The Brutal Murder of Junko Furuta

Junko Furuta was a high school student from Misato, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. She was born on January 18, 1971. Tragically, she was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered, in a case that became known as the "concrete-encased high school girl murder case", because her body was discovered in a concrete drum.

The abuse was inflicted upon her by four male teenagers over a 44-day period, from November 25 to January 4, 1989.

Furuta was a popular student at Yashio-Minami High School, known for her beauty, intelligence, and excellent grades. She had a reputation as a "good girl", never drinking, smoking, or using drugs. She was well-liked by her classmates and had a bright future ahead of her.

Unfortunately, in November 1988, the 17-year-old's life took a tragic turn when she was kidnapped on her way home.

WHO KIDNAPPED JUNKO FURUTA?

The perpetrators of the crime were four teenage boys: Hiroshi Miyano, Jō Ogura, Shinji Minato, and Yasushi Watanabe. At the time of the brutal act, they were aged 18, 17, 16, and 17, respectively.

This gang of teenagers was led by Hiroshi Miyano, who had a history of problematic behavior dating back to his early childhood. Miyano's criminal behavior escalated over time, and he eventually got involved with a gangster and frequently committed sex crimes.

He committed crimes such as purse-snatching, extortion, and rape. Miyano was known as the school bully and often boasted about his connections to the Yakuza, a powerful crime syndicate in Japan. This made everyone in school fear him, including his own parents.

He had a huge crush on Junko and approached her with a proposal, but she turned him down and rejected his advances outright. Miyano could not handle the rejection and became furious, as he had never been turned down before.

It was this anger that led him to seek revenge on Junko, and he enlisted the help of his friends to carry out the heinous crime.

JUNKO FURUTA’S BRUTAL KIDNAPPING, TORTURE AND MURDER.

A few days after being rejected, on November 25, 1988, Miyano and Minato were hanging out in a local park in Misato, looking for unsuspecting victims. At around 8:30 p.m., they spotted Junko Furuta riding her bicycle as she was returning from her part-time job.

Minato kicked Furuta off her bike, creating a distraction, and Miyano approached her, pretending to be a concerned bystander offering to escort her home. Unfortunately, Furuta accepted his offer without suspecting anything.

Miyano led Furuta to an abandoned warehouse where he told her about his connections to the Yakuza and raped her. Later, he took her to a nearby hotel where he raped her again, threatening to kill her and her family if she made any noise. At around 3 a.m., he took her to a park where Minato, Ogura, and Watanabe were waiting. There, the other boys also raped her.

After the initial attack, the boys smuggled Junko into Minato's family home in Adachi, Tokyo, and threatened to kill her family if she tried to escape.

They even made her call her parents and tell them that she was safe and staying with friends. Whenever Minato's parents were around, they forced Junko to pose as his girlfriend, though his parents eventually became suspicious that something was not right. Unfortunately, the fear of the boys was enough to keep Minato's parents in the dark about the horrors that were unfolding in their own homes.

Over the course of 44 days, Junko was brutally tortured by the boys in unspeakable ways. They used scissors, bottles, a hot exploding light bulb, grilled chicken skewers, roasting needles, and irons to inflict pain on her. They even burned her with cigarettes and cut off her breasts. The boys hung her from the ceiling and beat her with golf clubs and iron rods, inflicting unimaginable pain.

Junko was raped over 400 times by Miyano and his friends, as well as other boys and men that they knew. One of her nipples was even twisted with pliers. Her injuries were so severe that she was unable to stand and had to crawl to the bathroom. She had a blood clot in her nose that made it difficult to breathe, and her internal anatomy was destroyed, leaving her unable to defecate or urinate properly.

On two separate occasions, Junko could have been saved. One boy who saw her reported the situation to the authorities, but when the police went to investigate, they were assured that there was no girl in the house and left. On another occasion, Junko was able to dial the police with a phone, but she was caught by the boys before she could say anything.

On January 4, 1989, Hiroshi Miyano, reportedly angered after losing a game of mahjong the night before, decided to take out his frustration on Junko Furuta. He poured lighter fluid on her body and set her on fire. The perpetrators punched her repeatedly, dripped hot wax on her face, and placed candles on her eyelids. They also forced her to drink her own urine and kicked her until she fell onto a stereo unit, causing convulsions. Despite her severe injuries, the perpetrators continued to beat her and even dropped an iron exercise ball on her stomach multiple times. The attack reportedly lasted two hours, during which time Furuta suffered immensely. Unfortunately, she eventually succumbed to her injuries and passed away.

Afraid of being charged with murder, they dumped her body in a 55-gallon drum, filled it with concrete, and dropped it on a cement truck. For a while, they believed that they would never be caught for their heinous crime.

JUNKO’S BODY IS FOUND

Junko's body was eventually discovered by a construction worker who noticed a foul smell coming from the drum. The discovery shocked the nation, and the boys were eventually arrested and charged with their crimes. Despite the overwhelming evidence against them, the boys maintained their innocence, and it was only after a lengthy trial that they were found guilty and sentenced to prison.

Hiroshi Miyano, the main perpetrator of the heinous crime against Junko Furuta, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Shinji Minato received a sentence of five-to-nine years, Jō Ogura was sentenced to five-to-10 years, and Yasushi Watanabe received a sentence of five-to-seven years.

Furuta's parents were understandably devastated by the loss of their daughter and were dismayed by the sentences received by the teenage boys who had brutally tortured and murdered her. They felt that the sentences were too lenient given the severity of the crime.

In addition to seeking justice for their daughter, Furuta's parents also won a civil suit against the parents of the boy in whose home the crimes were committed. The lawsuit held the parents responsible for their son's actions, as they had failed to prevent the crimes from occurring on their property.

The tragic story of Junko Furuta is one of the most horrific crimes in Japanese history, and it serves as a reminder of the unspeakable cruelty that human beings are capable of.