YAMAGATA (TR) — More than three decades after a 13-year-old boy was stuffed upside-down into a rolled-up gym mat and left to suffocate, a court has ordered three of his former classmates to pay 112.6 million yen in damages, reports Shukan Shincho (July 30-Aug. 6).
Despite the July 15 ruling by the Yamagata District Court, the perpetrators have shown no remorse, with one recently telling a weekly magazine that he “wants to sue” the victim’s family.
The gruesome killing, which shocked the nation, occurred on January 13, 1993. Yuhei Kodama, a first-year student at Meirin Middle School in Shinjo City, failed to return home after after-school club activities. After a frantic search by his father, Shohei, the boy was discovered shortly after 8:00 p.m. in the school’s gymnasium equipment room.
Joint illegal act
Yuhei had been shoved head-first into a rolled-up gymnastics mat standing 1.2 meters tall. The 1.5-meter-tall boy was buried up to his shins, trapped upside down for nearly three hours before he died of asphyxiation. When his father found him, the boy’s face was so heavily bruised and swollen that he was nearly unrecognizable.
Following the incident, seven boys were taken into police custody. However, under the Juvenile Act at the time, the victim’s family was barred from attending the juvenile hearings. Left in the dark about how their son died, the family filed a civil lawsuit in 1995 to force the facts into an open court.
In 2004, the Sendai High Court recognized that the seven boys had committed a joint illegal act, and a 2005 finalized ruling ordered them to pay 57.6 million yen in compensation.
“I don’t want to pay”
However, none of the perpetrators voluntarily paid. While the victim’s family managed to track down the employers of four of the men and garnish their wages, the remaining three successfully evaded payment. With the statute of limitations on the compensation claim approaching, Shohei, now 77, filed a third civil suit, resulting in the recent July 15 order demanding the three men pay 112.6 million yen, which includes delayed interest.
When reporters from Shukan Shincho recently tracked down one of the three men — now an adult company employee — he expressed indignation rather than regret.
“Well, I don’t want to pay. In fact, I feel like I should be the one suing them for damages,” the man told the magazine. “After all, I’m being told to pay for something I didn’t do.”
The man admitted he had spoken to a lawyer who warned him that his wages could be garnished if he ignored the law. “I don’t want them to garnish my wages. If they do, I won’t be able to make a living,” he said, before adding that explicitly stating he refused to pay would only “provoke” the Kodama family.
For Shohei Kodama, the battle for justice over his son’s horrific death remains ongoing, 31 years after the crime.
