-40 per year compared to japan averaging 1-3 per year. for another comparison japan averages 300 murders per year, the usa averages 15,000 - 22,000 per year. if we executed as many people based on ratio as japan our execution numbers would sextuple
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u/ColdArson 39m ago
Tbf the japanese criminal justice system is notoriously disadvantgeous for the defendant. The presumption of innocence is very much weak
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u/NonGNonM 1h ago
idk how true it is but i saw a youtube vid where the death penalty is also a real nightmare scenario in the sense that they don't give the prisoners a set date for execution either. you're just in a cell and doing prison life until one day they just come and take you for your execution.
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u/1369ic 50m ago
I read an article about a Russian serial killer. He was convicted and in jail for a while. Then one day they took him to some legal or bureaucratic thing. On the way back to his cell they stopped him in a blind passage to wait for something. Somebody opened a sliding window and shot him in the neck. No muss, no fuss, no notice.
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u/Evening-Ad5765 1h ago
Japan does the death penalty right. If you’re going to kill someone mentally terrorize them right until the end. Baller.
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u/kylaroma 39m ago
Let’s see:
- Inmates are convinced without a jury.
- There is no appeal process.
- Wrongful convictions happen in all justice systems.
There’s a word for that and it’s not baller.
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u/Kidofthecentury 30m ago
Uhm, that feels more like "revenge" than "justice". Which does not fit at all the concept of being administered from what is supposed to be a justice system.
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u/NonGNonM 16m ago
that's assuming the justice system got it right.
constitutionally, it would be illegal in the US.
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u/kkeut 49m ago
that's a really twisted and sadistic thing to think. it's abnormal behavior.
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u/william1915 45m ago
I mean idk, chances are the person they murdered also wasn't given a due date on when they die
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u/Dhumavati80 1h ago
Ok seriously, this fact is super interesting but such a crazy random knowledge moment. How the heck did you know that fact?
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u/WhimsicalThesaurus 3h ago edited 2h ago
The murderer still got to live a life. She had 26 years Namiko didn't.
Maybe she was miserable looking over her shoulder, but she still got to hug her loved ones, eat her favorite meal, watch sunsets, date, have grey hair. Namiko didn't.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy she was caught but I can't believe how infuriating it must be for the family.
especially in those cases the murderer is really old, like the golden state killer. I saw one the other day of a 90 yo man arrested for killing a girl in the 1960s. He got married, had a family, kids, and grandkids. Retired. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison a couple of years later. Her parents never got to see justice for their daughter
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u/SomeGuyCommentin 2h ago
It could be worse. Imagine if people who rape and murder children got exposed and nothing happened to them, in fact the lives of everybody else get made worse constantly to cater to their insane fantasies.
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u/sillygoth_ 2h ago
Highly unlikely. Any functional democracy would hold those people accountable. What you describe could only happen on reality TV.
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u/Miserable-Savings751 2h ago
Hypothetically speaking, what if there is a country that’s now a failed democracy, as a direct result of being lead by someone who used to be on reality tv, that is also a prolific pedo & rapist?
Would that change things from being highly unlikely?
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u/narflenarflenarfle 1h ago
Honestly thats just lazy writing. Like a reverse mary sue. What else? He steals from cancer childrens charities? He campaigns on war crimes? Come on. Oh and when hes bored, he betrays alliances, right? Not for any real reason, just because hes bored.
Seriously... Whose his friends then? How about an actual literal nazi? No, thats too easy. How about a puppy killing, no, someone who BRAGS about puppy killing?
Seriously dude... Seriously..
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u/pizza_the_mutt 2h ago
Luckily there's a firm boundary between reality TV and functional democracies. One will never taint the other.
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u/BocciaChoc 2h ago
The best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago, the second best time is today.
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u/Blade_Of_Nemesis 2h ago
While this is true, also consider that this means that she has had 26 years to build up a life... only for it all to come crashing down when she long thought to have gotten away with it.
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u/Ok-Adhesiveness-9976 1h ago
Yes exactly. The newspapers and tv reporters said this after the trial of my husband’s killer too. They said “justice has been served.” But the murderer got out after 20 years while my son and I are still living the rest of our lives with the trauma of that loss and its consequences.
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u/Dependent_Help_6725 3h ago
In Japan, you don’t get executed if you only killed one. You have to have murdered two or more before you’d be a candidate in the death row. And it takes time before it happens.
