TOKYO (TR) – It was 20 years ago this month that a man confessed to the murder of Chikako Ishikawa, who went missing all the way back in 1978.
Upon the disappearance of the elementary school teacher, speculation was, naturally, that she had been abducted by agents from North Korea.
That proved to not be the case. On August 22, 2004, police found the body of the elementary school teacher under the former home of Shinya Wada.
This was after Wada, then aged 68, came forward to say that he had murdered Ishikawa in 1978 and buried her at this home, which was his former residence. He had been coaxed to come forward due to a pending public works project that could have exposed his crime.
Of course, the statute of limitations for murder (at the time 15 years) had already expired by that time, meaning that he could not be charged with that crime. However, he didn’t exactly get away with it.
As weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun reports, Ishikawa’s family did not remain silent and give in. They filed a civil lawsuit against Wada, seeking compensation of approximately 180 million yen.
Walked free after his confession
Of course, the family was not after money, but rather a decision that would impose social sanctions on Wada, who walked free after his confession.
In Japan, the right to claim damages based on a tort, including murder, expires after 20 years, but the focus of the trial was on when the 20-year period should begin.
If it starts from the time when Wada killed Ishikawa and abandoned the body, 26 years is the total. Therefore, the right to lodge a claim had ended. But what if the abandonment of the body obfuscates the start of the clock, in other words there is no certain beginning?
The Tokyo District Court, which tried the case first, ruled that the exclusion period for “murder” had passed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations under civil law. But the court acknowledged responsibility on the part of Wada for abandoning a corpse and ordered him to pay 3.3 million yen.
However, the Tokyo High Court, which tried the case second time, dismissed the first trial. It acknowledged murder and ordered the payment of 42.25 million yen.
This case was ultimately appealed by Wada all the way to the Supreme Court. The judge presiding over the Third Petty Bench pointed out that “if twenty years have passed since the perpetrator deliberately created a situation in which the victim’s death was unknown, it is highly contrary to the principles of justice and fairness to not allow the surviving family to exercise any rights.”
The court dismissed Wada’s appeal, stating that “it is extremely unjust for the perpetrator who continued to conceal the death of the victim to be exempt from the obligation to pay compensation.”
Justice? Maybe.
While his wife was out
Ishikawa, originally from Otaru City, Hokkaido Prefecture, came to Tokyo to teach music. Wada was a school security guard at the school employing Ishikawa.
At around 4:30 p.m. on August 14, 1978, while on patrol around the school building, Wada bumped into Ishikawa and an argument ensued. When Ishikawa started shouting loudly, he gagged and killed her. He then carried her body, which by then was unclothed, to his home and buried it under the floorboards while his wife was out.
Based on his testimony in 2004, police searched Wada’s home in Adachi and discovered a partially skeletal body wrapped in a tarp a little more than one meter below the surface under a sunken kotatsu (heated table) in a Japanese-style room on the first floor.
Ishikawa’s personal belongings were also found, including a cash card, wallet, cosmetics and clothing. After the discovery, the results of a DNA analysis proved to be a match for Ishikawa.
“Isn’t Japan a country governed by law?”
Ishikawa’s family members had been searching for her for more than two decades. Framed photos of Ishikawa were kept in their house by her brother, Ken, who expressed displeasure with Japan’s judicial system.
“They say that after 15 years the victims’ feelings calm down and evidence disappears,” he told the New York Times in referring to the statute of limitations on murder, “but there’s no way that the family of the victim will ever forget. It’s madness. He’s a murderer, but we can’t do anything. Isn’t Japan a country governed by law?”
Indeed, it was not pangs of guilt that caused Wada to turn himself in.
According Wada, after burying the body, he “forgot about it.” Then, around 1994, his house was designated as a land readjustment area for road widening, and he was asked to move out, which is when he remembered the body.
It was around this time, that Wada began to fortify his house. He installed a two-meter-high iron gate at the entrance, surrounded the house with block walls, iron fencing and barbed wire. He also erected aluminum screens to prevent people from looking inside. His fortifications escalated even further to include the installation of searchlights and infrared security cameras at the gate and back of the house.
After the crime, he continued to work at the school and live in the same house for years, until the start of the road expansion forced him to move in 2004.
Fearing that construction workers would find the body, Wada entered his confession. Knowing the statute of limitations and the exclusion period under civil law, he was confident that he would not be punished. Therefore, the result of this trial must have come as a bolt from the blue, Bunshun concludes.
