Kazuharu Shimada, a one-time member of the Yamaguchi-gumi criminal syndicate, was convicted of murder in the killing March 2016 killing of Tatsunari Ito in Hawaiian Bar Lapule in Nishi Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture.
Shimada was assisted by six others, including Junya Motohashi, who presided over a group of criminals. Among the members were three unnamed henchman, all of whom were at the bar that day. Also present was his girlfriend and driver.
The body of Ito, who was an employee at the bar, was never found as it was dismembered in a fish mincing machine and then incinerated. This delayed the emergence of the case, which caused the statute of limitations for destruction and abandonment of a corpse to lapse by the time the case went to trial.
As a result, those involved in the corpse-related crimes were never charged. Further, only Shimada was convicted of murder, a charge he denied.
The trial, which unfolded at the end of 2022, was full of twists and turns. Since Motohashi had killed himself while in custody, only the others appeared in court as witnesses.
Their testimonies were convoluted and contradicting, which begged the question: What on earth happened in that bar on the day of the incident?
Weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun (Dec. 2022) was in the courtroom seeking answers. In this fourth installment (parts one, two and three are here, here and here), The Tokyo Reporter editorial team provides a synopsis of who did what and where the body went.
“I got really angry”
At the opening of the trial, the prosecution argued, “Motohashi ordered [one of the henchmen] to buy a box at a home improvement store, put the body in it, and brought it to an ultra-low-temperature freezer in a market used by a middleman wholesaler of frozen tuna meat and other products owned by the defendant. Later, the defendant and Motohashi called his henchmen, removed the body, carried it to a company run by the defendant, and dismembered the body using a cutting machine for tuna meat.”
The body was then brought to the freezer of another company run by one of Shimada’s relatives, namely his brother-in-law.
“In October of the same year” — a full seven months after the murder — “the defendant brought the body to an incineration facility in Saitama City and dumped it,” the prosecution added.
Shimada, then aged 55, testified that it was Motohashi who forced him to start mutilating and disposing of the body. “Can’t you leave the body in the company’s freezer?” Shimada had been asked many times by Motohashi. He reluctantly agreed but on the condition that Motohashi would assist.
“After that, not only did Motohashi not contact me, but when I did, he would just say, ‘Wait a little longer, wait a little longer.’ And some days would pass. Then I heard that Motohashi’s [third henchman] was spreading word about the case at a [hostess] bar. ‘I [strangled Ito],’ he was saying.”
Shimada knew that if word got out he’d have problems since the corpse was in his company’s freezer.
“I got really angry at Motohashi,” he said, “and told him to think about his employees and the company and do something quickly.”
Showed the younger generation
For the dismemberment, Shimada assembled Motohashi and his three henchmen. At one point early on in the process, he scolded the third henchmen about spreading rumors.
“I told him, ‘Don’t mention it again,’ and for the work that followed, I told him, ‘Don’t say anything unnecessary,” Shimada told the court. “I’ll take care of everything.’ The three of them didn’t react [to that] in any way in particular.”
On that same day, the victim’s body was dismembered using a tuna-cutting machine, but Motohashi didn’t help. “He just gave orders to the young men, and was busy on the phone and did nothing,” Shimada assured.
Regardless, Shimada was the only person at the scene who could use the tuna-cutting machine, so he had no choice but to do it himself. He cut up the body with the machine while teaching the three how to use it.
“I was hesitant at first, but then I put myself out there, set an example, and showed the younger generation how to use it,” Shimada told the court. “So then the younger generation started using it, too.”
But that was not the end of it.
“Motohashi never came to pick [the body] up, and I never heard from him,” Shimada said. “Furthermore, I couldn’t get in touch with him. When I contacted his driver, he said, “[Motohashi] was injecting methamphetamine with [the third henchman] and moving from hotel to hotel, so I couldn’t get in touch with him.”
Time passed after the body was brought to another freezer at a company owned by Shimada’s relative. Shimada knew that if the body was found in that state, he would be the first suspect. Seven months later, he transported the body to the incineration facility by himself.
As if from the grave
The three underlings of Motohashi, as well as his driver, his partner, and a mutual acquaintance appeared as witnesses at the trial, but each gave a different account. All of the hearings were held by video link, with participants participating via screen from separate rooms, and they could not be seen from the spectators’ seats.
According to Shimada’s testimony, Motohashi was the initiator of the assault on the victim, and Motohashi and his subordinates were also responsible for the act that ultimately led to his death. Furthermore, the testimony of the others revealed that Motohashi was half-forced to dismember and dispose of the body, and that he was forced to do so under unavoidable circumstances.