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u/manbar06 2h ago
As I understand capital punishment in Japan, you don’t get an execution date. It’s just that one day they come into you and say it’s time. Until that point, you have to live knowing that any day could be your last.
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u/Suno_for_your_sprog 1h ago
live knowing that any day could be your last
Hear me out.
Why is that a bad thing? Is that not the default state for every human?
I think having a set date that draws closer, one agonizing day after another, would be psychologically way more damaging to one's psyche.
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u/JamStan1978 4h ago
Thats still a thing??
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u/akallas95 4h ago
Death by hanging usually involves the neck snapping when the floor drops.
It's considered a quick and humane death. Like when you cut the brainstem of cows and pigs before the slaughter.
Of course. Mistakes happen. Like if you don't calculate that drop...
Oof. Slow death by choking.
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u/HyperSpaceSurfer 4h ago
Lethal injections can be slow and excrutiating.
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u/eartwormslimshady 4h ago
Not 'can be', it usually is. The episode of Last Week Tonight about this was a real eye opener and shocker.
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u/BernieTheDachshund 3h ago
Ironically it's because of the anti death penalty groups making it impossible for the states to get the meds that would spare the person from suffering. I'm not a proponent either way, just saying if the death penalty is carried out, it should be with the right meds so there's no unnecessary suffering.
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u/Straight-faced_solo 2h ago
Its usually not anti death penalty groups and more the pharmaceutical companies.
It turns out a surprising amount of companies dont want to be tied to state executions. Partially for fear of public backlash, partially for moral reason, partially for legal culpability reasons. Its not like we are passing laws that make the drugs unobtainable. The goverment struggles to source drugs for lethal injection because the companies wont sell them to the U.S government.
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u/pepolepop 2h ago
You'd think they could just source the stuff from China or India, where they have high quality mega labs pumping out everything from fentanyl to insulin.
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u/drewcash83 2h ago
Those meds are heavily controlled substances with medical purposes. It usually goes through pharmacy with a DEA license. Some people in that supply chain don’t want to be involved in someone else’s death.
I’ve been in the pharmacy industry for 20 years, don’t think I’ve ever met a pharmacist who would want their name anywhere near that.
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u/fupapack 3h ago
Well, it's more like the states refusing to stop this practice when the pharnacuticals aren't available.
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u/FTownRoad 3h ago
I dont understand how there arent alternatives. Genuinely wondering, I haven’t looked into it much. But why can’t they just put the person under general anesthesia and then give them a bunch of fentanyl?
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u/schwanzweissfoto 3h ago
why can’t they just put the person under general anesthesia
Medical professionals tend to be quite unwilling to participate in administering the death penalty.
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u/Specific_Ad_5511 2h ago
Good to know they take their oath seriously, warms my heart a bit
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u/ATTINY24A-MMHR 2h ago
John Oliver has an episode of this. Apparently plain old N2 nitrogen gas (perhaps adapted to a comfortable humidity), is all you need. Hypoxia, without a feeling of suffocation since CO2 doesn't build up. Maybe not wholly without suffering, but It's definitely on my personal "you just got diagnosed with the early phases of dementia, consider your options" list.
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u/Agreeable_Cut4506 1h ago
John Oliver definitely said that Nitrogen gas is a horrific way to go. I did research on it last semester for a communications class and it is truly brutal
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u/User2716057 3h ago
Sometimes I wonder why just simple nitrous oxide or something similar isn't used. You'd doze off and you're gone a few minutes later, no feeling of asphyxiation or anything. And if not for humans, why not for animals, instead of the horrible things they sometimes do now.
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u/BurlHam 2h ago
It's too easy and too kind is my take on it.
They know lethal injection is trash, if they wanted a good lethal injection they could just bang someone up with some fent.
The electric chair is the best example of this I've seen, a well run electric chair could easily kill, but a poorly ran one could take half an hour.
They want it to be a multi step process where they can make small "errors" whenever they want someone to suffer.
I'm not sure if they are even consciously aware that that is what they are doing, but it sure seems that way to me.
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u/Mr_Blinky 3h ago
They literally include the paralytic agent for no other reason than to mask how much agony the recipient is in. That's it. There's absolutely no other reason to include the paralytic agent, as it neither decreases pain nor contributes to the person's death. It is 100% there to hide the fact that the person being injected is actually in excruciating torturous pain for a prolonged period of time, and thereby fool people into thinking it's somehow humane and painless. A gunshot to the head is genuinely a thousand times less brutal, it just makes viewers uncomfortable.
