TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested our people, including the president of a company, for allegedly forcing a male colleague to enter a railway crossing and causing him to be hit and killed by an oncoming train last year.
According to police, paining company president Manabu Sasaki, 39, and employees Akihito Shimabata, 34, Shunta Nozaki, 39, and Atsuya Iwade, 30, made the incident appear to be a suicide.
On the night of December 2, 2023, the suspects are accused of conspiring to kidnap their co-worker, Osamu Takano, then 56, from his home and confining him inside a car.
They then caused his death by having him enter a Tobu Tojo Line railroad crossing in Itabashi Ward at around 12:10 a.m. the following day so that he would be hit and killed by a train.
The charges are confinement and murder, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (Dec. 9). Police have not revealed whether the four have admitted to the allegations.
“Takano entered into the railroad crossing of his own accord”
When police checked security cameras in the area after the incident, they found a person believed to be Takano getting out of a car parked next to the crossing and walking alone into the crossing. This led police consider that a crime had been committed.
Sasaki and the other three suspects visited Takano’s apartment in Itabashi Ward just after 10 p.m. on December 2. After staying there for around an hour and a half, they took him out in their car. Sasaki and Iwade parted ways along the way, while Shimahata, Nozaki and Takano headed to the crime scene.
The car carrying Takano and the others stopped on a bridge over the Arakawa River on the border between Itabashi Ward and Saitama Prefecture. There was an audio recording on Nozaki’s smartphone that suggests he forced Takano to jump into the river from the bridge. When he refused, they headed to the railroad crossing.
Shimahata and Nozaki explained during voluntary questioning before their arrest that “Takano entered into the railroad crossing of his own accord.”
A video was also found on the suspects’ smartphones showed the four of them assaulting Takano on a daily basis, including tying his hands and feet and hitting his lower body with a hammer. The abuse dates back to at least the summer of 2023, police said.
Based on this evidence, police have decided that the four, including Sasaki and Iwade, who were not accompanying the suspects, could also be charged with murder.
The data storage card from the dashcam in the car that took Takano out on the day of the incident, as well as Takano’s personal belongings, have not been found. Police believe that the four may have attempted to destroy evidence.
