AICHI (TR) – A court here has handed a 32-year-old Chinese man a suspended prison term for dumping the corpse of a woman in Nishio City two years ago, reports NHK (July 12).
At the Okazaki branch of the Nagoya District Court on Monday, presiding judge Yasuyuki Mizota described the actions of defendant as being “selfish” in handing him a three-year prison term, suspended for four years.
“It is terrible that [you carried out the crime] in order to evade suspicion of being involved in the victim’s death,” the judge said.
According to the ruling, the defendant put the body of 37-year-old Wang Jing, also a Chinese national, into a suitcase inside an apartment in Tokyo in July 2019.
The defendant then dumped the suitcase along a bank of the Yahagifuru River in Nishio.
“Dumping [the body] on the slope of an embankment is an act that prioritizes only one’s convenience and does not in any way consider the feelings of the deceased or the bereaved family,” judge Mizota added.
“Reflecting upon his actions”
During the trial, the defendant admitted to the allegations of the prosecution, which had sought a prison term of five years and six months.
The defense sought the suspended term, arguing that the defendant “was reflecting [upon his actions].”
The body was found in October 2019 by a worker cutting grass along the riverbank. The cause of death was never determined.
Last June, police arrested the defendant for abandoning a corpse. He was later accused of stealing the victim’s brand-name bag and a wallet.
Wang arrived in Japan on June 1, 2019, when she stayed at a private residence in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro area. She got to know the defendant through WeChat, a Chinese messaging and social media app, police said previously.
The defendant came to Japan in 2008. Upon his first arrest, he was employed at a convenience store chain. He traveled to stores in Nishio and the Mikawa region to provide management advice.
“[The defendant] said he would return to China and live under the supervision of his parents after reintegrating himself into society,” judge Mizota also said. “The defendant’s parents also promised to cooperate in his rehabilitation.”