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u/Landlocked_Heart 2h ago
It would legitimately be more humane to just intentionally cause a massive opioid overdose.
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u/HyperSpaceSurfer 3h ago
I think people should be. I propose a Matrix chair with that No Country for Old Men thingy at the head rest.
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u/foobar93 3h ago
Lethal injection is one of the worst ways to go. Hanging or being shot is probably the best way to go.
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u/Fuckthegopers 3h ago
Put a bullet in me, that's gotta be easiest, cheapest, and most effective.
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u/somms999 3h ago
That's how Gary Gilmore went. First execution in the US in ten years. He didn't want the pain or uncertainty of lethal injection or a potentially botched hanging, so he opted for firing squad.
When asked for any last words, Gilmore simply replied, "Let's do it."
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u/foobar93 3h ago
But no open coffin
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u/Fuckthegopers 3h ago
Donate my body to science, throw it in the ocean, it won't matter much to me.
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u/IceCreamDreamyDreams 3h ago
Anything interesting would be splattered on the wall behind you.
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u/ActivePeace33 3h ago
Why not? We’ve had plenty of Soldiers with massive wounds to the chest get an open casket funeral, more than any wound a firing squad would leave.
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u/NoKatyDidnt 1h ago
Yeah they can make a very damaged body appear fairly normal. They do it all the time.
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u/HyperSpaceSurfer 3h ago
I have no idea why they don't just hypoxia people with a noble gas. This really isn't very complicated, no oxygen in your blood means no thinking about the signs of your body dying.
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u/ATTINY24A-MMHR 2h ago
One can even do the hypoxia with an ignoble gas, N2, the thing that makes up most of our atmosphere. If the John Oliver episode on this is to be believed, the only reason we don't do this is that some parts of society simply feel it's too quick and kind for those on death row.
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u/pizza_the_mutt 2h ago
If I'm going to go out this way I want it to be dramatic. Maybe firing squad by cannon.
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u/D07Z3R0 4h ago
And yet known to be able to go horribly wrong and last much longer then needed
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u/cynik0 3h ago
Namiko Takaba was stabbed multiple times in the neck in front of her toddler. She didn't die instantly. She died a brutal, painful death. I have no sympathy for her killer Yasufuku Kumiko.
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u/Enlight1Oment 1h ago
the opposite is also true, they go too long on the drop. Which isn't an issue for the executed as they still die instantly, it's just messy for the cleanup crew when their head is ripped off by too long of a drop.
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u/Baptor 1h ago
If I had to pick any form of execution, it would be a sharp guillotine or a competent hangman. Fastest death possible. You can take the electric chair, the gas chamber, and lethal injection and shove them up your ass.
Also, I'd slip the hangman a $20 to err on the side of too long a rope rather than too short. May be a mess for them but easier on me.
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u/Affectionate_Let1462 3h ago
Japan do this horrifically. You’re never told when you’re going to be executed. It be any day. Over years. Then one day you’re taken. Blindfolded and dropped.
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u/elijaaaaah 4h ago
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u/therealCatnuts 3h ago
Always annoyed when I click a link expecting an article but instead it’s a YouTube video.
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u/Valatros 2h ago
thank you for the warning i'll leave it blue. I can quickly skim an article for highlights to sate a passing interest, but it's a big leap from that to being interested enough to sit through a video
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u/Omnamashivaaya 4h ago
Holy… I had to look that up. Of all countries, Japan’s the last one I’d have guessed still does death by hanging
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u/No-Plan-7297 4h ago
Not surprising since Japan still uses fax machines and their websites look like yahoo aol 1998
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u/Standard_Ad_3707 3h ago
Malaysia and Singapore still carry out death by hanging for convicted murderers and drug traffickers. If found guilty the sentence is mandatory.
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u/WelderAggravating896 3h ago
What's wrong with the death penalty used on a murderer? Can you explain?
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u/orangotai 3h ago
is it more conservative than Saudi Arabia? what about Iraq? how bout Djibouti?
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u/kwpang 3h ago
Edgy sound bites aside, you know that hanging is one of the more humane ways of execution right?
Maybe read up more before commenting. You basically just read a word and imagined a scenario, then got outraged at the imaginary scenario.
Japan uses the long drop method of hanging which snaps the person's neck instantaneously, leading to instant loss of consciousness and death. All they experience is a sudden drop for a split second.
