Retribution for adultery leaves Tokyo lawyer at loose end

For one 42-year-old lawyer in Tokyo last week, it was most assuredly the unkindest cut of all.

On the morning of August 13, Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested Ikki Kotsugai, 24, after he severed the attorney’s penis with garden shears and flushed the organ down a toilet.

According to weekly tabloid Flash (Sep. 1), the motivation for the crime was suspicion that the lawyer was engaged in some hanky panky with the suspect’s wife.

“It seems that Kotsugai had reason to believe that the lawyer and his wife were having an affair,” says an investigator. “More than half of the penis was removed. The (testicle) area was left untouched.”

Kotsugai, a native of Tokyo, is a graduate student studying law at Keio University, where he is a boxer. “He said he wanted to be a public prosecutor in the future,” a person from the gym where he currently trains tells the magazine.

For the lawyer, he handles international matters, specifically mergers and acquisitions and corporate rehabilitation, and is certified to practice law in New York state.

The suspect’s wife is employed at the same legal office. Prior to the attack, the couple and the victim met to have a discussion. A person from the office tells Flash that he knew of no problems regarding the lawyer and women.

“I ran into them early that morning before the start of work,” says the person. “A lawyer meeting before office hours? I got a feeling something was up.”

Apparently once the talking was over, Kotsugai then began repeatedly punching the attorney in the face. With the lawyer nearly unconscious, the suspect then unzipped the victim’s pants.

The lawyer’s injuries are not considered life threatening. In wondering about the possibility of retrieving the flushed organ, Flash contacted the Tokyo Metropolitan Governnment Waterworks Bureau.

“No official request has come in from the police,” says an official from the bureau, speaking the day after the incident. “In general, you can’t stop a sewage system that is flowing. So it is just one of those things for which nothing can be done.”

Even if the original penis cannot be located, the outlook for recovery by the victim is promising — well, relatively speaking.

“Surgical methods at domestic university hospitals are available such that skin and nerves can be transplanted from another part of the body to rebuild the penis,” says a urologist in Tokyo. “As well, an artificial aid can be inserted inside to restore the erection and ejaculation function.” (K.N.)

Source: “Bengoshi no kafukubu o setsudan…suterareta kyokubu no yukue wa,” Flash (Sep. 1, pages 18-19)