However, the verdict later handed down by the court said that it was in fact Shimada who dealt the final blow to the victim, and that Shimada was the central figure in dismembering and disposing of the body.
Confused? There’s more.
Prior to hanging himself, Motohashi penned a suicide note, which did not say Shimada was the murderer. As if from the grave, Motohashi’s words were read to the court by the defense: “Of the three [henchmen], the third strangled [Ito}, and the first held down his legs.”
As well, the first henchman suggested that releasing Ito during the assault would result in police involvement. He testified that Shimada was responsible for the murder, saying, “Shimada put his buttocks on the victim’s torso and began to strangle him. He then changed position and ground his foot against the victim’s neck, as if to crush it.”
The second henchman then said something completely different. In response to the prosecutor’s many questions, he refused to give details, saying, “I refuse to testify because there is a risk of criminal prosecution.”
However, in response to questions from the defense lawyer, he said, “From the time of the interrogation, I explained that ‘Shimada didn’t kill him.'”
In other words, it was someone else.
“I didn’t see the end of the murder,” the second henchman continued, “but I saw someone other than Shimada strangling him. I don’t think that person would have done it if Motohashi hadn’t told them to, but it wasn’t me or Shimada.”
Defense lawyer: “Did you hear the person who strangled him say later at a hostess club that he was the one who killed him?”
Second henchman: “I saw the person who killed him spreading the word, yes.”
At the time of his arrest, the second henchman claimed something else. “I was scared of being indicted. I didn’t want to upset the prosecutor,” he said. He revealed that he signed a statement that was different from his understanding. At the end of the interrogation, he added, “I wanted to make it clear that [what I signed] was not true.”
The third henchmen, who is suspected of boasting in the hostess club that he was the key culprit, also fingered Shimada, just like his partner, the first henchman.
“When the victim was lying on the ground,” the third henchman said, “Shimada held down his neck and stepped on him. Motohashi sat at the victim’s feet while chanting [Buddhist] prayers, straddled him and continued chanting. Motohashi told the three to hold him down, but they didn’t.”
A mutual acquaintance and Motohashi’s driver both testified that they “left halfway through [the incident].”
“He stripped me naked”
Though the testimonies of those who were at the scene do not match, they all agreed on the that Motohashi’s girlfriend verbally abused the victim during the incident.
Named Madonna, she is referred to as “Mado.” In the prosecution’s opening statement, they mentioned that she was as one of Motohashi’s lovers. However, when questioned by the prosecutor, she repeatedly denied having been in a romantic relationship with Motohashi.
Furthermore, in response to questions from the defense lawyer, she began to talk nonstop about how violent Motohashi had been.
“I don’t live with him!” she shouted. “I have a scary impression of Motohashi. He’s persistent. Really persistent. He put me in a situation where I had to do what he said. He broke the windows of my house to get in, he took my money and valuables, and he was violent. He kicked me, punched me, pressed a lighter against me, burned me with the lighter, and strangled me many times. I thought he was going to kill me! He stripped me naked. It was so sudden! He kicked me and punched me, and he changed so suddenly.”
When she was asked the reason for this behavior by the lawyer, Mado raised her voice and cried, “I don’t know! If you’re going to ask me this question, I can’t answer it! If it’s like this, I can’t answer it! I can’t do it anymore!”
And with that Mado’s questioning came to an abrupt end.
Sentenced for robbery
As previously reported, Motohashi operated a crime ring. Therefore, it is not surprising to learn that he had been arrested before.
Police first arrested Motohashi in January 2018 for robbery and assault. On May 23, 2017, he broke into the home of a man, then 78 years old, and stole a safe containing jewelry, a watch and other items, with a total value of 5 million yen.
This crime was allegedly committed by seven people, and among the others arrested was Mado, but she was not charged and was later released.
Motohashi was accused in a separate crime in February 2018. In that case, he allegedly confined a man inside a car in Fukui City and assaulted him with a bat as the vehicle moved through the city. The man suffered a number of injuries, including a broken nose. He was also arrested on a marijuana-related charge.
Motohashi was ultimately indicted in the Utsunomiya case, receiving a sentenced of 15 years in prison by the Utsunomiya District Court on December 14, 2018. It was around this time that police were tipped off about the Lapule case.
The players > The victim > The smartphones > The witnesses > The verdict