This is compared to lethal injection which simply paralyses the person (so you can't see or hear them complain), but doesn't stop them from feeling the agony from the lethal injection itself.
Or electrocution, which causes severe agony until the person loses consciousness.
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u/FOSSnaught 4h ago
Guilty until proven innocent in japan. Their conviction rates are incredibly high , and the whole process is fast.
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u/capron 2h ago
I hate these image based posts that don't actually include a valid link for more context. It's the number 1 problem with all social media, that people will reward anything that makes them feel good without providing the actual article or story links that can confirm the buzzworthy post.
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u/Corner_Post 4h ago edited 4h ago
Unsure the truth as separate article says the killer turned herself in and had previously refused DNA testing. Original post seems weird as DNA testing has been around for a long time…
“His hopes were finally realised when the suspect gave herself up to police in Nagoya, central Japan. She was the man’s classmate at secondary school and had a crush on him.”
This article says same thing. She confessed after being anxious for decades. She had previously refused to provide DNA sample. Only after she confessed did she allow DNA sample which they matched (… they already had the DNA from the scene from decades ago).
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u/halflifer2k 4h ago
That seems to be a lot of police officers to put on one murder case
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u/pocketdrums 3h ago
Murder is exceptionally rare in Japan. 0.2 to 0.3 intentional homicides per 100,000 people in recent years, which is roughly 30 times lower than the United States at about 4.0 to 4.4 per 100,000 people (which is the lowest its been for the US)
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u/Zack940 3h ago
Wow what's the number so low in Japan compared to the other countries.
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u/Unhappy_Researcher68 3h ago
Well it's mostly VERY high in the US. Not the highest but...
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u/JimWilliams423 3h ago
Its the highest among wealthy countries, its even higher than in many underdeveloped countries.
FWIW, compared to most european countries, the US tends to have marginally lower rates of all other kinds of crimes like theft, assault, rape, etc. So its clearly not a "mental health" issue, because if it were we'd expect the rates of most all crimes to be roughly in sync with the murder rate.
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u/thisonedudethatiam 2h ago
Probably 2 sides of the same coin. Guns deter lesser crime somewhat since the potential victim may have a gun, and it is a lot easier to murder someone if you have a gun…
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u/ForeskinAbsorbtion 2h ago
It doesn't though. America has average property and personal crime rates compared to other countries. The only difference free guns gives is the vastly higher gun violence.
It doesn't deter anything. Depending on the state, the USA has 7 to 26x the homicide rate of normal developed nations.
A gun is just a lot easier to kill someone. There's less emotional investment when you're not holding someone down stabbing them.
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u/hufflepuff777 1h ago
What actually lowered crime in the US is legalizing abortion. Unwanted kids don’t turn out well
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u/JimWilliams423 2h ago
Probably 2 sides of the same coin. Guns deter lesser crime somewhat since the potential victim may have a gun, and it is a lot easier to murder someone if you have a gun…
That's one theory. Another theory is that guns embolden petty criminals because carrying makes them feel more powerful.
In fact the rate of other crimes used to be marginally higher in the US than in europe up through the 90s. Since then the number of guns in circulation in the US has increased, but the number of gun owners decreased. Its mostly people hoarding guns. All this was pre-covid, since covid the numbers went all over the place.
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u/Kramer-Melanosky 3h ago
Most developed countries it's below 1. US is actually on the higher end.
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u/FaithUser 3h ago
Because it's only pretending to be a developed country on the surface
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u/HaydenCanFly 3h ago
Mainly culture, but weapons being far more difficult to access helps
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u/throwaway1212l 3h ago
That's a lie. Every household in Japan has secret katanas passed down from generation to generation.
Source: anime
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u/Suyefuji 2h ago
It's because of the Japanese tradition of 生きる, which means "being alive." In Japanese culture, being alive is considered fundamental to society and thus the act of murder is highly taboo.
I'm being facetious in case you couldn't tell
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u/CCGHawkins 2h ago
I'm half Japanese, half American, so I'm somewhat qualified to answer this. Part of it is structural. There are no guns. The police run around with batons, except for special units. Officially, don't have a military, only the self defense force. Everyone shares the same public transportation systems and parks. They were also hit with nuclear bombs, Pacifism is etched in the culture.
But more that all that, probably, is Japan's culture. It's a culture that emphasizes the group above the individual, rule-following, politeness and non-aggression, rule-following, pride in work, rule-following, respecting tradition and the elderly, rule-following, and formal apologies. Did I mention the rule-following? A lot of other cultures have these facets too, but what is especially distinct about Japan is the insane pressure to conform. It's probably only rivaled by authoritarian countries in this regard. Mind you, this is a country where 99% of people are the same ethnic make-up, where everyone, whether in school, in the factory, or in the nursing home, gathers together to do the same morning exercise they've been doing since kindergarten. There are ways and procedures that have existed before you were born, and you are expected to follow them till you die.
To those looking from the outside, that may seem restrictive, but you also have to realize that there are two sides to this bargain. You get a country that does not participate or waste money on war, that has universal healthcare, an incredible standard of service regardless of the payscale, first rate food culture, first rate public transport, first rate education, and probably the best standard of elderly care in the whole world.
Murder is a particular sign of mental derangement in this country, moreso than certainly a country like America, because Japan sees itself as somewhat utopic. How could you possibly think to harm others in a country like this? How selfish. What an irresponsible challenge to the peace. You should have just kept your troubles to yourself and committed suicide instead.
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u/stupidname68bd 2h ago
Thats because they actively do not report deaths as murder. If any way is possible to not call it a murder they will report it as such and not investigate.
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u/PoutineMeInCoach 2h ago
roughly 30 times lower than the United States
This is never a good way to express this type of stat, and here it is just ... weird and wrong. A correct way would be to say it is, say, over 90% less, or less than one-tenth the rate. "30 times lower" is mathematical jibberish.
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u/RCer1986 3h ago edited 3h ago
In a country where the murder rate hovers around 0.25 out of 100,000 people I'm betting every murder is taken more seriously. The rate in the US is roughly 20x higher per capita.
Edit: Grammar
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u/AnonThrowaway998877 3h ago
I came here looking for the comment that this was misleading or false. It's all but guaranteed now if you see one of these clickbait images with brief text below, it's either embellished or a complete lie.
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u/polyploid_coded 3h ago edited 2h ago
The big red flag to me these days is they put the little circle image (sometimes of the same person, sometimes an unrelated photo which fits the story) to make it look vaguely "professional". They have the text in the image so it's postable on Facebook, Instagram, wherever. They rarely provide a link or get the basic facts of the story right.
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u/AnonThrowaway998877 3h ago
Yeah that is a common marker. The brightly highlighted words are another. And the main picture is usually meant to make you feel some emotion or wow you. Just more dead internet things. I downvote this crap every time but all that does is cancel out one bot out of thousands.
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u/I-own-a-shovel 1h ago
This. Also why not taking sample everywhere and paying a lab to keep them or something? Seems less expensive. Also DNA technology arrived way sooner than 2025, why just now? This seems odds on so many levels
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u/IotaBTC 56m ago
It is odd since they could've better preserved it but just cutting those pieces off and storing it somewhere better lol. It's probably a form of trauma and grief of an unresolved murder but from a practical point. Hoping technology improves but not knowing what it can do might mean it's better to leave things as undisturbed as possible.
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u/gpunotpsu 2h ago
You also don't need to preserve the entire apartment to preserve the evidence. You can take photos, cut out sections of carpet soaked with blood, etc. This is complete nonsense.
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u/Alexptm29 3h ago
I guess "he kept freezing the scene, it served no real purpose and was a waste of time but at least the killer confessed so good for him" wasn't as good as a title
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u/fuckinghumanZ 1h ago
She turned herself in because she was certain she will be caught eventually after the police came around to ask for DNA multiple times.
As per your article:
“When police came in August, I knew I was going to be arrested.”
Maybe, but I couldn't find anything about it, they had a close match that indicated that the found DNA must belong to a relative of that close match.
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u/Constant-Current-340 4h ago
That's really great. Just curious thought why not do this years ago when DNA analysis was available?
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u/calm-down-okay 3h ago
Because OP is leaving out the important detail that the killer confessed after 26 years. The DNA testing was done to confirm her story.
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u/Uhmerikan 1h ago
Also it’s common to store evidence from past crimes in hopes technology improves. Why did he need to save the entire apartment instead of just saving the contaminated items as is normally done by many agencies around the world?
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u/PayWooden2628 3h ago
Because the entire story is irrelevant, they already had DNA from the scene and the killer confessed.
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u/user_428 2h ago
https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/16134415
According to this they only got the confession after matching the DNA recently.
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u/ChemistVegetable7504 4h ago
DNA testing is very expensive unfortunately. We now have the technology to examine it but it comes at a cost.
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u/chargers949 4h ago
His landlord - aw fuck now i gotta find a new tenant
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u/JamStan1978 4h ago
This is very good news. Not for the wife unfortunately but im glad he has closure on what really happened and hopefully he can find peace in that.
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u/loztriforce 4h ago
We've had better DNA tech for a while though, makes me wonder why just last year
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u/EmprahsChosen 1h ago
they didn't have the suspect's DNA on file, she had initially refused to submit a sample to the police.
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u/sonnytron 50m ago
So, they actually didn’t need evidence from the apartment. They had DNA samples already and at some point, they became interested in her as a suspect and started asking her to voluntarily give samples, which she initially refused.
They sensed she was hiding something, because I mean, why refuse? So that made them start squeezing even harder and eventually she agreed to giving DNA.
However, I think it’s important to note that the husband didn’t KNOW their DNA results would pan out. What if the samples were corrupted? What if they needed something more conclusive? You can never be sure. I think it’s still commendable what he did.
The common theory is that he rejected the murderer’s love advances in high school and she was jealous of the wife.
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u/Aniki_Simpson 3h ago
My guess is database. People willingly submit their DNA to private companies who sell it to the government. Government has to get a warrant, and that requires at least some evidence on the suspect. Even if she never submitted her DNA personally, if the police had family DNA, they could link her to the crime scene.
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u/Kinkybtch 3h ago
No they asked the suspect for a DNA analysis and kept putting it off, and confessed the day she was supposed to provide it
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u/phallic-baldwin 4h ago
I feel like this should be a movie or something
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u/Cthepo 3h ago
25 seasons and a movie.
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u/gd4x 34m ago
I like season 18 when he took up pilates while still waiting for technology to catch up.
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u/CornbreadPhD 4h ago
A bout $500 a month in case anyone’s curious and doesn’t want to do the math.
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u/Intelligent_Draw7396 2h ago
- The fact that rent was only $145,000 for TWENTY SIX YEARS TOTAL is insane.
- I pray to God I find someone who loves me THIS MUCH. May him and his son find peace with knowing he didn’t do any of this in vain.
- The classmate was a crazy bitch.
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u/dawnie2dusk 4h ago
Wow! I hope hes managed to find some kind of peace within now that it's solved. Much Aroha to this mans dedication to finding his wife's murderer. Peace be with you 💜🙏
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u/Particular_Egg9739 4h ago
not to be that person but he kinda waited a lot longer than necessary. japan had DNA testing in the early 90’s and a national database in 2005. just saying but i’m glad he got closure.
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u/123dynamitekid 2h ago
Japan still uses faxes. They may have the tech, but will they use it?
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u/GitEmSteveDave 1h ago
The US still uses fax machines. So what? The use of old technology doesn't mean you can't use more current technology. IIRC, the vending machines in Japan sense earthquakes and hand out free water.
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u/EmprahsChosen 1h ago
they didn't have her DNA to match with evidence at the crime scene until late last year
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u/Anonymous-here- 3h ago
A yandere case it seems. Good on the guy for not giving up. He sees the future
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u/tamargo404 3h ago
Why didn't he just have the police take the section of carpet with blood into evidence?
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u/Jolly-Ad-3093 3h ago
It's kinda scary how almost every comment in this thread is just going along with this story without questioning where this is sourced from and if its even true.
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u/Strid3r21 3h ago
He paid an average of $465/m for 26yrs for the apartment.
Is rent that cheap over there or was the rent "cheap" because of the nature of that apartment?
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u/Miserable-Garage804 4h ago
I’m confused, they didn’t have DNA testing in 1999? They only just invented it late last year?
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u/TheyKeepOnRising 3h ago
So what appears to have actually happened:
The grieving man kept his apartment in tact because he thought it would help find his wife's killer. The police already collected evidence before so in reality it did not help.
However, the police took a renewed interest in his case recently, likely because it received recent public attention when reported by a news outlet. They asked any potential suspects for DNA evidence to compare. The alleged killer refused at first, but gave into pressure after several months. The DNA matched, she was arrested, and seems to have confessed.
The suspect was a former classmate of the victim. There doesn't appear to be a known motive.
The parts about technology advancing or the alleged killer having a crush appear to be speculation by OP to drive engagement.
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u/pandershrek 4h ago
Would have been wild if he was the killer the whole time. Or he planted evidence to frame his former highschool love.
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